AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Origins of Progressivism
Middle class reformers
addressed social problems
 Issues: Working conditions,
rights for women and
children, economic, political,
environmental and social
reform

Progressive Ideology
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Accepted industrial capitalism
Faith in progress; optimism
Belief in use of govt. to reform
society
Use of Evangelical
Protestantism
Faith in New Ideas and
Science
 Power of experts
Four Goals of Progressivism
Protect Social Welfare
2. Promote Moral Improvement
3. Create Economic Reform
4. Foster Efficiency
1.
1. Protect Social Welfare
Industrialization largely unregulated
 Employers felt little responsibility
toward workers
 Settlement homes & churches serve
community
 YMCA, YWCA & Salvation Army take
service roles

2. Promote Moral Development
Social problems caused by
personal behavior
 Proposed prohibition
 Clash of science & religion

3. Create Economic Reform
Americans question the
capitalist economic system
 Workers embrace socialism
 Eugene Debs organized the
American Socialist Party in
1901

Debs encouraged workers
to reject American
Capitalism
4. Fostering Efficiency
Political leaders start
government & electoral reforms
to improve efficiency
 Industrial leader Frederick Taylor
using time & motion studies to
improve factory efficiency
 Taylorism became an Industry
fad – factories complete tasks
quickly

Social
Welfare
Women Lead Reforms
Leading progressive
reformers were women
 Women reformers improve
conditions at work & home
 Many women graduated
from new women’s
colleges

Colleges like Vassar and Smith
allowed women to excel
Social
Welfare
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Women in the Workforce
Women w/o education did
domestic work
70% of women servants in 1870
Opportunities for women
increased in the cities
1900: 1 out of 5 women worked
Garment trade, office work,
department stores and
classrooms had women
Social
Welfare
Strategy for Suffrage
Suffragists tried three
approaches for suffrage:
1. State legislatures to adopt vote
(Succeeded in Wyoming, Utah,
Idaho, Colorado)
2. Challenge the 14th Amendment
3. Push for Constitutional
Amendment

Social
Welfare
Women Win Suffrage
Native-born, educated,
middle-class women grew
more and more impatient
 Local, state and national
organizations, protests
and World War I, women
finally get the vote in 1920

The 19th Amendment gave women
the right to vote in 1920
Social
Welfare
NAACP & Civil Rights
1909: National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People founded
 Goal: full equality among the
races
 Means: legal action

1964 Application
Social
Welfare
New Roles for Women
Early 20th Century teachers
Many are now nurses, teachers, librarians, &
secretaries
Women still earned less than men & kept out of
many traditional male jobs

Social
Welfare

The Flapper
New female ideal for some
women: the Flapper
 Flapper: an emancipated young
woman who embraced the new
fashions and urban attitudes
Social
Welfare
The Changing Family

Margaret Sanger and other founders of
the American Birth Control League - 1921
Birthrates decline for
years before the 1920s
 Birth control information
widely available
 1921: Birth control clinics
opened & American Birth
Control League founded
Social
Welfare
Modern Family
Marriage based on
romantic love
Women manage household
and finances
Children developing who
need nurturing and education

Moral
Development
Support for Prohibition

Belief that alcohol led to
crime, child & wife abuse,
and accidents
 Supporters from the
rural south and west
 Church affiliated AntiSaloon League &
Women’s Christian
Temperance Union push
for the 18th Amendment
Moral
Development
 Americans
Speakeasies &
Bootleggers
did not believe
drinking was a sin
 Immigrants not willing to give up
drinking
 Drinkers went to hidden saloons
- speakeasies
 People bought liquor from
bootleggers
Moral
Development
Organized Crime

Prohibition contributed to
the growth of organized crime
 Al Capone – famous
bootlegger
 Capone controls Chicago
liquor business by killing his
competition
Al Capone was finally convicted
on tax evasion charges in 1931
Moral
Development
Government Control
Government doesn’t budget
money to enforce law
 Enforcing Prohibition fell to
1,500 poorly paid federal agents
--- clearly an impossible task

Federal agents pour
wine down a sewer
Moral
Development

Prohibition Repealed
Mid-20s 19% of Americans
supported Prohibition
 Many felt Prohibition caused
more problems than it solved
 1933: 21st Amendment
repeals Prohibition
Moral
Development
Science & Religion Clash

