THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

1. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2. Who were the Progressives? • Mostly urban (in contrast to the mostly rural Populists) • Mostly middle-class intellectuals (especially with the rise of white collar jobs) • Protestant church leaders • African-American civil rights leaders • Feminists • Liberal Republicans (T.R. & Robert La Follette) & Democrats (William Jennings Bryan & Woodrow Wilson) • Pragmatists - replacing Laissez Faire & Social Darwinism w/ practical solutions

3. PROGRESSIVISM CivilRights Suffragettes Muckrackers Temperance Labor Unions MidclassWomen Popul ists Goo Goos

4. FOUR GOALS OF REFORMERS • 1) Protect Social Welfare • 2) Promote Moral Improvement • 3) Create Economic Reform • 4) Foster Efficiency

5. 1.PROTECT SOCIAL WELFARE • Industrialization in the late 19th century was largely unregulated • Employers felt little responsibility toward their workers • As a result - the Social Gospel Movement - Settlement homes (like Jane Addams’ Hull House) and churches served the community • Florence Kelly lead fight for women & children in factories, education, courts, housing. • Also the YMCA and Salvation Army took on service roles

6. 2. PROMOTE MORAL DEVELOPMENT • Some reformers felt that the answer to societies problems was personal behavior • They proposed such reforms as Prohibition • Groups wishing to ban alcohol included the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • & Anti-Saloon League led by Carry “The Hatchet” Nation • The “Drys” - prohibition in 2/3 of states by 1915

7. 3. CREATE ECONOMIC REFORM • The Panic of 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist economic system • Many rejected Laissez-Faire and pushed for more gov. regulation. • As a result some workers embraced socialism • Eugene Debs organized the American Socialist Party in 1901 Debs encouraged workers to reject American Capitalism

8. MUCKRAKERS CRITICIZE BIG BUSINESS * Journalists for McClure’s Magazine known as “Muckrakers” exposed corruption in business (also Collier’s & Cosmopolitan) Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil Company’s cut-throat methods of eliminating competition Jacob Riis - Lincoln Steffens’ Shame of the Cities - political machine corruption Novels: Frank Norris The Octopus (railroads) Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair Ida Tarbell Some view Michael Moore & Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) as modern muckrakers

9. 4. FOSTERING EFFICIENCY: CLEANING UP LOCAL GOVERNMENT • Efforts at reforming local government stemmed from the desire to make government more efficient and responsive to citizens • Some believe it also was meant to limit immigrants influence in local governments

10. ELECTION REFORM • Citizens fought for, and won, such measures as “Australian”secret ballots, initiatives, referendum, and the recall • In 1899, Minnesota passed the first statewide primary system

11. DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS • Before 1913, each state’s legislature had chosen its own U.S. senators • To force senators to be more responsive to the public, progressives pushed for the popular election of senators • As a result, Congress passed the 17th Amendment (1913)

12. REGULATING BIG BUSINESS • Under the progressive Republican leadership of Robert La Follette, Wisconsin the “Laboratory of Democracy” led the way in regulating big business - especially the railroad industry Robert La Follette

13. EFFORTS TO LIMIT HOURS • The Supreme Court and the states enacted or strengthened laws reducing women’s hours of work • Progressives also succeeded in winning worker’s compensation to aid families of injured workers

14. PROTECTING WORKING CHILDREN • As the number of child workers rose, reformers worked to end child labor • Children were more prone to accidents caused by fatigue • Nearly every state limited or banned child labor by 1918

15. SECTION 2: WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE • By the late 19th and early 20th century, 20% of women in the workforce: garment trade, office work, department stores, teachers. • More women graduated from colleges like Vassar and Smith but limited jobs opportunities • Joined clubs and organizations

16. WOMEN AND REFORM • “Suffragettes” pushed for the vote. • Carrie Chapman Catt president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1900 • In 1896, black women formed the National Association of Colored Women (NACW)

17. THREE-PART STRATEGY FOR WINNING SUFFRAGE • Suffragists tried three approaches to winning the vote • 1) Convince state legislatures to adopt vote (Succeeded in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Colorado) • 2) Pursue court cases to test 14th Amendment • 3) Push for national constitutional Amendment

18. Militant Suffragists • Some wanted a more radical approach - mass pickets, parades, hunger strikes, civil disobedience. • Alice Paul broke from NAWSA to form National Woman’s Party in 1916 - focused on Amendment Alice Paul

20. 19th Amendment (1920) • Women support for WWI persuaded Congress and President Wilson to finally support suffrage • Guaranteed women right to vote in all local, state, and national elections. • Carrie Chapman Catt founded League of Woman Voters to inform women on candidates and issues

21. NAACP FORMED TO PROMOTE RIGHTS • In 1909 a number of African Americans including W.E.B. Du Bois and prominent white reformers formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • The NAACP had 6,000 members by 1914, 100,000 by 1920 • The goal of the organization was full equality among the races • The means to achieve this was the court system

22. The “Culture Wars”:The Pendulum of Right v. Left ChristianEvangelicalMovement 2nd Great Awakening Social Gospel 1920s Revivalism 1950sRevivalism CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION CIVILWAR Antebellum Reforms[1810s-1850s] Progressivism[1890s-1920] New Deal[1930s-1940s] Great Society&1960s SocialMovements Populism[1870s-1890s]