The Progressive Era
Progressivism is an umbrella for a wide range of economic, political and social reforms.
These included efforts to outlaw the sale of alcohol; regulate child labor and sweatshops;
scientifically manage natural resources; Americanize immigrants and bust or regulate trusts.
Drawing support from the urban, college-educated middle class, Progressive reformers
sought to eliminate corruption in government, regulate business practices, address health
hazards, improve working conditions, and give the public more direct control over
government through direct primaries to nominate candidates for public office, direct election
of Senators, the initiative, referendum, and recall, and women's suffrage.
Tenement living
Poor working conditions
Big Business Trusts
Political corruption
Political Inequality
But most progressives believed that government should get more involved in solving
these conditions and that people should have a greater voice in government
Hell’s Kitchen
NYC 1890s
Andrew Carnegie
mansion on the corner
of 91st Street and 5th
Avenue in NYC
1890
How can this be changed?
North Adams
Slaughterhouses
Lowell
Miner Boys
Muckrakers
Crusading investigative reporters and photo journalists who dug up the dirt on social
conditions and corruption. This term was coined by Teddy Roosevelt
Sinclair
Riis
Tarbell
History of
Standard Oil
John Spargo
Lewis Hine
Hines
Jane Addams
Hull House
Mother Jones
Suffragettes
Alice Paul
Government Reform and Conservation
La Follette
Jacob Riis
Born in Ribe, Denmark, he immigrated to
the US to start a new life. Hired as a
reporter at the New York Tribune, he
exposed the hardships of immigrants
living in the tenements of New York.
His famous work, How the Other Half
Lives, addressed these conditions. Up to
12 people lived in a room barely1 3’ by
13’. Rodents and disease spread
throughout cramped areas with little
ventilation and light, many without indoor
plumbing. As a result of these conditions
the death rate for children under 5 years
of age sky-rocketed, Just on Mulberry
and Baxter streets, children under 5
recorded a rate of 139.83% as compared
to those over 5 with a 15% death rate.
His book resulted in the tenement laws of
1879, 1901, and 1905
Upton Sinclair
Born in Baltimore Maryland, Sinclair quickly
saw the difference between social classes as
he moved from the home of an alcoholic father
to his wealthy grandparents. This experience
committed this reformer to socialism [a political
and economic theory that suggests the means
of producing and distributing a good be
controlled by the state to end the gap between
rich and poor. In Marxian socialism, the
overthrow of the capitalists is required to
achieve this means].
His most famous work was The Jungle that
exposed working conditions in the meatpacking
plants of Chicago. Many slaughtered animals
were diseased and conditions in the factories
led to rat and human pieces, as well as saw
dust and ropes, being added to meat.
The result of his work was the Meat Inspection
Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.
The Jungle
John Spargo
Born in a small town in Wales, his father labored as a
stonecutter as did he. Spargo was intrigued with the
socialist teachings of Henry Hyndman, an English
Marxist and joined the Social Democratic Federations.
Coming to America in 1901, he joined the Socialist
Party and founded the American Alliance for Labor and
Democracy.
His interest in socialist reform led him to disclose the
conditions of child labor, especially those of small boys
in mines. The Bitter Cry of Children exposed
deformities of trappers who sat in a bent position all day
lifting heavy stones from the mines. Several times,
while in factories, he heard screams from children who
were smothered by unattended machinery.
In 1903 he discovered that 30,000 children less than 14
years old were employed in textile mills and 20,000
under the age of 12. That number rose to 2 million five
years later.
His book led to the Keating Owens Bill that banned the
sale of products from any factory or shop that employed
children under the age of 14 and from any mine that
worked children under 16 for more than 8 hours a day
Lewis Hine
Born in Wisconsin, he was only 16 when his
father passed and he had to start work. He
moved to Chicago to study and met Frank
Mann who recommended him for a teaching
position in the Ethical Cultural School of New
York. Here he purchased a camera and
captured photographs of immigrants at Ellis
Island
Child Labour in
the Carolinas
Day Laborers
before Their
Time
In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee
employed Hine to document child labor
abuses in American factories. His books
included Child Labour in the Carolinas and
Day Laborers before Their Time. He found
children as young as six working in factories
for 12 hour days. Dust and cotton fibers in
the air were factors for the high incidences of
tuberculosis, bronchitis and asthma. In 1900
26.1% of the male labor force were boys and
6.4% were girls. Those statistics dropped by
1930.