Battle b/w fundamentalist
religious groups & secular thinkers
 Fundamentalists found literal
truth in the bible
Moral
Development
Scopes Trial

1925, Tennessee passes a
law making criminalizing
evolution in schools
ACLU promises to defend
any teacher who challenges
the law: John Scopes
Scopes was a biology teacher who dared
to teach his students that man derived
from lower species
Moral
Development
Scopes Trial
Darrow
ACLU
hires Clarence
Darrow, most famous trial
lawyer of the era, for Scopes
 Prosecution hires William
Jennings Bryan, the 3-time
presidential nominee
Bryan
Moral
Development
Scopes Trial
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Opens on July 10,1925
Darrow calls Bryan as a Bible expert: Should the
bible be interpreted literally?
 Bryan admits the Bible can be interpreted in
different ways
 Scopes still was found guilty and fined $100
Bryan
Darrow
Economic
Efficiency
Criticizing Big Business
“Muckrakers” exposed
corruption in business
 Ida Tarbell exposed
Standard Oil Company’s
cut-throat methods of
eliminating competition
 Michael Moore?

Ida
Tarbell
Some view
Michael
Moore as a
modern
muckraker
Economic
Efficiency
“The Jungle” Leads to Reforms
1906: Roosevelt pushed for
the Meat Inspection Act after
reading The Jungle by Upton
Sinclair
 The Act mandates clean
meatpacking plants
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Economic
Efficiency
Protecting Working Children
As the number of child
workers rose, reformers
worked to end child labor
 Children more accident
prone
 Nearly every state banned
child labor by 1918
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Economic
Efficiency
Limiting Working Hours
Supreme Court enacted or
strengthened laws reducing
worker hours
 Progressives also won
worker’s compensation
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Economic
Efficiency
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Political
Efficiency
Cleaning Up Government
Desire to make government
more efficient & responsive
to citizens
 Some believe it also was
meant to limit immigrants
influence in local
governments
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Political
Efficiency
 Tom
Reform Mayors
L. Johnson, Cleveland, OH
 Expanded social services and brought about
public ownership of the waterworks, gas and
electric utilities, and public transportation
 Samuel
“Golden Rule” Jones, Toledo, OH
 Provided free social services and reformed the
police department
 Hazen
S. Pingree, Detroit, MI
 Expanded public welfare programs, initiated
public works programs for the unemployed, and
fought privately owned utility monopolies.
Political
Efficiency
Election Reforms
Won secret ballots,
referendum votes, and
the recall
 Could petition and get
initiatives on the ballot

Political
Efficiency
Election Reforms
Each state assembly chose
U.S. senators
 Force senators to be more
responsive to the public
popular election of senators
was pushed
 1913: 17th Amendment
ratified for direct election of
Senators
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Progressive Presidents & Laws
Roosevelt establishes himself
as a modern president
 Wilson enacts his “New
Freedom”
 Planned to attack privilege:
trusts, tariffs, and high finance
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1902 Coal Strike
PA coal miners strike for
increased wages, a 9-hour work
day, and the right to unionize
 Management refuse to bargain
 Roosevelt settled the dispute
 Precedent: when strikes
threaten public welfare federal
government expected to step in
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Pure Food & Drug Act
1906: passage of the
Pure Food and Drug Act
 Act halts sale of
contaminated foods and
medicines and called for
truth in labeling
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The Pure Food and Drug Act took
medicines with cocaine and other
harmful ingredients off the
market
Clayton Antitrust Act
1914: passage of the Clayton
Antitrust Act strengthens the
Sherman Act
 Clayton Act prevents
companies from buying stock
from other companies antimonopoly
 Act supported unions
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Federal Trade Commission
1914: FTC serves as
“watchdog” agency –
end unfair business
practices
 The FTC protects
consumers from
business fraud
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Today the FTC has been working on
protecting consumers from ID theft
Federal Income Tax

1913: 16th Amendment ratified
legalizing a graduated federal
income tax
Progressive Movement Wanes
Progressive movement peaks by 1917
 Success of the movement led to its decline
 Advent of World War I also hurt
progressive activism
 Progressives themselves weary of their
reform zeal; as did the nation
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