Chapter 17
The Progressive Movement
World War I
The Great Depression
1
Question
1. Why did the Progressive
Movement begin?
2
Progressives
In the late 19th century,
cities were growing and
workplaces were changing.
Problems started to arise in
overcrowded cities and in
the various workplaces.
•The middle class objected
to paying taxes to corrupt
city governments, and…
•Desired better city services
The Progressive Movement
begins
Crowded city scene from the 1900s
3
Question
2. What were the goals of the
Progressive Movement?
3. Who helped the Progressives
locally & nationally?
4
Progressives
Wanted to
John D. Rockefeller was
America’s first billionaire and
was often accused of having a
monopoly in the oil business.
1.Reform corrupt government,
2.End the monopolies of Big
Business
3.Improve the conditions of the
industrial working class
4.Address the problems of both
immigrants and migrants
Started at the city & state level
with progressive mayors &
governors
Gained support at the national
level with the presidency of
5
Theodore Roosevelt
Question
4. What is a “muckraking”
journalist?
6
Progressives
Progressivism reached a large
audience through the work of
‘muckraking’ journalists.
Muckraking magazines like
McClure’s tried to “expose”
government corruption, even if
there wasn’t any.
•Sensationalized stories of the
corruption & evils of American
Society
They were able to form a
national political party under
the leadership of Roosevelt.
However, the Progressive
ideals were often in conflict
with the cultural values of
those whom they attempted to
reform.
7
“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair:
There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for
sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old
sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it
would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the
hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would
be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust,
where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of
consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in
rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and
thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these
storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these
piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats.
These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned
bread out for them, they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat
would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no
joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did
the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw
one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison
with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the
men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they
made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled
into the sausage.
8
http://college.cengage.com/history/us/resources/students/primary/meat.htm
Question
5. Why did the Progressives
support temperance &
prohibition?
Temperance- urging reduced use of alcohol
Prohibition-national ban on the sale, manufacture, and
transportation of alcohol
9
Progressives
Examples of this conflict are:
• Progressives supported
temperance & prohibition as a
way to improve morality
•people’s belief of what is right
and wrong
Child labor was a large problem in the
US. Many parents kept their children
out of school to work because they
needed the money.
•Conflicted with the cultures of
many of the immigrants groups
that they wanted to ‘help’ such as
the Italians, the Irish and the
Germans.
• Progressives also supported
limitations on child labor, but
working class families needed
their children to bring needed
income to the family.
10
Question
6. Why did some southerners
(like Tillman) consider taking
voting rights away from
African Americans a
Progressive Movement?
11
Progressives
South Carolinians were not
interested in promoting the rights
of African Americans or in solving
the problems of new immigrants,
since few came to the state.
For Southerners, such as Ben
Tillman, disfranchising the African
American was seen as a
progressive reform
Such an act removed from
politics a group viewed as
being inferior to whites and
not able to make intelligent
decisions.
Political cartoon from 1897 that
portrays African American
disfranchisement as a step back
towards slavery.
12
Question
7. What were the major issues of
the Progressives in South
Carolina?
13
Progressives
Poster
showing
how child
labor
hurts the
children
in the
long run.
The major issues of the
progressives in SC
included…
child labor, fair treatment
for workers, temperance,
women’s suffrage, and
improving education.
Like with the Populist
Movement, Progressive
South Carolinians did not
want to join the national
movement or party but
instead, worked within the
Democratic Party.
14
Question
8a. In SC, who supported child
labor reform?
8b. In SC, who opposed child
labor reform?
15
Progressives
Although the North was focused
on the cities & the South was
focused on the mill villages, both
regions supported reforms.
Like Northern muckraker
journalists, newspapers in South
Child
laborers in
textile mills
Carolina supported child labor
reform, as did women’s groups
of both races.
Mill owners were opposed
because child labor laws took
away a cheap source of labor.
