Chapter 20: The Progressive Era

Chapter 20: The Progressive Era AP United States History Plateau Valley High School Ms. Jaime Hawkins

Chapter Objectives • What was the nature of progressivism? • What role did women play in Progressive Era movements? • How did electoral and municipal reforms improve voting and government during the Progressive Era? • How was the executive branch strengthened under Teddy Roosevelt? • How did Woodrow Wilson bring progressivism to its climax?

The Progressive Era • The simple definition of the Progressive Era was an era in the United States from 1900 to about 1917 in which important movements challenged traditional relationships and attitudes • Defined by the Presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson

Contextualizing Reform: Industrial & Urban Tension • Progressivism began due to the squalid conditions of America’s quickly growing cities and industrial centers • The growth of Populism had begun a spirit of change but the return of prosperity in 1900 slowed the fervor of reform • However, the big businesses of the last century were now gigantic corporations and working conditions began to get even worse

I. Sources of Reform Edvard Munch- Post-impressionism of the early 1900s.

Sources of Reform • Churches- • Walter Rauschenbusch: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907) • Settlement Houses- • Jane Addams & Hull House in Chicago (similar establishments in most major cities) • “Old Money”- • “Old Money” families (non-industrialists) push social organizations and the government to do something about terrible urban conditions. • Women- • Active in the fight for labor rights, urban reform, temperance movement, and suffrage movement.

Continued • Young, socially-conscience lawyers • Small businessmen • Journalists

The Triangle Shirt Waist Fire • The disturbing working conditions of urban Americans were brought to light by the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 • Workers locked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory so they could not leave the premises for breaks. Were trapped when a fire broke out. • 146 young women were killed, exemplifying America’s place as the most dangerous country for industrial workers Engendered sympathy for the cause of labor in America.

Churches and Campus • Christianity began to respond to the issues of the day with the Social Gospel Movement • Created by reform-minded Protestant preachers trying to introduce religious ethics to industry • Father John Ryan: all individuals have a moral responsibility to ensure the moral evolution of society. Promoted Catholic social welfare organizations (such as the soup kitchens still seen in most major cities today) • Social gospel movements gave ethical backing to government intervention as they wanted to improve the social order of America • Colleges & seminaries were also a source of progressive support.

Settlement Houses & Urban Reform • Settlement Houses were the heart of social reform movements. • These were community centers in urban neighborhoods run primarily by middle class women. • Their goal was to help the poor by education and revitalizing the community. • However, they soon found that widespread poverty was the root of the issues and pushed for new housing codes and better urban planning.

Muckrakers • Muckrakers were journalists at the turn of the century who drew attention to the social injustices of America. • Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was by far the most famous work of muckraking as it exposed the disgusting conditions of Chicago’s meat packing plants. • Rats, and fingers, and feces, oh my… • Lincoln Steffens- The Shame of the Cities (exposé of political machines). • Ida Tarbell- Wrote a book exposing unfair practices of Standard Oil Company.

Scientific Management and the Gospel of Efficiency • Many progressive leaders saw science as an answer to issues of the day • Scientific management was the idea of using the scientific method to find the most efficient ways to run business • This “gospel of efficiency” appealed to more educated managers who realized less accidents and more stable conditions led to more profit, an idea promoted in newly-formed business schools.

Labor’s Demands for Rights • Workers continued to organize through the early 1900s as they hunted for more rights • The AFL (American Federation of Labor) was up to 4 million members by 1920 • Unions basically fought for the same things: increased wages, an 8 hour work day, and safer working conditions. • Other important unions: • Industrial Workers of the World- formed by workers rejected by AFL • Women’s Trade Union League- formed by women who could not join AFL.

Expanding Rights for Women “The New Woman”- a different kind of middle class mom. Men worked away from home. Children attended school earlier & longer, time-saving innovations like washers, electricity, and running water, freed up time for middle class women, as did smaller families, and longer lives. • Many educated women with money chose to remain single and childless, so that they could devote themselves to their causes. • Women’s movement began pushing for more than just suffrage, began to question assumptions about gender roles and the concept of a male-dominated society. • Suffrage was still important, and many prominent women’s rights leaders, like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, were arrested & publically attacked many times for their “suffragette movement”. • Women’s clubs began pushing more and more for social reform in this era. • By 1917 there were over a million members of the GFWC. • Race relations not improved. Black women joined National Association of Colored Women. • As social problems began threatening the traditional home women became “social housekeepers” • Women’s clubs protested against poor working conditions and fought to help working women

Influences from Abroad: Socialism • Based on the social & economic theories of German Karl Marx-working class would engage in a violent struggle against the proletariat (middle class & wealthy) and take over, creating a society in which all wealth is distributed evenly and everyone is equal. • Socialists seeks a less violent means that Marx’s communism called for, but it still never attracted a huge following in America. Their criticism of the industrial economy did attract followers. • Socialism believed in government ownership of large corporations and a more equally distributed economic system. • The leader of the American Socialists was union activist Eugene V. Debs. • Socialism was considered far too drastic for most progressivism reformers.

