Progressivism
Manhattan's "Bandit's Roost" Alley, 1888
Men loiter in the alley known as "Bandit's Roost" off
Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan.
Progressive Era Reforms
Why?
•Reaction to the problems and excesses of
the Gilded Age (1870-1900)
What?
• Fix society!
•Social, economic, political problems
How?
•Use the government to fix those problems
2
Who got them started:
Muckrakers
•Journalists who investigated
and exposed problems
3
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair:
4
It was only when the whole ham was spoiled that it came into the
department of Elzbieta. 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 glycerine, 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.
And it became a reform movement:
Progressives - Made 3 Kinds of Reforms:
Social Reforms
Economic Reforms
Political Reforms
5
Social Reforms
1. Urban poverty
2. Unsafe housing
3. Alcohol
4. Child labor
5. Unsafe work
conditions – worker
safety laws
6
7
8
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
9
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
10
Economic Reforms
1. Government began
“busting” monopolies
2.
•
•
•
•
3.
•
•
•
11
Labor Unions
Knights of Labor
AFL (Gompers)
Railway Union (Debs)
Ladies Garment Union
Strikes
Homestead Strike
Haymarket Square Riot
Pullman Strike
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
and Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Political Reforms
Goal: Put government back in the hands of the people!
Referendum - Process that allows citizens to approve or
reject a law passed by their legislature
Initiative – citizens use a petition to force the legislature to
consider a law
Recall - A way for voters to remove public officials from
office before the next election
Direct election of Senators (17th Amend) – the people elect
Senators, instead of the legislature choosing Senators
Secret ballot – Nobody has to know your vote!
12
Women’s Suffrage (19th Amendment) Women Can Vote!
Referendum, Initiative and Recall
Should Scotland become
independent from the UK?
13
Progressive Amendments:
Political Reforms
14
16th Amendment
This gave Congress the power to
levy (impose) an income tax.
17th Amendment
This called for direct election of
Senators.
18th Amendment
Prohibited the manufacture and
sale of alcoholic beverages.
19th Amendment
This gave women the right to
vote.
Progressive Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt
“Square Deal” – TR’s reforms
•
•
•
•
Labor reforms
Trust-busting
Consumer Protection
Environmental Protection
Taft
• More trust-busting, fewer reforms
Woodrow Wilson
“New Freedom”- Wilson’s reforms
15
• More business regulation
• Lowered tariffs; + income tax (16th)
• Women’s Suffrage (19th Amend)