16
Progressives
Progressives were able to pass
some child labor laws that, at
first, set the minimum age to
work at ten
Later it was raised to twelve.
Progressives were also
focused on issues of health
•diseases spread through mill
villages
Literacy
Child laborers working
on a textile machine.
•mill workers remained largely
illiterate
17
Question
9. What did the women of Trinity
Episcopal Church in
Columbia do to reform
hospitals in SC?
18
Progressives
Although, there was an
already existing in SC state
hospital for the mentally ill
that had been around since
the early 1800s, there was a
need for more hospital
reforms.
The women of Trinity
Episcopal Church in
Columbia established the
first tuberculosis treatment
center in the state on the
outskirts of Columbia.
1900s SC
hospital ward
and nurse
19
Question
10. How did women’s groups in
SC bring about reform?
20
Progressives
Nationally, many young educated
women took a leading role in
promoting social reform during the
progressive movement.
In South Carolina,
Women’s club from 1922
Women’s clubs who were part of
the SC Federation of Women’s
Clubs & their national federation
promoted prohibition
Encouraged civic responsibility
Helped create the state’s
education reforms, including a
mandatory attendance law and
increased funding
21
Question
11. What was the goal of
African American clubs
and institutions?
22
Progressives
Money was raised by women’s
leagues to build libraries in
places such as Darlington and
Newberry.
However, there were separate
facilities for African-American
and white citizens, which
reflected the social views of the
time.
African American women
formed clubs that promoted
better health and education in
their communities.
African American women’s club
from New York
23
Question
12. Why did SC push for a
Prohibition Law?
24
Progressives
The state, and nation, pushed for
a prohibition law (banning the
sale of alcohol)…
In order to help stop socially
unacceptable behaviors that
were caused by alcohol
Bottle from the SC Dispensary
In 1892, Governor Tillman created
the State Dispensary system
because he thought that total
prohibition would cause too
many problems.
The dispensary became a very
corrupt organization and was
used by good government
progressives to prove their point.25
Progressives
Prohibition
propaganda
posters
By the early 1900s, local
governments addressed the issue
and over 20 out of the 43 counties
in SC had passed prohibition laws
and were “dry” counties.
In 1915, the state passed a
prohibition law
In 1918 the 18th amendment
changed the United States
Constitution to outlaw the sale and
distribution of alcohol.
Many South Carolinians engaged in
making, distributing or drinking
illegal alcohol, as did people
throughout the United States.
26
Question
13. What effects did the
failure of prohibition have
on SC?
27
Progressives
Prohibition was a failure in SC, just
as it was in the rest of the country
It created a social phenomenon
It led to an increase in crime
and corruption as ‘bootleggers’
and ‘moonshiners’ violated the
law.
 Conservatives were outraged
by the moral decline and violation
of the law from the bootleggers.
Blue laws were strictly enforced
The Ku Klux Klan found a new target
in the immoral bootleggers and
immigrant groups who continued to
drink.
Moonshine stills
28
Progressives
African-American club women
and institutions such as the
Urban League and the National
Association for the Advanced of
Colored People (which included
such progressives as W.E.B.
DuBois and Ida B. Wells Barnett)
wanted to improve conditions
for African Americans.
However, other progressives
wanted to reform politics and
society by limiting the rights of
African Americans.
W.E.B.
Dubois
29
Ida Wells Barnett
Question
14. Women’s right to vote did
not bring about any
radical change in SC Why?
30
Progressives
Women’s
suffrage
activists
South Carolina’s Equal Rights Association
of women continued to pushed for
women’s suffrage, however, few women in
the state participated.
President Woodrow Wilson finally
recognized women’s contributions to the
war effort by supporting a suffrage
amendment to the Constitution.
SC legislature did not ratify the 19th
amendment until 1967, but women in SC
could vote because other states ratified the
law.
However, this did not bring about any
radical political change since women
tended to vote as their husbands did.