II. Opponents of Reform Standard Oil, gobbling up the competition.

Opponents of Reform • Not all Americans supported reform • Protestant fundamentalists believed in personal salvation as opposed to worrying about society • Large corporate owners were angered over any intrusion into their business practices • People who saw labor unions as a threat also resisted progressive reforms

III. Reform Successes

Political Reforms • Goal: Put more power into the hands of the people. • Innovative changes in city government: city managers and commission model • The Direct Primary • Initiative, Referendum and Recall • The Secret Ballot • Direct Election of Senators and the Vote for Women

Labor & Social Reforms Goals: Increase women’s rights, ban alcohol manufacturing & consumption, help the poor. Child labor laws • Ten-hour work days • The “Brandeis brief” • Muller v. Oregon (1908) • Bunting v. Oregon (1917) • Prohibition initiatives • Anti-Saloon League • Volstead Act • Moral Purity campaigns • --Mann Act (1910)

Public Education • Goal: Increase availability of public education • As reformers worried with child labor protection they also became concerned with education • Widespread reforms happened between 1880 and 1920 including compulsory attendance, age-graded elementary schools, parent-teacher associations, and professional training for teachers • The South lagged far behind

Challenging Gender Issues • Even though most progressives were reform minded they held traditional views of sexuality and gender roles • Female reformers began pushing for rights to contraceptives, having the right to tell their husband they did not want to become pregnant, and having the right to say “no,” even within marriage.

Protecting us from rat feces, poison, & getting ripped off! • Created the Food and Drug Administration to oversee the manufacturing and packing of foods and drugs (medicines) in the US. • Established federal oversight of railroads. • Lowered the tariff (makes prices go down). • Established federal control of banking system. • Strengthened anti-trust laws (by enforcing them). • Passed legislation to improve working conditions at factories. • USDA established to monitor meat quality & teach good farming/husbandry practices.

John Muir & Conservation Movement • John Muir was a conservationist who feared we were losing our wilderness areas. • Sierra Club- • He worked tirelessly to have tracts of land declared national and state parks. • Found an ally in Teddy Roosevelt. • National Park system greatly expanded beginning in 1901.

Whites Only? W.E.B. De Bois- helped found NAACP. Believed blacks should actively fight for equal rights and fair treatment. Known for his association with Pan-Africanism, and his eventual immigration to Ghana.

NAACP • Association formed by W.E.B De Bois and others to promote racial equality and justice in America. • Concerned in the beginning with lynching, and with the (even more) abysmal working conditions of blacks. • Formed after a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908.

Springfield Race Riot • Formed after a race riot in Springfield, Illinois. Riots occurred when 2 black men were accused of attacking white women in separate incidents. A mob formed to lynch the men, but the sheriff refused to turn them over, so angry white men attacked and lynched 2 black men who happened to be nearby. Not satisfied with that, they then attacked and burned homes and businesses of blacks in Springfield. At the end of the day, 2 men had been lynched, 6 shot & killed, about 2,000 people were driven out of their homes, and hundreds of thousands in property damage had been wrought.

Oklahoma Race Riot • Worst race riot in US history occurred in Tulsa, OK, in 1921. • Why? White woman accused a black man of grabbing her arm in an elevator, sheriff wouldn’t turn him over to the mob… • Whites burned down Black Tulsa. Over 35 blocks burned to char, and somewhere between 35-300 people were killed.

IV Presidential Reformers Teddy Roosevelt 1901-1908 Trust-Buster Conservationist Reformer Woodrow Wilson 1912-1920 Democratic Reformer William Howard Taft 1909-1912 Real Trust-Buster

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1908) • Great drive, energy and exciting personality- • TR’s interests and early years- • National Parks & Teddy Bears: • NYC police commissioner- • Spanish-American War experience • “Rough Riders” • Political Rise from NY Governor to Vice-President • A crazed anarchist assassinated William McKinley in 1901. • Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency and changed the office forever. • Use of image/media- • Loose interpretation of constitution/increased power of executive- • Roosevelt Corollary- • Trust-Buster?- • “Bully Pulpit”- • Bull Moose Party-

Roosevelt’s Square Deal • Based on concept of New Nationalism- • Environmental Conservation • Consumer Protection • Hepburn Act (1906) • Federal Meat Inspection Act (1906) • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) • Corporate Control • Enforce Sherman Anti-Trust Act

William Howard Taft (1909-1912) • Roosevelt’s successor was William Howard Taft • Taft actually ended up breaking up more trusts than Roosevelt • Taft was not an adept politician or particularly charismatic, so he bumbled through his Presidency. When he changed a lot of Roosevelt’s policies, he made an enemy of Teddy, who then challenged him for the Presidency in 1912. Roosevelt split the Republican vote, allowing Woodrow Wilson (D) to win the Presidency.

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1920) • Wilson’s answer to the Square Deal=New Freedom • Attack the Triple Wall of Privilege-tariffs, banks, and trusts. • Goal to increase small businesses, farmers, and give (some) power to workers. • Wilson’s first act was to reduce the tariff and he did this with the Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act, drastically bringing down tariff rates. • Wilson reformed the currency system with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating the Federal Reserve System to regulate currency. • Wilson also oversaw the creation of the Federal Trade Commission to oversee business practices.

Wilson and the Expansion of Reform • Wilson brought reform to a logical end in a way that Roosevelt and Taft could not. • Wilson and Congress reached out to labor by directly helping several labor issues. • Wilson consolidated reformers by bringing some reformers into the government as judges.

Wilson & African-Americans • “(Wilson’s) stance on race is perhaps the single greatest defect of his moral vision of what the United States should be.” –John M. Mulder, Historian • Under Wilson, both the USPS and Navy became segregated. • Congress passed a law in his first term that made interracial marriage illegal in Washington DC. • All applicants for federal jobs had to submit a photo, presumably to eliminate African-American applicants. • Wilson was born and raised in Virginia. How would being raised in the South influence his opinions on race relations?

Chapter 20: The Progressive Era