1.Existing Reform
Movements
-continuation of prior
reforms
-Grange
• Farmers, railroads
-Populists
• Free silver and
regulated railroads
-Suffragists
• Women fighting for the
vote
-Temperance
• Fighting to end the use
of alcohol
Progressives wanted to allow the American
society to progress forward. One of the major
progressive movements was the crusade for
women’s suffrage.
2. Inequality
Inequality
-Wealth Gap existed
• Rich richer, poor poorer
-lack of social services
• People need services
• Political machines help
The wealth gap at the turn-of-thecentury was noticeable to everyone.
The Progressives wanted this wealth
gap to close, and they wanted to
make government more responsible
to its citizens by offering solutions to
urban problems.
2.Inequality
Inequality
-Needed Improvements
social welfare
• Improve living and working
conditions
moral improvement
• Improve behavior
economic reform
Although assembly lines sped up
production, the system required people
to work like machines. This caused
high worker turnover, often due to
injuries suffered by fatigued workers.
To keep automobile workers happy and
to prevent strikes, automobile maker
Henry Ford reduced the workday to
eight hours and paid workers $5 a day,
a good wage at the turn-of-thecentury. The Progressives want to use
this sort of efficiency in business and
government.
• Make businesses more
competitive
efficiency
• In business and
government
3.Discrimination
Booker T. Washington
-Founded Tuskegee Institute
• Taught skills in agricultural,
domestic, and mechanical work
-gradual improvement was goal
• Let white people see value and
achievement in blacks
“To those of the white race…I would repeat
what I say to my own race…Cast down your
bucket among these people who have,
without strikes and labor wars, tilled your
fields, cleared your forests, built your
railroads and cities, and brought forth
treasures from the bowels of the earth…In
all things that are purely social we can be as
separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand
in all things essential to mutual progress.”
~Booker T. Washington, Atlanta
-economic equality first
vocational training
• Acquire skills and prove value
-Atlanta Compromise
-Washington proposed that
races could cooperate on
certain economic issues while
being separate in social issues
3.Discrimination
W.E.B. DuBois
-Harvard educated
• First black man to receive a PhD
from Harvard
-demanded full equal rights now
-Niagara Falls Convention
• Encouraged blacks to seek a
liberal arts education to have
well-educated black leaders
-helped found the NAACP
Du Bois proposed that a group of educated
blacks, the most “talented tenth” of the
community, attempt to achieve immediate
inclusion into mainstream American life.
“We are Americans, not only by birth and by
citizenship,” Du Bois argued, “but by our
political ideals…And the greatest of those
ideals is that ALL MEN ARE CREATED
EQUAL.”
Booker T. Washington
•Former Slave
•Founded Tuskegee Institute
•Gradual Improvement
•Equality through Vocational Work
•“No race can prosper till it learns
that there is as much dignity in
tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
WEB DuBois
•Middle class family in
Mass.
•Graduated from Harvard
•Equality Now
•Equality through most
talented citizens
•“The honor, I assure
you, was Harvard’s.”
4.Socialism
Definition: Government
control of businesses and
property, equal
distribution of wealth
-fear of revolution
• More people becoming
socialist, rich fear
socialists will take over
-Henry George
-”Progress and Poverty”
-Single Tax Concept
-Edward Bellamy
-”Looking Backward”
-tale of ideal socialist
society
Edward Bellamy, author of socialist
literature “Looking Backward”
4.Socialism
• Overthrow of capitalism
-Eugene V. Debs
• Questioned uneven
balance among business,
government, and people
American Socialist Party
I.W.W. (Wobblies)
“Competition was natural enough at
one time, but do you think you are
competing today? Many of you think
you are competing. Against whom?
Against [oil magnate John D.]
Rockefeller? About as I would if I
had a wheelbarrow and competed
with the Santa Fe [railroad] from here
to Kansas City.”
