The Progressive Movement
A major purpose of the Progressive movement (1900–1917)
was to
(1) stimulate the economy
(2) support government control of factory production
(3) encourage immigration from southern and eastern Europe
(4) correct the economic and social abuses of industrial society
Overview
 From the 1890s to 1920 a
reform movement swept the
nation
 People focused on improving
conditions in the United
States that were caused by
industrialization and
urbanization
 Progressive Era Presidents –
Teddy Roosevelt, William
Howard Taft, Woodrow
Wilson
Causes of the Progressive Era
 Monopolies
 Labor unrest and violence
 Unhealthy and unsafe living and working
conditions
 Increasing gap between the rich and poor
 Urban poverty, crime, congestion and poor
sanitation
 Political corruption
 Abuse of nation’s natural resources
Who were the Progressives
 They were not one single group. Different groups fought for
different things but had some things in common
 Characteristics
 Largely city dwellers
 Tended to be middle class educated professionals: doctors, lawyers,
social workers, teachers
 Beliefs and Goals
 Optimists, believed the abuses of power and government could be
ended
 Believed new technologies could be used to improve American
society
 Capitalists that rejected socialism
 Faith that a strong government could and should correct abuses and
protect rights
Factors Aiding Movement
 Improved communications
systems because of telegraph
and telephone
 Availability of inexpensive
mass-circulation magazines
and newspapers
 Improved economy gave
financial resources to
support reform
Muckrakers
 The muckrakers helped bring reform issues to the attention
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of the public
Most were journalists and writers, but some were artists and
photographers
Investigated and exposed corruption and injustice through
articles in magazines and newspapers
Also wrote novels dramatizing situations that demanded
reform
Their work led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat
Inspection Act
Progressive Era Muckrakers
Muckraker
Frank Norris
Book/Article
The Octopus
Ida Tarbell
History of the
Standard Oil Co.
Subject of Expose
Monopolistic railroad
practices in California
Ruthless practices of Standard
Oil Company
Lincoln
Steffens
Jacob Riis
The Shame of the
City
How the Other Half
Lives
Political corruption in city
government
Conditions of the poor in NY
tenements
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
Dangerous unsanitary
conditions in meatpacking
industry
The actions of muckrakers in the late 19th century and early
20th century resulted in
(1) Supreme Court decisions that expanded the right to vote
(2) government regulation of unfair business practices
(3) increases in the power of monopolies
(4) reduction of the president’s power to manage the economy
Lincoln Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities and Ida Tarbell’s The
History of the Standard Oil Company are examples of the use of
(1) the Gospel of Wealth
(2) the melting pot theory
(3) Social Darwinism
(4) muckraking
The Meat Inspection Act (1906) and the Pure Food and Drug
Act (1906) were efforts by the federal government to
(1) protect public health and safety
(2) support business monopolies
(3) restrict foreign competition
(4) regulate child labor
The Jungle,The Octopus, and The Shame of the Cities are all books
that were written to
(1) support the formation of a new political party
(2) promote environmental conservation
(3) encourage reform in business and government
(4) express opinions concerning imperialism
Upton Sinclair, Frank Norris, and Ida Tarbell made their
greatest contributions to the Progressive movement by
(1) working to end political corruption in cities
(2) speaking out for the equal rights of Hispanic Americans
(3) supporting legislation to improve tenement housing
(4) publishing books and articles to expose the problems of
society
Books such as The Octopus by Frank Norris, How the Other Half
Lives by Jacob Riis, and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair exposed
problems associated with
(1) naturalization of immigrants
(2) westward expansion
(3) rapid industrialization
(4) environmental conservation
Muckrakers Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair influenced the
federal government to
(1) grant citizenship to people who had entered the country
illegally
(2) pass legislation to correct harmful business practices
(3) force individual states to regulate monopolies
(4) end racial discrimination in the workplace
Progressive Era authors such as Jacob Riis and Upton Sinclair
are best known for
(1) focusing attention on social conditions
(2) fighting for the civil rights of African Americans
(3) promoting the interests of the American farmer
(4) supporting the goal of woman’s suffrage
Progressive Issues
 Problems of Poverty
 Attempts to end poverty,
overcrowding and disease in cities
 Acceptance of germ theory of disease
led to improving water and sewer
systems
 Jacob Riis
 Social Settlement Movement
 Settlement Houses offered working
Hull House
class people, especially immigrants,
education, childcare, social activities
and help finding jobs
 Well known settlement house of Hull
House in Chicago run by Jane Addams
Progressive Issues
 The Peace Movement
 Led peace groups before and during
World War I
 Jeanette Rankin – first woman elected to
Congress was active in this movement
 Jane Addams also a part of this movement
 Temperance and Prohibition
 Temperance movement opposed the use
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of alcoholic beverages
Began in the 1820s
Chief goal was prohibition – the
outlawing of manufacturing and sale of
alcoholic beverages
They thought prohibition would ease
some of the problems of poverty
Led to the 18th Amendment
Progressive Issues
 Child Labor
 Wanted to limit the hours children could work
 Pushed for laws requiring attendance at public schools for children
 Women’s Rights
 Main goal – women’s suffrage (right to vote)
 Began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention
 Leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony,
Carrie Chapman Catt
 Led to the 19th Amendment
 Other issues
 Education for women – many women’s colleges founded
 Fight for birth control – led by Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned
Parenthood
African Americans
 Booker T. Washington
 Founder of the Tuskegee Institute, urged African Americans to get
vocational training in order to get better jobs
 W.E.B. Du Bois
 Harvard educated professor, also believed in the importance of
education, but wanted African Americans to aspire beyond vocational
training
 Helped found the NAACP
 Marcus Garvey
 a black separatist, he actually advocated that African Americans return
to Africa
 Ida B. Wells-Barnett
 Journalist who launched a crusade against lynching. She was a
suffragists and helped found the NAACP
The formation of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) and the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) was primarily a response to
(1) racism and prejudice
(2) nationalism and patriotism
(3) abolition and temperance
(4) militarism and colonialism
Which movement’s primary goal was the ratification of a
constitutional amendment authorizing Prohibition?
