The Progressive Movement: The Spirit of Reform

1. The Progressive Movement: The Spirit of Reform

2. Political machines were powerful organizations that got their candidates elected AT ANY COST. • Bribes, fake ballots, intimidation • Trade jobs for votes • This corruption leads to calls for many reforms!

3. What is progressivism? • “progress” • Political reform movement to improve society • Industrialization & urbanization create social problems • Gov’t more involved in daily life

4. Muckrakers • journalists investigating social conditions & political corruption • Oil industry, vote stealing, child labor, racism, poverty, immigration

5. Robert La Follete • Wisconsin governor pushed for reforms • Direct primary: party members vote for candidate to run in election • 1913: Americans could now vote directly for senators • A survey of historians in 1982 voted him “the greatest senator in American history”

6. Three new reforms! • Initiative: citizens collect signatures to propose new law; vote on it next election (OR Congress votes) • Referendum: voters approve or reject law proposed by gov’t • Recall: voters can remove an elected official from office

7. Child labor: in 1900, over 1.7 million American children under 15 worked instead of school • Back-breaking work: 40 to 60 cents per 10-hour day • Progressive laws passed making education mandatory

9. Health and Safety • Adults worked in dangerous situations • Fire hazards, unsafe machinery and working conditions • Minimal compensation for injuries or death • Laws passed to regulate this

10. Women’s Suffrage • Suffrage: right to vote • Women’s education improves • Women suffrage activists were called: “unfeminine and immoral” • Marched and delivered speeches • 19th amendment: women given right to vote in 1920

11. Susan B. Anthony • Led suffrage movement • Teacher - fired for protesting her pay being 1/5th of male co-workers • Voted illegally in 1872 election and was arrested • Died in 1906

12. “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.” - Susan B. Anthony

13. Bellringer • What are some key differences between Democrats and Republicans? • Democrats: liberal, “progressive,” more government involvement in daily lives, environmentalism, support same-sex marriage, pro-choice, high taxes for the wealthy • Republicans: conservative, less government involvement in daily lives, pro-life, favor lower taxes, less $ on social programs (welfare, social security, healthcare, etc.)

14. Few progressives made race relations a priority • 10 million African Americans in US, 2/3 in the south • NAACP:National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded by W.E.B. Du Bois – abolish segregation, promote civil and political rights

15. Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

16. NYC police commissioner (1895): reformed corrupt police force • Rough Riders (1898): volunteer soldiers led by Lt. Col. Teddy against the Spanish in Cuba • Governor of NY (1898) – Republican

17. Pres. William McKinley assassinated (1901) • Age 42 - Teddy is youngest president • He becomes the leader of the Progressive movement

20. “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. … The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.”

23. Square Deal: Teddy’s progressive reforms

24. Mmm… mmm… good. • “potions” sold to cure illnesses - sugar & colored water • Meat sold spoiled and unsafe • Meat Inspection Act: fed. inspection of meat, standards of cleanliness • Pure Food and Drug Act: prohibited sale of falsely labeled food and drugs

25. Cambridge Springs • The Riverside Inn Spring House

27. Taking care of business… • Big businesses that formed monopolies were often called trusts. Teddy broke up these trusts and he became known as the “trustbuster.”

28. United Mine Workers: coal miners went on strike • Wanted pay increase and work hour reduction • 150,000 walkouts • Arbitration: settlement imposed by outside party

29. Environmental Conservation • Teddy’s passion • Gifford Pinchot: head of US Forest Service. “Forests must benefit many, not profit for a few.” • Added 100 million acres to national forests • 5 new national parks • 50 federal wildlife reservations

32. James K. Vardaman“The Great White Chief” • Served as U.S. Senator and Governor of Mississippi • White supremacist • Outraged when President Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House • BUT – he did vote to end child labor and give women right to vote

33. William Howard Taft

34. One life goal: To be a U.S. Supreme Court chief justice

35. Teddy vows not to run again. Convinces his friend Taft, who is elected President in 1908. • Teddy’s former Secretary of War • Broke up 2x as many monopolies as Teddy • Created more gov’t reserves than Teddy

36. Unpopular with progressives • Fired Teddy’s friend Pinchot for disobedience • Teddy disapproves: breaks with Taft & announces he’ll enter presidential campaign in 1912

37. Where’d this Wilson guy come from?

38. William Howard Taft

39. Teddy Roosevelt

40. Woodrow Wilson

42. Woodrow Wilson • Democrat • Pres. of Princeton • Gov. of NJ (1910) • Very progressive • Beat out Teddy and Taft – a 3 way race (1912)

43. “If America is not to have free enterprise, she can have freedom of no sort whatever.” – Woodrow Wilson • New Freedom: monopolies must be destroyed, not regulated! • Regulation = too much gov’t power

44. - To Wilson, race was not an important issue

46. Federal Trade Commission (FTC): • “consumer protection” • Banned retailers buying one product having to stop selling competitor’s product • Banned price discrimination • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202968.html?hpid=moreheadlines

47. Wilson’s Reforms • Federal Reserve: central bank of US • set interest rates, control inflation • Reduced tariffs (taxes on foreign goods)by 30% • 16th Amendment • Income tax: direct tax on people’s earnings