The Progressive Movement in the United States 1890-1914

1. The Progressive Movement in the United States 1890-1914

2. The Rise of Progressivism

3. A series of reform efforts- 1890-1920 • Not an organized political movement • Not specific set of reforms • Collection of different ideas and activities • Different views on how to fix society • Progressives agreed the causes of social problems were industrialization and urbanization

4. The Progressives wanted the government to take an active role solving problems

5. Who were the Progressives?

6. Democrats and Republicans • Urban, educated, middle class • Journalists, social workers, educators, politicians, and ministers • Progressivism in part a reaction to laissez-faire and its emphasis on the unregulated market • Viewing the poverty of the working class and the filth and crime of urban society, reformers did not believe that the free market could address the problems

7. Only if the government were fixed could it be used to address the problems • Progressives believed in using scientific principles in providing useful solutions for society

8. Muckrakers

9. Journalists who put progressive ideas on paper • Investigated social conditions and political corruption • Called muckrakers following a speech made by T. Roosevelt • Early 1900s publishers competed to see who could expose the most corruption and scandal

10. Ida Tarbell- articles on Standard Oil • Charles Edward Russell- the beef industry • David Graham Phillips-money influence in the Senate • Lincoln Steffens-vote stealing and the corruption of the political machines • Jacob Riis-How the Other Half Lives, poverty, crime, and disease in the immigrant neighborhoods of New York City

11. The articles led to public debate on social and economic problems • Put pressure on government to introduce reform

12. Government Efficiency

13. One group of progressives wanted to make government more efficient • Wanted to apply scientific management to improve government efficiency

14. Frederick W. Taylor

15. Late 1800s Frederick W. Taylor wrote, Principles of Scientific Management • 1911, Taylor explained how a company could become more efficient by managing time, break tasks into smaller parts, and use standardized tools

16. Efficiency Progressives and Government

17. Efficiency progressives claimed managing a city required experts not politicians • Did not want more democracy in government, felt it led to compromise and corruption • Most cities had a mayor or city council who named the heads of various city departments • Usually the positions went to supporters or friends who knew little about city services

18. Progressives wanted a commission or council manager plan of municipal government • Divide city government into departments each under the control of an expert commissioner • Board of commissioners or city manager with knowledge in city services would hire specialists to run city departments

19. Democracy and Progressivism

20. Other progressives wanted more democracy not less • Make the elected officials responsive to the voters

21. Laboratory of Democracy

22. Political reform at the state level in Wisconsin • Voters elected Robert LaFollette governor • LaFollette used his elected position to attack how the political parties ran their conventions • Party bosses controlled the selection of delegates to the convention, therefore, they controlled the nominations • LaFollette pushed the Wisconsin state legislature to require the parties to hold direct primaries

23. Direct primary- all party members vote for a candidate to run in the general election • Progressives in other states pushed for reform similar to Wisconsin • Other reforms: • Initiative; citizens propose laws and required legislatures to vote on them • Referendum; voters would vote to approve or reject legislation

24. Recall; voters could demand a special election to remove an elected official form office before their term expired

25. Direct Election of Senators

26. The US Constitution as originally written directed the state legislatures to elect two senators from each state • Political machines and large trusts influenced the election of senators • Senators repaid supporters with federal contracts and jobs • To end Senate corruption, progressives pushed for the direct election of Senators

27. Intended to remove corruption • Also removed one of the state legislatures’ checks on federal power • The 17th Amendment was ratified by the states in 1913

28. Women’s Suffrage Movement

29. July, 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held the first organized women’s rights convention- Seneca Falls Convention • Stanton saw the first priority of the movement, get women the right to vote • Movement was known as the Suffrage Movement • Suffrage for women became a progressive issue in the late 1800s and early 1900s

30. Problems for the Suffrage Movement

31. Women suffragists were accused of being unfeminine and immoral • The movement was weak in the early years • Many supporters were also abolitionists, concentrated on ending slavery • Post-Civil War, the 14th and 15th amendments protected voting rights of African Americans • Suffrage leaders wanted the amendments worded to include women

32. Republicans refused to allow women the vote • The movement split, one group wanted a constitutional amendment to give women the vote, the other group worked at getting the vote at the state level first • The division hurt the effectiveness of the movement • 1878, amendment proposed in Congress, failed to pass

33. 1900, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado had granted women full voting rights at the state level

34. The Movement Gains Support

35. 1890 two suffrage groups merged to form the National American Women Suffrage Association • 1910 the movement made progress • Progressive middle class women became politically active • Needed to vote to about social reform • Movement grew, members lobbied lawmakers, organized marches, delivered street corner speeches

36. End of 1912 Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Kansas granted women full voting rights on the state level • March 3, 1913 march in Washington, D.C. • Organized by Alice Paul, used protest to force President Wilson to take action on suffrage • Paul’s actions concerned other members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association who wanted to negotiate with Wilson

37. Paul left the organization and formed the National Women’s Party • Paul’s supporters picketed the White House, blocked sidewalks, chained themselves to lampposts, went on hunger strikes when arrested • 1915, Carrie Chapman Catt National American Woman Suffrage Association leader mobilized the suffrage movement nationwide- one big push to gain suffrage

38. Catt promised Wilson National Woman Suffrage Association support in the 1916 election • Wilson did not openly support suffrage, did support Democratic Party’s call for states to give women the vote

39. 19th Amendment

40. More states extend the vote to women • Congress considers an amendment • 1918, the House passed a women’s suffrage amendment • Wilson spoke with the Senate asked for support for the amendment • The amendment failed by two votes • 1918 midterm elections Catt used NAWSA resources to defeat the two senators who opposed the amendment

41. June, 1919 the Senate passed the 19th Amendment by more than the 2/3rds majority needed • The 19th Amendment was ratified by the states August 1920

42. Social Welfare

43. Political reform was but one of the areas of progressive reform • Social problems: crime, illiteracy, alcohol abuse, child labor, and the health and safety of Americans • Social welfare progressives created charities to help the poor and disadvantaged • Pushed for laws to eliminate social problems

44. Child Labor

45. Children historically worked on farms • Factory work was monotonous and conditions were unhealthy • 1900, 1.7 million children under 16 worked • Reformers established a National Child Labor Committee in 1904 to stop child labor • Muckraker John Spargo published The Bitter Cry of Children, in 1906

46. Detailed child labor conditions • Wrote of coal mines, boys 9 or 10 picked slag out of coal for 60 cents for 10 hour day • Bent their backs permanently and crippled their hands • States began to pass laws to set minimum age and other limits on child labor • States also began to pass compulsory education laws

47. Children had to be in school instead of working • Early 1900s number of child workers began to decline • Some families enjoyed a higher standard of living due to industrialization and survived without children working, others had to have the wife work instead

48. Health and Safety Codes

49. Workplace conditions were bad for adults also • 1911, fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City • 150 women workers died because the doors were locked from the outside • New York City responded by passing strict building codes, dealing with fire hazards, unsafe machinery, and working conditions

50. Early 1900s thousands hurt on the job, little or no compensation • Progressives joined with the labor unions to get states to pass worker compensation laws • The laws created insurance funds paid for by employers, workers hurt on the job got payments from the fund • Progressives favored zoning laws to protect the public