Who were the progressives and how did
they address the problems they saw?
 Progressives
were reformers
committed to improving
conditions in American life
 Jane
Addams-social worker and
founder of the Hull House,
Chicago’s 1st settlement house.
 Addams
streets.
goal was to clean up the
 Industrialization,
Urbanization, and
Immigration contributed to great changes in
America create both opportunities and
problems.
 The Progressives wanted to…
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Promote Social Welfare
Protect the Environment
Make Government more Efficient and Democratic
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Progressive Activists- people who took political
action to achieve reforms
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Roots of Progressivism
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Populism- rural movement to improve conditions of
famers
Social Gospel- religious movement believing society
must take responsibility for the less fortunate
Progressivism- improve conditions of industrial
workers
Progressives vs social Darwinism
Progressives opposed Darwin's theory of Natural
selection. They felt domination of rich and
powerful was a distortion of democracy.
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Progressives wanted to….
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Improve Living Conditions in Cities
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Keep Children in School and out of Factories
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Progressives fought for court yards and garbage
collection. Central Park was built because of
progressives.
1890-4%of teenagers went to school
National Child Labor Committee-Florence Kelly 1904,
convinced 39 states by 1904 to prohibit child labor
1930-50% of teenagers were attending school
Separate court system for Juveniles
Improve Conditions in the Workplace
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Workers Compensation Laws- receive pay when injured
Hours were limited for women but not men due to child
bearing
 Fighting
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for Honest Effective Local Government
People had to buy their jobs (teachers had to pay
$120 of the first $141 they earned in Philadelphia)
Toledo, Ohio Mayor Samuel Jones-reformed the
police department, set a minimum wage, and
improved city services
Cleveland, Ohio Mayor Tom Johnson reduced
streetcar fares, set up public baths, and increased
the number of parks and playgrounds
Soon cities were set up based on skills and
experience rather than party loyalty
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Reforming State Government
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Goal- return the power to the people
SECERT BALLOT- citizens voted in a private booth
Direct Primary- elections held rather than party
leaders picking candidates
Recall- process which voters can remove an elected
official before his or her term expires through a
petition
Initiative- citizens can propose and pass a law
without the state legislature
Referendum- a law passed by state legislature then
placed on the ballot for approval or rejection by the
voters.
Electing like-minded officials
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Women Fight for the Right to Vote
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“social housekeepers”- if women can clean up
their homes then they can clean up society
After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire a
politician answered the question, why women
factory workers had no fire protection, by stating
“that’s easy, they ain’t got no votes!”
Women had been fighting for the right to vote
since 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention
National American Woman Suffrage Association
(NAWSA)- led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton to
organize the suffrage movement at state and
national levels
1876 Wyoming granted women the right to vote
followed by many other Western states. By 1915
15 states granted women the right to vote. Many
southern states denied women.
1916 Jeanette Rankin was elected to the House of
Representatives in Montana, 4 years before
women received the right to vote at the National
Level.
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African Americans Struggle for Equality
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African Americans faced a tougher battle
than women…
4/5 of African Americans lived in the South
and were disenfranchised due to literacy
tests, poll taxes, and the grandfather clause
denying them the right to vote
Booker T Washington- founded Tuskegee
Institute- vocational college for African
Americans in Alabama
W.E.B. Du Bois- founded National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peoplefought the battle of racism and segregation
through the courts focusing on outlawing
Lynching.
Between 1894-1898- 550 African Americans
were lynched. It was not outlawed until the
1950’s.
How well did Presidents Roosevelt,
Taft, and Wilson promote progressive
goals in National Policies?