31
Question
15. What did each SC
governor do to support
the Progressive
Movement?
32
Progressives
Several state governors also played
a role in promoting reforms in
South Carolina.
Governor Robert Cooper 1919-1922
Supported raising taxes to
increase spending on public
education
Supported a law that increased
the amount of time students were to
spend in school to 7 months
South Carolina high school
graduation rates, especially African
American high schools, were
extremely low due to a limited
numbers of high schools provided
by the state.
Robert
Cooper
African American schoolhouse near
Aiken SC
33
Progressives
Governor Coleman Blease
Coleman Blease 1911-1915
Followed in the tradition of Ben
Tillman and used racist rhetoric to
become governor.
Efforts to establish law and order
and limit lynching were
undermined by Governor Blease.
He was a Progressive but
Protected the rights of the mill
workers (who resented people
telling them when to send their
children to school or that they
should get vaccinated against
disease) against the “do-gooder”
middle class progressives.
34
Progressives
Governor Richard Manning 1915-1919
A Progressive governor with a
Progressive General Assembly.
He helped to establish a fair tax
system that enforced income
taxes for all South Carolinians,
established schools, improved the
administration of hospitals, and
paved South Carolina’s roads.
The South Carolina Highway
Department was created in 1917 and
the government supported the
construction of new roads for
increased automobile traffic.
Governor Richard Manning
35
World War I
The sinking of the Lusitania
passenger ship in 1917
began the American
involvement in World War I
and was the force behind
many enlistments
Many South
Carolinians embraced
the idea that good
government could
improve the lives of
the state’s people.
World War I brought an
end to the progressive
movement but not an
end to the problems
the movement had
tried to address.
36
Question
16. What did both white &
black South Carolinians
do to support WW1?
37
World War I
When the US entered World
War I in 1917, there was a
revival of patriotism in South
Carolina.
Both white and African
American South Carolinians…
Signed up for the draft
Contributed to bond drives
Did their part to conserve
food and fuel for the front
Uncle Sam was first seen on a US
recruiting poster during World War I.
38
Question
17. Why did African
Americans join the
service during WW1?
39
World War I
Above: The
American
Expeditionary
Force’s officers
Right: Lt Charles
Hamilton
Many South Carolinians
served in the American
Expeditionary Force with
distinction.
African Americans
volunteered for service in
World War I to prove their
patriotism and make a
claim to equal treatment
under the law.
However, all wartime
activity remained
segregated.
40
World War I
National distrust of Germans
were reflected in local
decisions.
A German language
newspaper in Charleston was
shut down.
The German-named town of
Hamburg was changed to
North Augusta.
Although some South
Carolinians opposed the war,
their voices were silenced by
the sedition act.
WW I anti German propaganda
41
Question
18. How did SC benefit from
the creation of new
military bases in
Columbia, Spartanburg,
and Greenville?
42
World War I
Camp Jackson and
Major General
Charles J. Bailey,
Commanding
General, Camp
Jackson, 1917.
Economically, SC benefited
from the war.
New military bases were
constructed at Camp
Jackson in Columbia, and
in Spartanburg and
Greenville.
These bases led to jobs
and improved the local
economy
The Charleston Navy Yard
and the United States
Marine Corps base at
Parris Island grew to meet
the needs of wartime. 43
Question
19. Why did crop prices
increase during the war?
20. What were many South
Carolinians (especially
black) doing for work?
44
Social Changes
Crop prices increased as a
result of World War I.
Crops were needed to feed
the soldiers in Europe, which
caused South Carolina’s
farmers to gain more money.
Even though the farm economy
improved, many South
Carolinians, especially African
Americans, found jobs in
industries of the North.
Between 1900 & 1910, over
200,000 African Americans
migrated from the South to the
North.
Map of states’ emigration.
Blue states lost the most
people, pink states gained
the most people.
45
Question
21. What did African
American South
Carolinians who served in
the war experience?
