What We O we the Progressives

1. What We Owe the Progressives Worker’s Compensation, Shorter Work Days, Clean Foods and More

2. Child Labor • Wages in the factories were low so oftentimes parents brought their children to work with them to keep them close and for the extra income • End of the 1800s nearly 20% of children (10-16) worked rather than went to school

3. OK Dept. of Labor • Created by the constitution (state’s) in 1907 • Can’t work under 14 (with few exceptions like “paper routes” and helping on family farms) • Restrictions for number of hours on school days and non-school days • Beyond 16 there is no maximum number of work hours • Children now have to attend school until 16--compulsary

4. Working Conditions • Industrial workers worked long hours usually in poorly ventilated facilities with hazardous fumes and dangerous machinery • After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fires in NYC, Americans took notice of the conditions workers had to endure • (146 workers died—mostly young women) • NY passed laws trying to make the workplace safer

5. New Laws in the Workplace • Worker’s compensation- these laws protect workers who are injured on the job and pay them while they recover (if possible) • Maternity leave • Sick Leave • FMLA

6. Women Seek Equal Rights • Women wanted to expand their role in society and in their communities—beyond taking care of husbands and having babies • Education was key! • Women’s colleges prepped women for careers as nurses, teachers, and social workers • Many women couldn’t afford an education and took factory jobs • They had to hand over their paychecks to their husbands

7. Women’s Suffrage • Women wanted to expand their role in society and in their communities—beyond taking care of husbands and having babies • Education was key! • Women’s colleges prepped women for careers as nurses, teachers, and social workers • Many women couldn’t afford an education and took factory jobs • They had to hand over their paychecks to their husbands

8. Discrimination and Civil Rights • With the decision in Plessy V. Ferguson, states across the country passed segregation laws • Generally speaking, these laws were popular • Many Progressives were prejudiced against nonwhites, non-Protestants, and the non-middle class • African Americans began demanding reform for themselves • Jim Crow laws will make their way into the Oklahoma Constitution

9. Meat Inspection Act Pure Food and Drug Act

10. Twin Territories • Within the Twin Territories, Progressives wanted to help all these people (the poor, blacks, women, farmers, etc.) by developing a constitution for a new state • William H. Murray and Charles N. Haskell were Democrats who wanted to create a new state of Indian Territory called Sequoyah—they even wrote a constitution when they met with others in Muskogee

11. Sequoyah wasn’t meant to be… • Sequoyah would have been a Democratic state and since T. Roosevelt was a Republican he didn’t want that, so the Republican controlled Congress proposed that Indian Territory (Dem) and Oklahoma Territory (Rep) combine • This action was approved as the Oklahoma Enabling Act in 1906

12. Oklahoma is Born • Create the longest and most progressive constitution • As progressive as it was, it also had Jim Crow laws embedded into it, including literacy tests and “Grandfather clauses” • The previous conditions of servitude. or the status of having been slaves, excluded classes from voting