Transcript The Progressive Movement

The Progressive
Movement
Q: Which invention had the
greatest effect on the
Progressive Era?
A: The CAMERA!
Lewis Hine
was a
photographer
who used his
camera to
promote social
reform. He is
most famous
for his pictures
of child labor.
Progressive
Reform Areas
Suffrage
Alcoholism
Conservation
Democracy
Poverty
Civil Rights
Trusts
Education
Consumer Protection
Roots of the Progressive Movement
Progressive Movement: actually a
collection of many movements, but
generally a term that described the years
from 1890-1920, when many Americans
tried to improve many of America’s social
problems. They were generally urban and
middle class citizens, and they felt that the
government should do more to help fix
America’s problems.
Muckrakers
• Muckraker: a journalist that investigated social
conditions and exposed government corruption
• their articles often brought attention to social
problems and put pressure on government
officials to make reforms
Magazines
• magazines became popular at this time
and some, like McClure’s, often supported
the articles of muckrakers
• some popular articles became a series of
articles and eventually were turned into
books
Authors
• Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil
Company exposed how John D. Rockefeller
amassed his wealth
• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the
unsanitary conditions in the nation’s meat
packing industry
• Jacob Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives,
revealing the terrible living conditions of the
urban poor
• Lincoln Steffens wrote The Shame of the
Cities, telling about political corruption in cities
Populist Connection
• many of the ideas of the Progressive
Movement were born in the old Populist
Movement
• both were “grass roots” (from the people)
organizations
• each optimistically believed that they could
cause great changes to society through
their actions
Aspects of the Progressive
Movement
• The Progressive Movement – Economic Issues
• Monopoly and Trusts:
• Sherman Antitrust Act: 1890 – made trusts
illegal.
• also addressed price fixing and restraint of trade
practices
• not well enforced at first – but is important
because of the indication of government
regulation of businesses
Child Labor
• at first reduced – then eliminated
• marked the beginning of the creation of
mandatory public schooling for children
Consumer Protection
• Meat Inspection Act (1906): set
standards for meat packing cleanliness
and federal inspections
• Pure Food and Drug Act (1906):
prohibited the manufacture, sale, or
shipment of impure or falsely labeled food
and drugs
Working Conditions
• Progressives had mixed results in attempts to
limit working hours at first:
• Lochner v. New York: ruled against limiting
hours in bakeries because it violated the original
contract between the employer and the
employees
• Muller v. Oregon: allowed women’s hours to be
limited in order to protect the health of the
women. This often kept women out of higher
paying jobs.
• In general though, the labor union movement
did grow in importance during this time
The Progressive
Movement:
Social Issues
The Urban poor
• The gap between the Rich and Poor grew wider during
this time, especially in the cities
• water and sewage systems began to be improved – to
stop the spreading of diseases
• building codes were written to create better housing
conditions
• Settlement Houses: located in working class areas,
offered child care, education, job search help and social
activities – often for new immigrants
•
- Hull House was famous in Chicago (started
by Jane Addams)
•
- Henry Street Settlement in New York City
Hull House in Chicago, IL
Women’s Rights
• Suffrage (the right to vote) was the
leading issue concerning women at this
time, but others included:
• Education: More colleges and
universities were accepting women
• Birth Control: led by Margaret Sanger,
this controversial issue was intended to
help inform women about family planning
options
Suffrage (right to vote)
• this was the big issue for women’s rights
• begun in the mid-1800’s in Seneca Falls, NY
• led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony
• Fueled again in the early 1900’s by the
Progressive Movement, women leaders
changed their attempt to win suffrage state-bystate – and pushed for an amendment to the
U.S. Constitution
• The role of women in World War I helped
change many people’s minds
• The 19th Amendment gave women the right
to vote in 1920
African Americans
• Booker T. Washington: promoted
vocational training for African-Americans
to support them economically
• W.E.B. Du Bois: founded the NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People) He advocated for
better educational opportunities for
African-Americans
• Ida B. Wells: journalist that wrote against
lynching of African-Americans
• Marcus Garvey: a separatist and
nationalist, wanted African-Americans to
go back to Africa
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. Dubois
Temperance
• Many social
problems were seen
as the result of
alcohol consumption
• Reformers first tried
to reduce the amount
of alcohol consumed
• later, a push for
alcohol prohibition
was begun
The Progressive
Movement:
Political Issues
Imperfect Democracy
• a variety of reforms came
about to make America more
democratic than it had become
in reality – as compared with
the ideal vision of a democratic
institution
Solutions
• policies were enacted to encourage more
participation of citizens – in order to have more
say in their government’s activities
– Initiative: citizens can initiate legislation at the grass
roots level
– Referendum: statewide public vote on a proposed
legislation that originated through the initiative of the
public
– Recall: state voters can “recall” an elected official
based on a collective feeling of “no confidence”
– Direct Primaries: major political parties allow party
members to actively participate in the process by
which candidates are selected to run for offices
Progressive
Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt
• Trust Buster:
• President Roosevelt worked to end any kind of monopolies in
business:
• felt there were “good” trusts, which needed to be regulated and
“bad” trusts which needed to be dissolved
• Northern Securities Case: Roosevelt sued the Northern Securities
Railroad Company because it controlled too many of the railroads in
the Northwest, and won
• Conservation:
• Newlands Reclamation Act: money from sale of public lands was
used to pay for irrigation, dams, and land development projects
• Tripled the amount of land set aside for public use as national
forests, national parks, wildlife refuges, and national monuments
• Pushed for the U.S. Forest Service to manage millions of acres of
public lands
Woodrow Wilson
• New Freedom: the name given to President
Wilson’s progressive domestic policies
• Armed with a mandate from the American
people (Wilson won a huge Electoral College
majority), and a Democratically controlled
Congress, with bi-partisan support for change,
Wilson was in a great position to make changes
• Reduced the tariff on imported goods
• Led reform of the inept national banking system
• Strengthened the Sherman Act to combat trusts