*Progressivism, 1890-1920*
Can politics fix social problems?

I. The Roots of Progressivism
Essential Question: Can politics fix social problems?
Vocabulary: muckraker direct primary initiative referendum recall suffrage prohibition
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The Rise of Progressivism
Who were progressives and what did they believe caused social problems?
□ Collection of different ideas/ activities
□ Not an organized political movement with specific set of goals
□ Reaction to the effects of the era of rapid industrialization, immigration, and urbanization
□ Wanted to improve society (make progress, move society forward)
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Who were the progressives?
□ I.A. Urban, educated, middle-class Americans from both political parties
□ Thought government should take a more active role in solving society’s problems , but that government had to be fixed before it could be used to fix other problems.
□ I.B.
Strong faith in science and technology; thus, progressives believed using scientific principles could solve society’s problems.
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The Muckrakers
□ First to articulate progressive ideas
□ Were journalists who (I.C.) wrote about political corruption and social problems to expose wrongdoings
□ Teddy Roosevelt named them. Thought they were obsessed with corruption and scandal
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• Investigative reporter, Steffens’ book, The Shame of the Cities, dealt with political decay in
America.
• Reported on vote stealing and other corrupt political practices of political machines.
• Investigative reporter, Charles Edward Russell is perhaps best known, for his series of articles about the Beef Trust that were published as The
Greatest Trust in the World (1905)
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Reforming Government
How did progressives hope to make government more efficient and responsive to citizens?
□ Making government efficient
■ Frederick W. Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management
(1911): company could increase efficiency by managing time, breaking tasks down into small parts, and using standardized tools
■ II.A. Cities should use scientific techniques, with experts playing the major roles.
□ Political favors = inexperienced officials, inefficiency
□ Proposals to reform city government using experts to play a major role in managing the city. Another solution was to weaken political machines by having officials elected citywide instead of by neighborhoods.
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□
Reforming Government
How did progressives hope to make government more efficient and responsive to citizens?
□ Democratic Reform
■ II.B. Many believed that the key to improving government was to make elected officials more responsive and accountable to voters.
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Wisconsin’s Reform Governor
□ Robert La Follette of Wisconsin (3 term governor) --> became a “laboratory of democracy”
□ Attacked the way political parties ran their conventions. Party bosses controlled the selection of convention delegates and the nomination of candidates.
□ La Follette pressured the state legislature to pass a law requiring parties to hold a
direct primary, in which all party members could vote for a candidate to run in the general election.
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More Power to Voters
Direct Primary
Voters select party candidate
Initiative
Citizens place an issue before voters/legislature for approvals
Referendum
Voters approve/reject a law passed by legislature
Recall
Remove elected official before term is up
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State Reforms
□ More power to voters
□ III.C. The
Seventeenth
Amendment provides for the direct election of
Senators by the people.
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Woman Suffrage
What problems did social-welfare progressives attempt to reform?
□ III.A. The goal of the suffrage movement was achieving full voting rights for women.
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Early movement
□ American women first demanded the right to vote in 1848 at the Seneca Falls
Convention in New York
□ Also abolitionists, ending slavery became the priority
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Suffrage Movement
□ 1872 Stanton led a group of women to the polls in Rochester, NY where they insisted on voting
□ She was arrested for illegally casting a ballot in the presidential election
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Pushing for Federal Amendment was Difficult
□ First introduced in 1868
□ Stalled and was reintroduced in 1878 made it to committee
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Split into two groups
National Woman Suffrage Association
□ based in New York City
□ founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton &
Susan B. Anthony in 1869
□ refused to endorse 15th amendment because it did not give women the ballot.
□ III.B. The NWSA wanted to focus on passing a constitutional amendment.
American Woman Suffrage Association
□ based in Boston
□ founded by Lucy Stone & Julia Ward
Howe in 1869
□ argued that once the black man was enfranchised, women would achieve their goal.
□ III.B. The AWSA wanted to win women’s rights at the state level
Groups united in 1890 to form the National American Woman
Suffrage Association (NAWSA) . Women needed right to vote to promote Progressive reforms and pass labor laws. Women began

Woman Suffrage, 1869-1920
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Suffrage at the Turn of the
Century
□ By the time of the NAWSA founding, women had won many rights
□ Married women could buy and sell property
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Suffrage at the Turn of the
Century
□ The beloved leaders of the movement, Stanton and Anthony died in
1902 and 1906
□ Did not see life’s work realized
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It was time for a new generation to take on the cause of women’s suffrage.
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A New Generation
□ One leader who emerged to reenergize the movement was
Carrie Chapman Catt
□ She headed the
NAWSA and focused on precinct by precinct political work
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A New Generation
□ Alice Paul learned aggressive tactics from suffragists in
England like hunger strikes
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□ The Congressional
Union (CU) headed by
Alice Paul called for an aggressive, militant campaign for
Constitutional
Amendment
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□ Went to jail
□ Went on hunger strikes to protest their treatment
How did the NAWSA feel about the CU’ plan?
□ Their aggressive tactics would hurt the movement
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Impact of World War I
The entrance into WWI helped the women’s suffrage movement because many women helped with the war effort and did men’s jobs when they went to war
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Victory for Suffrage
□ III.C. the
Nineteenth
Amendment granted women the right to vote
□
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What progressive goals did suffragists believe they could achieve if women had the right to vote?
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Reforming Society
What problems did social-welfare progressives attempt to reform?
health & safety crime
Social Problems illiteracy child labor alcohol abuse
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Reforming Society
What problems did social-welfare progressives attempt to reform?
Child Labor
□ John Spargo’s 1906 book, The Bitter
Cry of the Children
□ IV.A. Laws set a minimum age and the maximum number of hours a child could work.
□ At the same time, many states began passing compulsory education laws, requiring young children to be in school instead of at work.
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Reforming Society
What problems did social-welfare progressives attempt to reform?
Health and Safety Codes
□ Workers’ compensation laws established insurance funds that employers financed.
Workers injured in accidents received payments from the funds.
□ Zoning laws for commercial, residential, or other development, thereby regulating how land and buildings could be used.
□ Building codes set minimum standards for light, air, room size, and sanitation and required buildings to have fire escapes.
□ Health codes required restaurants and other facilities to maintain clean environments for their patrons.
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Reforming Society
What problems did social-welfare progressives attempt to reform?
The Prohibition Movement
□ Settlement house workers, employers concerned about alcohol abuse. Temperance movement advocated people stop or moderate alcohol consumption.
□ 1874 Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
□ When the temperance movement began, it concentrated on reducing alcohol consumption. Later it pressed for prohibition.
□ IV.B. Prohibition laws banned the manufacture, sale, and consumption of liquor.
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Reforming Society
What problems did social-welfare progressives attempt to reform?
Progressive vs. Big Business
□ Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890,
□ Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 to regulate railroads
□ Some advocated SOCIALISM:
■ What is socialism? IV.C. It is the idea that the government should own and operate industry.
■ Eugene V. Debs, American socialist candidate for president in 1912; most Americans believed in free enterprise
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Summary:
Government reforms improved city government, gave women the right to vote, and gave voters the direct primary. Societal reforms included child and adult labor laws, as well as Prohibition.
□
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What would a progressive muckraker try to reform today?
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th
• The Senate of the
United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state elected by the people thereof for six years and each
Senator shall have one vote
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New Constitutional Amendments
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th
• The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several
States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
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th
• The Senate of the
United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state elected by the people thereof for six years and each
Senator shall have one vote
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th
• Prohibited the production, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages in the
United States
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• Women win the right to vote!!
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