His works are also responsible for the
Keating Owen Bill.
Ida Tarbell
The History of
Standard Oil
Raised in Pennsylvania, her father, Frank Tarbell
owned and operated an oil company. Eventually, his
company was destroyed when Standard Oil and John
D. Rockefeller came to town. His control of the
Cleveland banks to purchase other companies and the
manipulation of the railroads with kickbacks and
rebates were tactics used during the Cleveland
Massacre to drive companies similar to Tarbell’s out of
business. Rockefeller eventually controlled over 90% of
the nation’s oil. His Standard Trust put 2,950 shares
into the hands of nine trustees and Rockefeller also
devalued his company at $70,000,000 instead of its
true value of $200,000,000 to further cheat investors
out of profit-sharing.
These unfair business practices were exposed in Ida
Tarbell’s book, The History of the Standard Oil
Company. Originally written as a series of articles
published in McClure’s magazine, the book was
published and played a vital role in the dissolution of
Standard Oil under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
President Roosevelt also established the Bureau of
Corporations and the Department of Commerce to
further insure fair business procedures.
Jane Addams
Hull House
Born in Chicago, Jane lost her mother at the age of 3 and
was raised by her father who died suddenly after she
graduated from Rockville Seminary. To recuperate, she
and a friend, Ellen Starr traveled to England where they
saw first-hand the effects of industrialization on the
workers. But they also saw Toynbee Hall, a settlement
house. Upon her return, Jane founded Hull House which
eventually amounted to 13 buildings. Chicago was a
good place for this home for immigrants because 3 of
every four persons were immigrants and most lived in
Ward Nineteen, known for its unsanitary conditions
Due to the Immigrants Protective
League and the collection of garbage,
Ward Nineteen’s death rate dropped
from third highest to seventh.
Hull House featured the first public
playground, gym, kindergarten, art
gallery and classes to teach
immigrants English.
For this accomplishment, she was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Addams was also a peace pacifist and
an advocate for women’s rights
Alice Paul
Born into a Quaker family, Paul believed in equal
rights for all. She received an impeccable education
from Swarthmore and the University of
Pennsylvania but it was during her travels to
England that she encountered the Pankhursts,
aggressive suffragettes. They were arrested many
times and sent to jail where Alice went on a hunger
strike and was force-fed with a tube.
Upon her return to the US, Paul joined the National
American Women’s Suffrage Association to get the
right to vote with Pankhurst-like tactics. Here too
she was jailed for her protests. Her goal was
realized in 1920 when the country adopted the 19th
Amendment that granted women the vote. Alice
Paul split with the NAWSA when they did not adopt
her tactics and formed her own Nation Women’s
Party.
Nineteenth Amendment
gave women the right to
vote in 1920
The “Alice Paul Amendment” or as it is now known,
the “Equal Rights Amendment” was finally passes in
1972 to grant women equal opportunities in
education and the work place. “We’ve come a long
way, baby….”
Carrie Chapman Catt
Catt entered the battle for women’s rights when she
saw her father going off to vote and her mother
remained at home. She was the only female in her
graduating class and the first woman school
superintendent. One night on her way home from her
job in a clothing factory she was sexually assaulted.
This made her realize women were vulnerable without
the vote and something needed to be done.
1,740,800 women were employed as domestic
servants, 124,000 were teachers but had to quit when
they became pregnant, 68,000 were nurses but only
212 were doctors and only 2 were architects. Most
women were confined to low paying jobs where thy
would earn possibly $5.00 a week compared to $35.00
they could make as a prostitute.
Woman Suffrage and
Politics: The Inner Story of
the Suffrage Movement
Nineteenth Amendment
She became the President of the NAWSA, the
International Women’s Suffrage Alliance and founded
the League of Women Voters. Together with her book,
Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the
Suffrage Movement and her “winning plan” the
Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920
Mother Jones
Born in Cork, Ireland, she could recall British
soldiers marching through her town with the heads
of Irish rebels on their bayonets. Her grandfather
was hanged for his rebel actions. She immigrated
to Canada and then the US, settling in Memphis,
Tennessee where she met her husband but a
yellow fever epidemic would kill him and their four
small children. Trying to rebuild her life, she moved
to Chicago and had great success as a dressmaker
but lost everything in the Chicago fire of 1871.