(1) abolitionist
(2) Populist
(3) temperance
(4) settlement house
Which government action is most closely associated with the
efforts of muckrakers?
(1) ratification of the woman’s suffrage amendment
(2) approval of the graduated income tax
(3) creation of the National Forest Service
(4) passage of the Meat Inspection Act
A goal set at the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) was achieved
during the Progressive Era by the
(1) formation of the federal Food and Drug Administration
(2) creation of the League of Nations
(3) adoption of a national income tax
(4) ratification of the woman’s suffrage amendment
The Progressive movement supported the idea that the federal
government should
(1) regulate big business
(2) reduce immigration
(3) build an overseas empire
(4) reduce the number of farms
Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, and Margaret Sanger are best known for
their efforts to
(1) create awareness about social problems
(2) gain support for the women’s movement
(3) expand the rights of Native American Indians
(4) win equal treatment for African Americans
In the early 1900s, Progressive Era reformers sought to
increase citizen participation in government by supporting
the
(1) expansion of the spoils system
(2) direct election of senators
(3) creation of the electoral college
(4) formation of the Federal Reserve system
Teddy Roosevelt and the Square Deal
 Consumer Protection
 Influenced passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat
Inspection Act
 Railroad Legislation
 Increased federal regulation of railroads, particularly shipping
rates
 Trust-Busting
 Pressured corporations through investigations and publicity
about their activities
 Broke up railroad trusts
 Broke up the beef trust
Teddy Roosevelt and the Square Deal
 Conservation
 As a naturalist, Roosevelt was
interested in conservation
 Tripled the amount of federal
land for national forests,
national parks, wildlife refuges,
and national monuments
 Set aside public lands to build
dams and irrigation systems in
the West
Progressivism Under Taft
 Brought even more
Antitrust cases to the
courts
 Increased federal
regulation of the
telephone and telegraph
systems
 16th Amendment was
passed to impose an
income tax
Progressivism under Wilson
 1912 election and three was race
 William Howard Taft – Republican
 Teddy Roosevelt – Bull Moose Party
 Woodrow Wilson - Democrat
 Taft and Roosevelt split Republicans, allowing Wilson to
win
 Wilson got a graduated income tax (also called
progressive) – wealthier people pay a higher rate than
less wealthy people.
 Wealthy – 6%
 Lower incomes – 1%
Progressivism under Wilson
 Created the Federal
Reserve System
 Issued currency
 Controlled the
amount of money
in circulation
 Shift money from
one bank to
another as needed
Progressivism under Wilson
 Federal Trade Commission Act
 Prevented unfair competition, had the power to
stop false and misleading advertising
 Clayton Antitrust Act
 Passed to restore business competition,
strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by
making some specific practices of monopolies
illegal
President Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation efforts were
influenced by a desire to
(1) protect natural resources for the future
(2) increase revenues through land sales
(3) reduce the role of the federal government
(4) return tribal lands to Native American Indians
“…In other words, our demand is that big business give the
people a square deal and that the people give a square deal to
any man engaged in big business who honestly endeavors to
do what is right and proper.…”
— Theodore Roosevelt, “A Charter for Democracy,”
February 21, 1912
This statement reflects President Theodore Roosevelt’s position
that the federal government should
(1) leave regulation of big business to the states
(2) cease regulation of business activities
(3) regulate abusive business practices
(4) seize control of all trusts
The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 to
(1) regulate the money supply
(2) operate mints to coin money
(3) collect tax revenues
(4) protect deposits in savings banks
Which argument was used by Progressive Era reformers to
support the use of a graduated income tax?
(1) Imports should be taxed to make foreign goods more
expensive than domestic goods.
(2) Taxes on corporations should be reduced so jobs can be
created.
(3) People who earn more money should pay taxes at higher
rates.
(4) All citizens should be taxed at the same rate to treat all
people equally.
Which type of federal tax was authorized by the 16th
amendment in 1913?
(1) excise
(2) import
(3) income
(4) estate
Today, the Federal Reserve System attempts to stabilize the
economy of the United States by
(1) requiring federal budgets be prepared and presented to
Congress
(2) levying and collecting income taxes
(3) regulating interest rates and the money supply
(4) backing all currency with silver and gold