 Theodore
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Roosevelt
Teddy became president in 1901 after the
assassination of McKinley
Youngest president at age 42, he was short
and stout, impulsive, but knew how to get
things done
SQUARE DEAL- Roosevelt’s program of
reform focusing on regulating big business
and protecting workers and consumers
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William Howard Taft
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Succeeded Roosevelt in 1908 with his support
Taft was quite, reserved, and cautious- the exact opposite of
Roosevelt
Taft supported low tariffs in his party platform but in 1909
after taking office he signed the Payne-Aldrich Bill, which
raised tariffs and tarnished his record as a progressive
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Woodrow Wilson
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Election of 1912-Roosevelt decided to run again
because Taft betrayed the progressive ideals, but
when the Republicans chose Taft to represent them
Roosevelt formed a third political party, Progressive
Party aka “Bull Moose Party”
Woodrow Wilson was running for the Democrats and
Eugene V. Debs as a Socialists.
Wilson received 42% of the votes, Debs 7% and the
Republican party split Taft-23% and Roosevelt 27.5%,
giving Wilson the presidency.
Wilson promotes NEW FREEDOM- a reform program
set in place to eliminate trusts and reduce corruption
in the federal government
HE was most noted for is laws on banking, tariff
reform and the creation of the Federal Trade
Commission.
 BUSTING
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TRUSTS
Roosevelt passed the Sherman Anti-Trust
Act- could not merge and form a trust or
monopoly and became known as a
“trustbuster” by breaking up J.P.
Morgan’s Northern Securities Company
and limiting the power of the Railroads
Taft brought 90 lawsuits against trusts
during his presidency being very harsh
Wilson strengthened the Sherman AntiTrust Act by passing the Clayton AntiTrust Act in 1914- outlawed underselling
and protected labor unions
Many conservatives thought the
government should not have interfered
at all with business
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Protecting Consumers and Workers
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Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspections Act
which required the department of
Agriculture to thoroughly inspect mean and
The Pure Food and Drug Act established the
FDA (food and drug administration) to test
and approve drugs before they went to the
market
Roosevelt helped coal miners when he
pressured the miners and owners to submit
to arbitration- a legal process in which
neutral outside party helps resolve a dispute.
This process decided that miners should have
higher wages and shorter hours but also
declared that the owners did not have to
recognize the union or higher union workers.
 Protecting
Consumers and
Workers
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Taft and Wilson expanded
worker protections by
establishing the Children’s
Bureau to investigate child
labor. Wilson passed the
Keating Owen Child Labor
Act in 1916 which
prohibited companies from
hiring children under the
age of 14.
Taft and Wilson also
supported an 8 hour work
day, under Taft the 8 hour
day became the rule for
government employees.
 Protecting
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the Environment
Preservation- the protecting of wilderness
lands from all forms of development
Conservation- the limited use of resources
Roosevelt backed the creation of the U.S.
Forest Service- which protected forest and
other natural areas from excessive
development. Roosevelt set aside 150
million acres of national forest
Taft added 2.7 million acres to the
National Wildlife Refuge System
Wilson supported the creation of the
National Park Service to manage national
parks (Yellowstone) for preservation and
public use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWrklFuYnb0
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Reforming the Banking System
Taft urged Congress to reform the banking system but no one
could agree on the proper solution
 Wilson passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913- this divided the
country into 12 regions and create the Federal Reserve Systema central bank of the United States. “The Fed” would offer a
safety net to private banks buy lending them money and would
set the monetary policy to regulate the amount of money in
circulation by interest rates.
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 Reforming
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Taxes and Tariffs
Big business’s favored high tariffs-taxes on
imported goods, but progressives felt this was
unfair to consumers
Taft passed the 16th Amendment- Income tax
amendment, a graduated income tax which
placed a higher burden on those who had more
money.
Wilson signed the Underwood Tariff Act in 1913
which reduced tariffs and created the graduated
income tax
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AMENDMENTS
17th Amendment- direct election of
senators, gave the people more
power
 18th Amendment- prohibition of “the
manufacture, sale or transportation
of intoxicating liquors”
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Women’s Temperance Christian
Movement-argued drinking of alcohol
made men unable to support their
wives and children. “The Saloon Must
Go”
19th Amendment- “the right of
citizens of the United states to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by
the United states or by any state on
account of SEX! WOMEN CAN VOTE