She knew what it meant to be poor and alone.
From her husband, she learned about working
conditions and went to the Knights of Labor for
help. She organized unions for men, women and
children but is most known for her work in West
Virginia and Colorado because these mines had
the worst conditions. The deadliest mine accident
occurred in West Virginia killing 358 people.
Miners’ Angel
She always encouraged miners to “join the union,
boys” and was instrumental in founding the IWW
International Workers of the World
Robert La Follette
“Fighting Bob” began his career as a lawyer but
was offered a bribe to issue an unfair ruling in a
court case. He spent three years in the Wisconsin
House of Representatives and was elected
governor. These experiences convinced him that
the government belonged directly in the hands of
the people and they needed help with direct
elections, civil service reform and regulation of big
business.
To educate the public for government
involvement, he started the “Wisconsin Idea” that
appointed the best professors at universities and
specialists in the field of economics and social
scientists that advised legislators to write laws.
Wisconsin Idea
Seventeenth Amendment
Initiative, Referendum, Recall
He also instituted the Seventeenth Amendment
that allowed all people the right to vote for US
Senators. Before, they were elected by state
legislators. He also established Initiative, that
allowed the public to bring issues to their law
makers with petitions, referendum, that allowed
the public to vote on issues that might become a
law, and recall, that allowed the public to recall
inefficient elected officials
Theodore Roosevelt
Born into a wealthy New York family, he was homeschooled because he had severe asthma. He conquered
the illness with his father’s help performing roughed
outdoor activities. He eventually went to Harvard. He was
a Republican
He served as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
Governor of NY where he used the works of Riis and
Sinclair to pass the tenement laws, Meat Inspection Act
and the Pure Food and Drug Act.
He became President in 1901 when Mc Kinley was
assassinated and continued his progressive reforms.
United Mine Workers - first President to side with unions
and threatened to seize the mines. Miners got a 10%
raise but union was not recognized
Trustbuster - Dissolved Morgan’s Northern Securities
because if violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. He filed
Conservation
42 anti-trust suits including those against Standard Oil and
Established Yellowstone and the American Tobacco Co.
Yosemite National Parks
Passed the Hepburn Act that gave ICC power to set
Newland Reclamations Act railroad rates
Used sale of pubic land for
Started departments of Commerce and Labor
irrigation
Payne-Aldrich Tariff
William Howard Taft
Taft had promised to lower tariffs but the US
House and Senate wanted higher tariffs to protect
American goods. PA tariff barely cut tariffs and
actually raised some. His progressive supporters
felt betrayed
Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy
Ballinger was appt. by Taft as Sec. of Interior and
tried to make 1 million acres of public forests and
mineral reserves available for private industry.
Pinchot (Roosevelt appt) accused Ballinger of
turning over public land in Alaska for his own
profits and leaked the accusations to the press.
Taft fired Pinchot and a Congressional committee
found Ballinger innocent but Taft lost control of
House and Senate in 1910 over this. Opposed by
Roosevelt and Bull Moose Party. Lost to Wilson.
Trust Buster
Children’s Bureau
Mann-Elkins
Brought 90 cases to court in four years including
Standard Oil and Am Tobacco Co. that begun
under Roosevelt
Democrat
Woodrow Wilson
Underwood Tariff
Reduced tariff on imported good by 30% because
pressure from foreign competitors would inspire
Americans to produce better goods at lower prices
Sixteenth Amendment - Income Tax
Federal Reserve Act
Created 12 federal banks for bank members to
store reserves. Board controlled interest rates so
they increased or decreased money supply by
lowering and raising rates
Federal Trade Commission
Had power to investigate companies and force
them to “cease and desist” unfair practices
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Unions were not unlawful
combinations of trade, allowed
strikes, peaceful pickets and
boycotts
Stopped companies from forcing retailers to buy
only their goods
Banned price discrimination - No discounts to
chain stores