Mr. Ermer
U.S. History
Miami Beach Senior High
 Saw problems in industrial society, wanted to fix them
 Problem #1: Laissez-Faire Economics
 Progressives came from both political parties
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Middle class, educated, urban
Western farmers
African-Americas (NAACP)
Muckrakers: journalists who investigate social problems
 Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposes Meat Packing Industry
 Gov’t needs to fix problems, but gov’t also needs fixing
 Mistrust of political machines
 Direct election of Senators, Income Tax, Inclusion
 Progressives did not always agree on how to fix probs.
 Amendment XVI: Income Tax (1913)
 Amendment XVII: Direct election of Senators (1913)
 Amendment XVIII: Prohibition (1919)
 Repealed by Amendment XXI in 1933
 Amendment XIX: Women’s Suffrage (1920)
 Make gov’t more efficient, like businesses
 Reforms to city government
 City Commission or City Council with Managers
 Democratic Reforms:
 Direct Primaries
 Initiative
 Referendum
 Recall
 Woman Suffrage: giving women the right to vote
 When Congress passed the 14th and 15th Amendments,
women try to be included…Congress refuses.
 Two strategies emerge:
 National Woman Suffrage Assoc.: Constitutional Am.
 American Woman Suffrage Assoc.: State laws for voting
 1890: Both groups merge into NAWSA
 Women march, picket, and protest for suffrage
 1918-19: Congress passes suffrage amendment
 August 26, 1920: Nineteenth Amendment ratified
 Social Problems: crime, illiteracy, alcoholism, child
labor, health and safety
 Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) pushes strikes
 States pass laws restricting child labor and compulsory
public education
 Adult working conditions were also bad:
 Worker’s Compensation Funds
 Supreme Court gives gov’t right to limit working hours
for women, not for men
 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire, new labor laws passed
 Zoning laws and health codes
 Progressives notice many problems stem from alcohol
 Temperance movement: advocates ending alcohol
abuse/consumption/production
 1911: Women’s Christian Temperance Union has
250,000 members (Frances Willard)
 Prohibition: laws banning the manufacture,
transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages
 Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890: Break up big businesses to
allow for more competition
 Some just want businesses better regulated, not busted
 Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)-Railroads
 Eugene V. Debs: advocates socialism for businesses that
affect everyone
 Ran for president in 1912, won over a million votes
 Consumer Protections (FDA)
 Meat Inspection Act
 Pure Food & Drug Act
 Reduced protective tariff rates
 Federal Reserve Act
 The Square Deal
 Targets Railroads with Interstate Commerce Act (ICC)
 Regulation decreased by court decisions, weakens ICC
 Weak Hepburn Act not enough for Progressives, strengthens ICC
 Pure Food & Drug Act
 Conservation of Nature
 Adds large tracts of land to National Park System
 National Reclamation Act (Newlands Act)
 Construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals
 Hetch Hetchy Dam Controversy
 Pinchot vs. Muir—dam ultimately built, but conservation grows
 The troubled succession
 1908: wins election against Democrat William Jennings Bryan
 Economic policy
 Moves to lower protective tariffs
 Old Guard Republicans fight back with Payne-Aldrich Tariff
 1912: Children’s Bureau created to protect children
 Conservation
 Replaces Sec. of Interior Garfield with Richard Ballinger
 Ballinger-Pinchot dispute over coal lands in Alaska
 Taft loses support of Progressives and Roosevelt
 Roosevelt vs. Taft
 Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism”—aggressive gov’t regulation
 1912: Wilson (D), Taft (R), & Roosevelt (P) run for pres.
 Taft & TR split vote, Wilson elected by huge margins
 Wilson’s “New Freedoms”
 Aimed at destroying monopolies on power
 Federal Trade Commission Act
 Lower protective tariffs (Underwood-Simmons Tariff )
 Federal Reserve Act
 12 Regional Banks, owned by their member banks in regions
 Federal Reserve Board, headed by chairman to monitor/regulate
national economy
 Child Labor Laws
 Keating Owens Act places tax on child labor produced goods