The Progressive Era 1900-1916

1. The Progressive Era1900-1916 Roosevelt Taft Wilson America Seeks Reforms in the Early 20th Century

2. “The Gilded Age” 1870-1900 America became an Industrial Empire Beautiful on the surface…..

3. …but cheap and tarnished underneath. II. Dangerous Working Conditions in Sweatshops • III. Unregulated Corporations IV. Impure Food and Drugs I. Child Labor

4. V. Terrible Conditions in Slums and Tenements VI. Limited Women’s Rights VII. Racism: Poverty and Discrimination VIII. Unprotected Natural Resources

5. were Investigative Journalists who pioneered exposé articles and novels. Middle class reformers wanted a more active government to address these problems.

6. I. Child Labor “Breaker boys"—boys employed by mines to pick impurities out of newly broken coal as it rolled past on conveyor belts -- crouch over the chutes, sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past to the washers.” John Spargo “The boys might cut fingers and hands, or contract lung diseases from working in the hazardous, dusty conditions. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. “ John Spargo

7. "Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.” Florence Kelley “Three boys from a Hull House club were injured at one machine for lack of a guard which would have cost but a few dollars. When the injury of one of these boys resulted in his death, we felt sure the factory would share our horror and prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. To our surprise they did nothing whatever, and I made my acquaintance then with those pathetic documents signed by the parents of working children, that they will make no claim for damages resulting from “carelessness.” Jane Addams

8. II. Dangerous Working Conditions in Sweatshops THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE The New York Times March 26, 1911 “141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire; Trapped High up in Building; Street Strewn with Bodies; Piles of Dead Inside”

9. “The building was fireproof. The walls are as good as ever, so are the floors; nothing is the worse for the fire except the furniture and the 141 of the 600 men and girls that were employed on the upper three stories.” NY Times “The victims who are now lying at the Morgue waiting for some one to identify them by a tooth or the remains of a burned shoe were mostly girls from 18 to 23 years of age.” NY Times

10. III. Unregulated Corporations Ida M. Tarbell ‘ You see, this scheme is bound to work. It means absolute control by us of the oil business. You are to turn over your refinery to my appraisers, and I will give you Standard Oil company stock or cash, as you prefer, for the value we put upon it.’ John D. Rockefeller “Some refiners objected. They did not want to sell. Mr. Rockefeller was regretful, but firm. It was useless to resist, he told the hesitating; they would certainly be crushed if they did not accept his offer.” Ida M. Tarbell

11. President McKinley’s Assassination Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders Theodore RooseveltPresident 1901-1909Republican The “accidental” President became a “trustbuster” bringing 44 anti-trust law suits against corporations. He also settled labor strikes with a “Square Deal” or fair treatment for both labor and Management.

12. IV. Impure Food and Drugs “Mary had a little lamb and when she saw it sicken, she shipped it off to Packingtown, and now it’s labeled chicken.” “The workers in Packingtown each had their own peculiar diseases. The worker bore the evidence of them about on his own person—generally he had only to hold out his hand.” Upton Sinclair

13. Upton Sinclair’s Muckraking novel contributed to the Meat Inspection Act which enforced sanitary codes in Industry, and the Pure Food and Drug Act which banned impure and mislabeled food and drugs .

14. V. Terrible Conditions in Slums and Tenements “Life in the tenements in July and August spells death to an army of little ones whom the doctor’s skill is powerless to save.” Jacob Riis “The children of the poor grow up in joyless homes to lives of wearisome toil that claims them at an age when the play of their happier fellows has but just begun.” Jacob Riis

15. “Tenement-houses have no aesthetic resources..… the air-shaft that seems always so busy letting out foul stenches from below that it has no time to earn its name by bringing down fresh air, the squeaking pumps that hold no water, and the rent that is never less than one week’s wages out of the four, quite as often half of the family earnings.” Jacob Riis “Yet, as I knew, that dismal alley with its bare brick walls, between which no sun ever rose or set, was the world of those children. It filled their young lives. Probably not one of them had ever been out of the sight of it.” Jacob Riis

16. Settlement HousesJane Addams’ Hull House, Chicago “The streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools inadequate, sanitary legislation unenforced, the street lighting bad, the paving miserable and altogether lacking in the alleys and smaller streets, and the stables foul beyond description. Hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer.” Jane Addams

17. conscience like individual responsibility. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Conscience, Individual, Judgment The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history. Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/elizabeth_cady_stanton.html#64GdKMheumfd4wS2.99 VI. Limited Women’s Rights “The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history. Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton “No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.” Susan B. Anthony

18. Women’s Suffrage Before 1920 Native-born, educated, middle-class women grew more and more impatient. Through local, state, and national organizations, as well as vigorous protests, women finally realized their dream in 1920.

19. “No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” Margaret Sanger Forced Silence in Boston “She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it.” Margaret Sanger

20. VII. Racism: Poverty and Discrimination “Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.” Ida B. Wells “The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.” Ida B. Wells

21. “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington “There is in this world no such forces as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained.” W.E.B. Du Bois “There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.” Booker T. Washington “Ignorance is a cure for nothing.” W.E.B. Du Bois

22. Between 1885-1900, 2,500 Blacks were lynched. Between 1900-1914, 1,100 Blacks were murdered by white mobs. Black Population 1920 While the Progressive era was responsible for many important reforms, it failed to make gains for African Americans. Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on Civil Rights when he entered office.

23. VIII. Unprotected Natural Resources Before Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources. Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration. Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves, 1.5 million acres of water-power sites, 50 wildlife sanctuaries, and several national parks. “ A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.” Theodore Roosevelt “Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.” Theodore Roosevelt

24. William Howard TaftPresident 1909-1913Republican • Reformer President • Regulated telephone and telegraph trusts • Limited the workday to 8 hours • Investigated Child Labor abuses • Brought 90 more Anti-Trust suits, • including one against U.S. Steel Taft was not popular with the American public. He called the Presidency, the “lonesomest” job in the world.” Taft had been Roosevelt’s War Secretary

25. Woodrow WilsonPresident 1913-1921Democrat With a strong mandate from the American people, Wilson moved to enact his program, the “New Freedom.” He planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of privilege: trusts, tariffs, and high finance. Reformer President • In 1914 Congress enacted the Clayton Anti-Trust Act that strengthened the Sherman Act. • Wilson worked hard to lower tariffs, however, the lost revenue had to be made up and was when the 16th Amendment instituted a graduated federal income tax. • The Federal Trade Commission was formed in 1914 to serve as a “watchdog” agency to end unfair business practices. The FTC protects consumers from business fraud.

26. The Progressive Era THE END