Unit 8
LIFE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY (1900s)
I. TECHNOLOGY
 4 of 10 Americans made a city their home.
 The era of skyscrapers. They solve the
problem of limited space. Reasons why
they begin:
 Steel skeletons
 Elevator
 Electricity transforms transportation
(railcars, trolleys, subways).
 Steel cable suspension bridges (Brooklyn
Bridge)
 Cities invest in large scale parks. Long
term city planning that assists in future
expansion while trying to keep the city
from too overcrowded.
 By 1890, 90% of Americans could read.
Newspapers (1 penny), books, magazines =
Print media
 Wright Brothers, 12-17-1903, Kitty Hawk,
NC goes 120 feet for 12 seconds. In 2 years
we could fly 24 miles.
 Photography is a pain because of the
weight. George Eastman develops a roll of
film in a film camera called the Kodak
II. Expanding Public Education
 Early free schools have math, reading,
writing, only
 1865-1895 – 12-16 weeks of school for kids
between the ages of 8-14 years old
 These schools are fully segregated (white
kids go to white schools while black kids go
to black schools)
 By 1900 about ½ million kids attended high
school with a full variety of courses
 Only 3% of African Americans went to high
school
 Immigrants encouraged their children to
go to school and learn because it helped
become “American.” Immigrants attend
night school
 By 1900 2.5% attended college.
o Businesses will sponsor (pay) research
department in colleges.
o Colleges will develop professional
colleges: medical/law
o As college enrollment on the rise,
colleges begin to develop
requirements.
o Freedmen’s Bureau will help blacks go
to college. Only 3,880 attend in 1900
 Booker T. Washington – believes
that racism would end once blacks
showed society how they could
learn and help the country’s
economy
 W.E.B. Dubois – disagreed with
Booker T. Washington. Since only
1/10 of black would be properly
educated, it would make the other
9/10 feel left behind. Dubois wants
immediate inclusion into all society
for all people.
III. Fighting Discrimination
 Blacks are free, but still face hostility,
especially the south
 Even by the 1900s the south is STILL trying
to keep blacks from voting (literacy test,
pass exam, poll tax, grandfather clause)
 Southern states keep blacks segregated
with the JIM CROW LAWS. All hospitals,
schools, parks, transportation must be
segregated (whites and blacks must be
separate)
 Segregation is challenged in the Supreme
Court in 1896. Plessy vs. Ferguson case
states that “separate is equal.”
Segregation is legal and will be until 1954.
 If African Americans don’t follow “the
rules” they could see violent reactions.
Lynching. 1882-1892 – 1400 blacks are
shot, burned, or hanged. Even more
beatings.
 Blacks had to live in segregated
communities/neighborhoods (N and S).
Black people could not join unions and
were only hired as a last resort. Job
competition could turn violent against
black people.
 In the west – Chinese and Mexicans will
face similar discrimination (especially
Chinese).
IV: Leisure
 Cities begin building picnic grounds and
amusement parks. Bike trails, tennis
courts, snacks (Hersheys and Coca-Cola),
and spectator sports (baseball and boxing),
swimming pools, board games
V: Mass Culture
 Newspapers discover the power of the
HEADLINE. It attracts attention thus
attracts their money. Headlines lure
readers. Journalists will be known as
muckrackers or yellow journalists because
they write about stories that humans want
to read about. Stories of murder, crime,
dating, sensation, sports, sin. The two top
newspaper owner who thrive on
muckraking are:
 William Randolph Hearst
 Joseph Pulitzer
 Newspapers also use comics and art and
pictures to sell newspapers
 Art galleries emerge in cities.
 Fiction: Dime novels – tales of the wild
west
 Fiction: great stories – Mark Twain
 Cities attract merchants to sell their
products. – the beginning of the shopping
center. SHOPPING!!!!!
 The rise of Women’s Stores
 The rise of chain stores (Woolworths)
 Advertising – use appealing images to sell
their product
 Catalogs – SEARS / JC PENNY
VI: PROGRESSIVISM
4 areas of concern amongst the middle class
1. protect social welfare – help the poor
through community centers (YMCA), churches,
and social services. Florence Kelly – advocate
for women/kids. She becomes a factory
inspector and quickly outlaws child labor.
2. promote moral improvement –
prohibition begins (outlaw alcohol). The
Women’s Christian Temperance Union
(WCTU)(250,000). Works with immigrants and
victims of alcohol abuse
3. creating economic reform – with rise of
corporations (Carnegie/Rockefeller) people
begin to question the current economic
system because so few are so rich while so
many are so poor. For the first time in
American history socialism is debated (Eugene
Debs). People don’t like how big business gets
special treatment because it limits
competition in businesses. Muckraker
journalists write about business corruption
which gets people stirred up.
4. Fostering Efficiency – using hard data to
analyze production and alter to make it better.
Scientific Management.
 Natural disasters in USA in early 1900s’
(Galveston, Dayton, Virginia). These
tragedies cause small towns to form
governments to increase the way they can
help their community.
 Many progressive governors emerge who
try to reduce business’s influence on
government. (WISC – Robert M. LaFollette
– “I don’t want to destroy corporations,
but I want them out of politics and treat
them the same as small businesses.”
