Chapter 11 The Progressive Reform Era

1. Chapter 11 The Progressive Reform Era

2. At the end of the 1800s, problems resulting from rapid industrialization, immigration, and urban growth spurred the creation of many reform movements during what is known as the Progressive Era. This period lasted from 1890-1920.

3. Children in New York slums, 1900

4. "In a room not thirteen feet either way slept twelve men and women, two or three in bunks set in a sort of alcove, the rest on the floor. A kerosene lamp burned dimly in the fearful atmosphere, probably to guide other and later arrivals to their 'beds' for it was only just past midnight....one of hundreds of unlicensed lodging houses...a Bayard St. tenement...shelter for 'five Cents a Spot.'" Photo by flashlight, 1888, used as the basis for an illustration in Riis' "How the Other Half Lives."

5. The "spacious" grounds surrounding tenement living This photo shows the general unsanitary conditions of the tenements. There are not enough garbage boxes as the landlords are not made (by law) to supply enough. The first house on the right is a small dilapidated, single-family frame house now housing three families. 1900.

6. Roots of reform came from earlier movements like nativism, prohibition, purity crusades, social gospel philosophy, and settlement houses. • Governments had expanded some city services, but corruption in business and government kept those benefits from reaching the people that needed help the most. • Private charities and social organizations could not solve problems on such a large scale. Lodging house , 1872

7. Why were progressives from the middle class and not immigrant, poor, working class people? • Goals of the Progressive Era • Governments should do all of the following: • Be accountable to its citizens • Curb the power of wealthy special interests • Expand powers to improve the lives of all citizens • 4. Become more efficient and less corrupt *This is the first time that citizens had looked to the government to solve their problems and assume responsibility for their welfare.

8. Journalists and other writers influenced public opinion and government policy. • Henry George wrote Progress and Poverty • said that poverty remained because land speculators bought and then held onto land until the price rose “Single tax” clubs sprang up and supported Henry George’s ideas.

9. Edward Bellamy wrote a book called Looking Backward in 1888 about a Boston man who was hypnotized in 1887 and woke up in 2000. The man found that America had become a utopian society where the government had taken over all companies with the goal of restructuring them to meet human needs. Utopia-an imaginary place where everyone lives in harmony; a place where everything is right and for the best. Would we want to live in Bellamy’s utopian America? Why? Why not”

10. The term muckraker was used by Theodore Roosevelt to describe journalists and writers who wrote about corruption in business and politics. Upon reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Teddy Roosevelt wrote the author, “the specific evils you point out shall, if their existence be proved, and if I have power, be eradicated.

11. Packingtown-from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle Workers walk over the meat and put it back into the line to be processed. Rats will crawl over the meat and workers will spread poison around for them to die. When the rats have been killed, the rats and the leftover poison will then be packed together in the meat.

12. The Shame of Cities by Lincoln Steffens exposed political corruption in major cities like St. Louis, Philadelphia, and New York. It focused on how political machines controlled the vote. From The Shame of Cities

13. Ida Tarbell wrote The History of Standard Oil to reveal the abuses committed by the Standard Oil Trust.

14. The Labor Movement • Union membership grew very slowly in the 1890s • courts on the side of big business • issued an injunction, a court order that prohibits certain activities, to prevent workers from going on strike Pinkerton Guards escort strikebreakers (scabs)

15. Some workers attracted to socialism, an economic and political philosophy favoring public or government control of property and income. • American socialists wanted to end the capitalist system, distribute wealth more equally, and have government ownership of American industries. • 1901 Socialist Party of America formed • won about 1000 city government offices by 1912 • Most Americans against socialism and still favored capitalism!!

16. Many women believed that they had to have the right to vote in order to institute progressive reforms that they believed in.

17. women and children faced horrible conditions in factories • many women’s organizations sought to reform the workplace Child textile worker Many women work in crowded factories, such as this lock and drill department in Ohio in 1902 Child mine worker

18. Florence Kelley-against child labor Florence Kelley was the daughter of a United States congressman. She studied at Cornell University and the University of Zurich. While in Europe she became a follower of Marx and Engels. Kelley moved to New York City where she married a fellow member of the Socialist Labor Party. The marriage was not a success and in December 1891 she left him and moved to Chicago with her three children. Soon after arriving in Chicago, she joined Jane Addams’s Hull House. Kelley was placed in charge of investigating labor conditions in Chicago. Because of her efforts, in 1893 Illinois passed a law prohibiting child labor, limiting working hours for women, and regulating sweatshop conditions. When she became frustrated that the attorney general would not enforce the law, she earned a law degree to take action herself. Later in life she would fight tirelessly to improve health conditions for women and children

19. Mary Harris “Mother” Jones With miner children With President Coolidge Mother Jones’s husband and four children died in a yellow fever epidemic. She then lost everything that she had in the Chicago fire in 1871. She was forced to go to work to support herself. It was then that she appealed to the Knights of Labor for help and took on their cause of improving working conditions. She organized unions for both men and women. She became best known for her work improving mining conditions in West Virginia and Colorado. Well into her eighties, she was still making pro-union speeches. In 1905 she helped to found the International Workers of the World (IWW).

20. Veteran labor organizer “Mother” Mary Jones, age 88, urges steel workers to vote “Yes” for a strike against the steel corporations In one mill, I got a day-shift job. On my way to work I met a woman coming home from night work. She had a tiny bundle of a baby in her arms."How old is the baby?""Three days. I just went back this morning. The boss was good and saved my place.""When did you leave?""The boss was good; he let me off early the night the baby was born.""What do you do with the baby while you work?""Oh, the boss is good and he lets me have a little box with a pillow in it beside the loom. The baby sleeps there and when it cries, I nurse it.“ From Mother Jones’s autobiography

21. Progressives often met with resistance from the very people that they were trying to help. • poor people needed their children to work to help support the family • If progressives succeeded in outlawing child labor, many families would have to survive on even less money. • Some people did not believe that it was the government’s responsibility to be so involved in the lives of its citizens- that the government should not interfere in housing, health care, and even moral issues like alcohol consumption.

22. Section 2 Progressive legislation

23. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire • March 25, 1911, New York City • Employees were mostly young Italian and Jewish girls • Fire was feed by fabric and trash • Doors and window were locked to prevent women from taking breaks • Fire escape was old and in disrepair and collapsed when women piled onto it. • Fire department ladders not long enough to reach upper floors where women worked • Water pressure would not reach upper floors • 146 workers died

24. Few of the terrified workers on the 9th floor knew that a fire escape was hidden behind iron window shutters • The ladder descended next to the building forcing those fleeing to climb down through flames • other shutters stuck open across their path • design had been deemed inadequate and the material from which it was made was insubstantial • After a few made their way down, the heat of the fire and weight of the people caused the ladder to twist and collapse 

25. Fire fighters arrived soon after the alarm was sounded but ladders only reached the 6th floor and pumps could not raise water to the highest floors of the 10-story building.  Still the fire was quickly controlled and was essentially extinguished in half an hour.  In this fire-proof building, 146 men, women, and children lost their lives and many others were seriously injured.

26. Protesting voices arose, bewildered and angry at the lack of concern and the greed that had made this possible. • Outraged cries called for action to improve the unsafe conditions in workshops.

27. Max Blank and Isaac Harris, owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, were indicted on April 11th in the death of Margaret Schwartz.  The trial began 8 months later only to finish in 18 days.  The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire. On December 27th  factory owners were acquitted of responsibility.  Three years later 23 individual suits were settled at a rate of $75 per death.