~Eugene Debs, Socialist Candidate
• International Workers of
the World
• Organized unskilled
workers, promoted
socialism
5.Progressives
Emerge
-Mostly middle class
reformers
• Women
-wanted “progress” in society
-Social Gospel
-thought that people need to
help those less fortunate
• Settlement houses, churches,
social services
-religious groups
-Salvation Army
-opposite of Social
Darwinism
• Gov. responsible to help
those who are less fortunate
Hull House, begun by reformer
Jane Addams, was a beginning to
the Progressive Movement.
Progressives wanted to improve
life for American citizens. She did
so by beginning her settlement
house in Chicago, which helped
immigrants and the urban poor
get food, clothing, and education.
6.Muckrakers
-Investigative journalist who
exposed graft and
corruption in society
-Ida Tarbell
• Exposed Standard Oil
Trust’s corruption
-Upton Sinclair
• Exposed the meat-packing
industry
-Lincoln Steffins
• Exposed political machines
7.Reforms
A-Government
• End political corruption,
make government accountable
-commission government
• Hire experts to run gov’t
-manager government
• Trained in public
administration
-better control over public
interests
• Stop abusing taxpayers
utilities should be publicly
owned
• Keep costs low
“The term Progressive…suggests certain
ideas of government….Governments were
established among men to protect the
weak from the strong…A
Progressive…suggests governmental
action to prevent…further abuse.”
~ Progressive Writer
7.Reforms
B-Voting
• Increase people’s voting power
-Direct primaries
• Voters choose candidates for
elections instead of machines
-initiatives
In 2004, California governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger gained his office after
his predecessor, Gray Davis, was recalled
from his position by the California voters.
This special election process was begun
by Progressive reformers at the turn-ofthe-century to end corrupt governments
and make the government more
accountable to the people.
• Bill originated by the people
instead of lawmakers
-referendums
• People vote on initiative
-recall
• Remove public official from
office by voting him out
-direct election of Senators
• People choose Senators
7.Reforms
-Robert LaFollette
• “Fighting Bob”
• Reform governor of Wisconsin
who got big business out of
politics
“Fighting Bob” LaFollette was the
reform governor of Wisconsin, who
ended big business corruption and
cleaned up his state government. In
doing so, he set an example for other
states in reforming the government.
7.Reforms
C-Women’s Rights
-more states granting suffrage
• Western states allow women’s
vote
-organized protests to gain
voting rights
Susan B. Anthony
• Suffragette who was arrested
for attempting to vote
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Lucy Stone
-often treated unequally in the
economic world
• Paid less, treated worse
• No real union representation
“DO YOU KNOW one single sound, logical reason
why the intelligence and individuality of women
should not entitle them to the rights and privileges
of self-government?”
~Carrie Chatman Catt
7.Reforms
D-Consumer Reforms
-insurance regulations
• Protect citizens
-zoning laws
• Build certain things in certain
areas (cleaner cities)
-building codes
• Buildings must meet standards
“There would be meat
that had tumbled out on
the floor, in the dirt and
sawdust, where the
workers had spit
countless billions of
consumption
(tuberculosis) germs.”
~Upton Sinclair, The
Jungle
• Safer homes and workplaces
-FDA (Food and Drug Admin.)
Upton Sinclair
“The Jungle”
• Exposed meat-packing industry
7.Reforms
E-Labor Reforms
-Women’s working conditions
addressed
Oregon v. Muller
limited women’s working hours
• 10-hour workday for women
-Limits placed on child labor
• Banned child labor or set
maximum hours for child labor
“The life of men and women is so cheap
and property is so sacred. There are so
many of us for one job it matters little if
143 of us are burned to death.”
~Rose Schneiderman
7.Reforms
F-Other Reforms
-income tax established
• 16th Amendment
• Tax personal/corporate income
-regulation of trusts
• Sherman not strong enough
• Stronger legislation developed
-prohibition begins
-Carrie Nation
Women also led the movement for
temperance, to ban the use of alcohol, for
protection for themselves and their
children against drunken husbands.
-WCTU (Women’s Christian
Temperance Union)
-18th Amendment (banned
alcohol)
-Volstead Act