 New election procedures are given to
Americans to make elections appear “more
in the hands of the people.”
 Recall – a way to get elected
officials fired
 Referendums – petition for a law to
appear on a ballot (wet/dry vote)
 Secret ballot – privacy
 Old Way – US Senators elected by state
legislatures (E.G. Kentucky Assembly elects
Mitch McConnell)
 17th Amendment (1913) – Senators are
directly elected by the people. It’s
supposed to end big business influence on
their elections
 Poor women HAD to work. Two choice
FARMING or INDUSTRY. In the city labor
unions (full of men) don’t want women
around because they work for cheaper
wages (1/2). Many women work in the
textile (clothes making) industry and
education (teachers). DOMESTIC WORK
(maids, cleaners, nannies, cooks, etc). In
the 1900’s the # of women workers is
growing.
 Some women find their way colleges (girls
only colleges)
 Women’s groups target both housing
reform and workplace reform
 Women’s Suffrage Movement (the right
for women to vote) – led by Susan B.
Anthony. She is very mad that blacks can
vote and women can’t. Her and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton (NWSA) work constantly for
votes for women. They have 3 strategies
 1. Convince state legislatures
 2. Work the courts/challenge the
14 the Amendment (protects all
citizen’s rights. Aren’t women
citizens?)
 3. Make a new Constitutional
Amendment
 Upton Sinclair’s - The Jungle is published –
Brings the attention of the horrors of the
Chicago meatpacking industry. More cries
for reform (safety)
VII. Theodore Roosevelt – Rough Rider
 Remarkable willpower, marksman,
horseback rider, hunter, boxer, wrestler
(Harvard), writer (44 books). Emerges in
NY politics and becomes assistant
Secretary of the Navy.
 USA has interest in Spanish owned Cuba.
Attempts to buy. Spain says no. We aid
Cubans to revolt against Spain. American
newspapers (HEARST, PULITZER with
yellow journalism) create stories of the
poor poor Cubans. The USS Maine
(American battleship) is docked in Havana,
Cuba. The Maine explodes killing 260
Americans. Newspapers proclaim the
Spanish blew it up. American public is
outraged. US Army invades Cuba to fight
the Spanish (The Spanish American
War)(15 weeks)(1898).
 Teddy Roosevelt resigns and volunteers to
fight in Cuba. He leads a regiment of
soldiers called the Rough Riders. Battle of
San Juan Hill – Roosevelt leads the Rough
Riders and drives the Spanish away.
Roosevelt is now VERY famous. Spain will
surrender. He becomes William
McKinley’s Vice-President. McKinley is
assassinated and Roosevelt becomes
president (42 years old). Very popular
 Teddy believes that the federal
government should step in and fix any
problems that the states don’t fix. Teddy
believes that the President can do
anything he wants to help the people
unless the Constitutions prohibits it
 Roosevelt’s Square Deal – it is a series of
Progressive programs passed in his
presidency
 Big business/trusts control about 4/5 of all
American business. There is no
competition. Teddy gains the reputation
as a trust-buster (trying to control big
business). Teddy files 44 lawsuits (under
Sherman Anti-Trust Act) against trusts/bb.
Wins occasionally.
 1902 Coal Strike (coal workers strike) but it
causes US coal reserves to dwindle. Teddy
steps to mediate the disagreement
between coal workers and owners.
PRECEDENT – The president can order a 3rd
party to mediate labor disputes if the
dispute affects the general welfare
 Teddy goes after the railroads – He
outlaws some of their underhanded greedy
tactics (special rates, rate changes, free
passes to VIP)
 Teddy reads the Jungle – he passes the
Meat Inspection Act. He passes the Food
and Drug Act (makes people put labels on
their products)
 Teddy does work closely with experts on
all matters of government.
 Teddy establishes American conservation –
it is an act to protect USA’s natural
resources and lands (coal, timber, garbage,
waste, grazing). Roosevelt sets aside
hundreds of millions of acres of land,
water, and natural resources (National
Park System). People can build canals, and
dams.
 After serving for 7 years, he does NOT run
for re-election in 1908. He chooses
William H. Taft as his successor in the
Republican.
 Taft vs. William Jennings Bryan (3rd). Taft
easily wins.
 Taft never is as popular as Roosevelt. But
Taft is more of a trustbuster than Teddy
(90 bb/trusts). Taft fires Roosevelt’s
conservation expert Pinchot. Taft allows
his secretary of the interior (the guy who is
in charge of our national parks/resources)
to allow 1 million acres to be “developed”
(mined, railroaded, logged, etc).
 Taft’s policies lead to a split in the
Republican Party in the next presidential
election
 Roosevelt runs for President in 1912 under
his Bull Moose Party (Progressive Party).
Roosevelt gives speeches promising
women’s suffrage, minimum wage, and an
8 hour workday. He gives speeches
promising a NEW NATIONALISM (federal
government would exert its authority in
important matters)
 1912: Taft vs. Roosevelt vs. Woodrow
Wilson.
 WW – is also a progressive, promise lower
tariffs (lower prices), anti-trust.
 Woodrow Wilson wins the presidency in
1912 (435)