Transcript The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era
1900 - 1920
Middle Class Movement
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Middle class emerged in late 1800s – product of industrialization
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Primarily concerned with urban, industrial problems
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Rapid growth of cities exacerbated problems
Concerned about crime, alcoholism, prostitution, and unsanitary & unsafe living
& working conditions
Progress entailed both efficiency & justice
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Professionals, managers, “white collar” workers
Increasingly segregated from working class
Elitist & democratic simultaneously
Linked to industrialists, who provided money for new research universities &
social research efforts
Advocated “scientific” social reform – solutions based on social
science research
Urban Social Work
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Settlement Houses
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Jane Addams
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Charity Organization Societies pooled
& coordinated resources
G. Stanley Hall & John Dewey
advocated educational reform to
create better citizens
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Hull House
Jane Addams est. Hull House in
Chicago (1889)
Secular missionaries – lived in foreign
neighborhoods & tried to “uplift” working
class immigrants
18 million children in public schools in
1910 (up from 7 million in 1870)
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
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NAACP founded in 1909 by whites &
blacks
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Whites like Oswald Garrison Villard
were grandchildren of abolitionists
Blacks like W.E.B. DuBois were frustrated
middle-class professionals
challenged Jim Crow laws in court
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W.E.B. DuBois
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Guinn v. Oklahoma (1915) invalidated grandfather
clauses
Buchanan v.Warley (1917) banned residential
segregation ordinances
National Urban League founded in
1910 to promote economic
development
Immigration Restriction
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Immigration Restriction League
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Eugenics
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Harry Laughlin &
Charles Davenport
Led by Prescott F. Hall & Robert D. Ward
Advocated literacy test to keep out
“undesirable” southern & eastern European
immigrants
Charles Davenport founded Eugenics Record
Office on Long Island
Advocated sterilization of criminals & mentally
disabled
Margaret Sanger advocated birth control and
abortion for eugenic reasons
Eugenic Ideas About Race & Heredity
The Role of Women
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Cult of “true womanhood”
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Upper & middle-class women led many
reform groups
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women as moral guardians of family &
society
Used to demand voting rights
Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Children’s Aid Society
Settlement houses
Bolstered argument for women’s
suffrage
Frances Willard
Gradual Introduction of Women’s Suffrage
Taking on the Party Machines
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Opposed machines as both antidemocratic & inefficient
City gov’t reforms were antidemocratic:
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Expert Commissions to replace city councils
Professional City Managers to administer affairs
Other reforms were more democratic:
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Direct Primaries took control of nominations away from party
leaders
Initiative & Referendum allowed voters to bypass legislature
& enact laws directly
Recall elections allowed removal of unpopular officials before
term expired
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
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Added 150 million acres to forest
preserves
Dept. of Commerce & Labor created
(1903)
Pure Food & Drug Act & Meat
Inspection Act (1906) regulated food
industry
Hepburn Act (1906) gave ICC authority
to set maximum railroad rates
Broke up Northern Securities Trust
(1904)
Mediated United Mine Workers’ strike
(1902)
Pres. William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
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Busted more trusts than T.R., but had probusiness reputation
Added to forest preserves, but angered
conservationists by firing Gifford Pinchot
Mann Act (1910) outlawed “white slave
trade”
Mann-Elkins Act (1910) strengthened ICC
further
16th Amendment (passed by Congress in
1909; ratified in 1913) allowed for a
graduated income tax
17th Amendment (passed by Congress in
1912; ratified in 1913) mandated direct
election of U.S. Senators
The 1912 Election
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Roosevelt unsuccessfuly challenged
Taft for the G.O.P. nomination
Roosevelt then formed Progressive
(“Bull Moose”) Party
Woodrow Wilson won Democratic
nomination & election
The 1912 Presidential Campaign
Pres. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
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Federal Reserve Act (1913) created modern
monetary system
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12 banks rediscount member banks’ loans
Notes backed 40% by gold, 60% by commercial paper
Sets “prime” interest rate, thus able to expand or
contract credit & money supply
Underwood Tariff (1913) lowered rates & est.
graduated income tax
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) outlawed price
discrimination, tying agreements & interlocking
directorates
Federal Trade Commission (1914) created to
regulate
The Federal Reserve System
Wilson (cont.)
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Federal Farm Loan Act (1916) created 12 banks to
make low-interest loans to farmers (part of
Subtreasury Plan)
Adamson Act (1916) mandated 8-hour day & time
and a half for overtime for railroad workers
Keating-Owen Act (1916) banned goods made by
child labor from interstate commerce, but overturned
by Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
18th Amendment (passed by Congress in 1917;
ratified in 1919) banned manufacture & sale of alcohol
19th Amendment (passed by Congress in 1919;
ratified in 1920) granted right to vote to women
The Progressive Era Amendments
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16th Amendment (1909;
1913) allowed for a graduated
income tax
17th Amendment (1912;
1913) mandated direct election
of U.S. Senators
18th Amendment (1917;
1919) banned manufacture,
transportation & sale of alcohol
19th Amendment (1919;
1920) granted right to vote to
women
Celebrating the ratification of the
19th Amendment