46
Social Changes
Segregated water fountains were
allowed if they were “separate but
equal.”
African American emigration
(moving to a different place within a
country) continued as many were
moving to industrial jobs in the
North.
African American emigrants
found a degree of independence,
community, and economic
opportunity that allowed their
culture to flourish.
However…
African-American South
Carolinians who had served their
country in the ‘war to make the
world safe for democracy’
returned to a racist South
Carolina.
47
Question
22. What happened in
Charleston in 1919
following a meeting held
by African Americans to
protest the Jim Crow
Laws?
48
Social Changes
In early 1919, a convention of
African Americans met in
Charleston to protest against Jim
Crow and restrictions on voting,
and to ask for improvements in
schools.
Later in the year, a race riot in
Charleston, sparked by a white
attack on African American
citizens, claimed the lives of 3
African Americans.
Similar riots occurred in other
parts of the country. Throughout
the South many African
Americans, some still in their army
uniforms, were lynched in the year
after the war ended.
Tuskegee University documented the
amount of lynchings that took place
from 1882-1968.
49
50
Question
23. What were the effects of
the technological changes
of the 1920s?
51
Technology changes
Trolley from 1910 Delaware
Some social change came as
the result of improvements in
urban life because of new
technologies.
However, there was little
change for the rural farmer.
Water and sanitation systems
were built in towns and cities of
South Carolina.
Because of trolley systems
and the automobile, some
people moved to suburbs on
the outskirts of cities such as
Columbia.
52
Technology changes
Electricity became more
available to people in towns
and cities as the result
using dams along SC rivers
to create electricity
This included the dam that
formed Lake Murray.
Daily life improved as a
result of greater availability
of electricity and the new
appliances that used it
Such as vacuum cleaners
and washing machines
1920s washing
machine &
vacuum
53
Technology changes
1930s radios
Just like the rest of the
country, South Carolinians
started making big
purchases by using
installment plans (paying a
little bit at a time).
Large items were luxuries
and few could afford them.
In 1930, the first radio
station in SC went on the
air in Charleston and
provided entertainment
and news to those who
had radios.
54
Question
24. Why did the flapper
movement arise?
25. What was society in SC
like during this time?
55
Technology changes
The flapper movement
arose to protest the
traditional roles of women.
Although, appliances eased
the workload of
housewives, few SC women
joined the ranks of the
flappers.
South Carolina society
continued to be stratified
(having different social
levels), sexist, and
segregated.
Flapper fashions
56
Economic Changes
1920s advertisements
World War I had a positive
impact on South Carolina’s
economy.
The farmers now had more
money, which meant they
could now buy things they
wanted, not just what they
needed.
Bankers, merchants,
landowners, sharecroppers
and tenant farmers shared
in the good times and went
on a spending spree.
57
Question
26. Why did farmers’ crop
prices fall again after the
war?
58
Economic Changes
After the war, farmers
again faced economic
problems.
The increased demand
for their products during
the war stopped as soon
as the war was over
Causing cotton and
tobacco prices to fall as a
result of overproduction
and the loss of overseas
markets
Tobacco farms in
the South
59
Question
27. Why did Northern
capitalists invest in SC
industry?
28. Why did the textile mill
industry in SC grow?
60
Economic
Changes
Textile
mills
Northern capitalists
(business men who want to
make money) were attracted
by wartime profits and
started investing more in
South Carolina industries.
Cheap labor, provided by
the white workers who left
the farm for the factory
caused the textile industry
in South Carolina to
continue to grow
throughout the 1920s.
61
Question
29. How did mill owners try
to make more profits? $$
62
Economic Changes
Although mill villages were
starting to get electricity and
running water, the work
conditions didn’t improve.
Mill owners tried to make
more profits by using the
‘speed-up’ (where machines
were set to run faster), and
the ‘stretch-out’ (where
fewer workers were used to
tend a larger number of
machines).
63
Question
30. How was the textile
industry like agriculture
by the end of the 1920s?
64
Economic Changes
Textile Strikes
Workers were
periodically laid off
when demand
decreased.
These changes in the
workplace led to some
worker unrest but no
significant protest.
By the end of the
1920s, the textile
industry, like
agriculture, suffered
from overproduction.
65
Economic Changes
Reducing the work week
created less pay, which had
a ripple effect on the
economy of SC.
People could not pay their
debts which made banks
fail.
By the time the stock
market crash of 1929 began
the Great Depression,
South Carolina had already
had financial problems for
awhile.
Business Cycle
66
Question
31. What was the cotton
industry like by the end of
the 1920s?
67
Boll Weevil
Boll Weevils
Agriculture in SC was
already suffering from
overproduction and the
loss of foreign markets
when the boll weevil
attacked the cotton
crop.
By the end of the 1920s,
cotton suffered the
same fate as rice and
was no longer a
productive cash crop in
the Low Country.
68
Question
32. Why did people emigrate
from rural areas to cities
in the North & Midwest
during the late 1920s?
69
Emigration
Since cotton was gone,
farmers turned to other crops
such as peaches and
livestock.
Drought, erosion and soil
depletion worsened the
already bad farming
conditions in SC.
Because they weren’t making
money on the farm, the
number of people leaving the
state to live in the North and
Midwest continued to be high.
A drought. Very dry.
70
Question
33. How did mass media
effect SC?
71
Mass Media
A popular dance from the 1920’s
started in and was named after
Charleston, SC. America’s best
dance crew.
Mass media changed the way
that SC saw and interacted with
the rest of the country.
South Carolinians listened to
their radios and went to the
movies, which exposed them to
culture from other parts of the
nation.
They learned about flappers
and the latest music and dance
crazes
Causing SC to be more like
the rest of the nation
72
Question
34. What did South
Carolinians do in an
attempt to boost tourism?
73
Tourism develops
To help boost their
economy, South Carolinians
attempted to boost tourism
by opening hotels in
Charleston and promoting
developments along the
coast.
The increased number of
automobiles made travel
possible and visitors from
the North were attracted to
the climate and culture of the
Old South, which was like
stepping into the past.
Myrtle Beach was developed
as a tourist retreat.
74
Question
35. What was the Poetry
Society of SC’s response
to criticisms of SC being a
cultural wasteland?
75
Southern Literary Renaissance
DuBose Heyward
Julia Peterkin
Responding to criticisms of
South Carolina as a cultural
wasteland, the Southern
Literary Renaissance furthered
the celebration of South
Carolina’s heritage.
The Poetry Society of South
Carolina led this literary revival
Contributors included Julia
Peterkin (who won a Pulitzer
Prize for Literature), and
DuBose Heyward (who wrote
Porgy, which later became the
opera Porgy and Bess).
76
Question
36. What effect did Birth of a
Nation have throughout
the country?
77
KKK
In 1915, the movie The Birth
of a Nation…
Depicted the origins of the
Klan positively as
•The Redeemers of the
Reconstruction era &
•The saviors of white
womanhood
The movie aroused racist
feelings against African
Americans throughout the
country.
As a result, there was a KKK
revival in the 1920’s.
78
Question
37. How did the KKK
promote membership and
gain political power in the
1920s?
79
KKK
Duluth Minnesota suffered from
racist mobs attacks
The business climate of the
1920s also contributed to
the Klan’s resurgence
They used advertising
and business organizations
to promote membership and
gain political power.
In the 1920s, the Klan was a
national organization with a
strong following in the small
towns and cities of the
Midwest as well as in the
South.
80
Question
38. Who did the Klansmen
target and how?
81
KKK
Bootleggers and gamblers with cross
burnings, public beatings and lynching.
African American communities
were burned in Tulsa,
Oklahoma
82