Chapter 21
The
Progressive
Era
Background:
Mugwumps-supporters of
government reform
Provides idea for good
government and reform to change
society for the better
Features of Progressivism:
*Democracy
How to get people more involved
in the process of government
*Efficiency/Knowledge
Taylorism inspires a look at how
to streamline gov. & society
*Social Improvement
Everything is based on the
assumption that society can be
improved
*Anti-Monopoly
Progressives feel monopolies are
bad for the country
Social Gospel
Mix of social responsibility
and religion
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Walter
Rauschenbusch
Nature vs. Nurture
Settlement House Movement
Jane
Addams
Hull House 1889
Helps immigrants learn the
language and customs
Often staffed by educated women
of the middle or upper class
Helps bring about the Social
worker
Settlement House in New York
Eleanor
Roosevelt
MUCKRAKERS
Jacob
Riis
How the
Other
half
Lives
Home of an Italian
Rag Picker
Mullen’s
Alley
Bandit’s
Roost
Mulberry
Street
5 cent Lodging Bayard St
Basement Pub 3:00 am
Mulberry St
A plank for a
bed
Women’s lodging room
W. 47th St
What boys learn
on their street
playground
Mulberry
Bend
Peddler in the Cellar Ludlow St
Ida
Tarbell
Lincoln
Steffens
The Shame of
Cities
Upton
Sinclair
Published
1906
th
19
By end of
century an
increase in administrative and
professional occupations
New middle class puts high
value on education
Want standards set for
professionals
1901 American
Medical
Association
By 1920 2/3 of doctors
members
1916 Bar
Association
Businessmen set up the
Chamber of Commerce
These organizations not only
set standards but keep out
Blacks, Women and
Immigrants
Women & Professions
*1900 5% of doctors are female
*Teaching – 2/3 of all teachers
90% of all professional women
*Social work
*nursing
*librarian
Progressives and government
How to make government
more responsive to the people
and take control from
political machines?
*Secret ballot
*Initiative
*Referendum
*Recall
*Direct Primary
*City Manager
The most Progressive state
in the country is:
Wisconsin
Have worker’s comp,
regulations on workplace,
and inheritance tax
Robert
La Follette
Part of the result of attacks on
party and machines plus the
success of various Progressive
groups is the rise of the special
interest group
Women and Reform
Changes in lives of women of
middleclass
*children starting school earlier
*Tech makes housework easier
*may have domestic help
*had fewer children
Have time to get involved
Women’s Clubs
Start as social/cultural
organizations
Become interested in social
betterment
Because they are upper and
middle class have funds for
the group
Because women can’t vote it
is seen as nonpolitical
Much work is
noncontroversial:
Plant tress, support schools &
libraries, raise money for
hospital and parks
Also work for ‘nurturing’
issues:
Child labor
Better working conditions
Pension for widows and
orphans
Some educated women stay
single
10% of American women
did not marry
Women’s Suffrage
Women claim same natural
rights as men
Other say women have a
“special sphere” as wife and
mother-shouldn’t vote
Supporters claim that this
“special sphere” will be useful
Gives women a unique view
point
Will help with temperance and
ending war
Anti-suffrage people link the
movement to divorce, neglect
of children and promiscuity
N A WS A
ational
merican
oman
uffrage
ssociation
Carrie
Chapman
Catt
Alice
Paul
Susan B.
Anthony
Emily Davidson - 1913 Derby
1920 –
ratified
th
19 Amendment
Women have the right to vote
African Americans and
reform
Booker T.
Washington
Atlanta Compromise:
Work for immediate
improvement not far off social
change
W.E.B.
DuBois
Feels Washington’s approach
encourages whites to impose
segregation
Get an education
Become a professional
Fight for immediate civil rights
Niagara Movement – 1905
1909 NAACP founded
Temperance Movement
Who supports it:
*women
*businessmen
*Political reformers
1873 Women’s Christian
Temperance Movement Union
Carry A.
Nation
Daddy's in
there. Our
shoes, and
stockings
and clothes
and food are
in there,
too, and
they'll never
come out.“
By 1916 19 states have passed
prohibition laws
Moral fervor from WWI,
Progressives and rural
fundamentalist team up
th
18 Amendment starts Jan 1920
Socialism
Growth in party
1900
100,000 votes
1912 1,000,000 votes
All agree there must be
economic change but can’t
agree on what kind or how
Eugene V.
Debs
Industrial
Workers
of the
World
‘Big Bill’
Haywood
Wobblies want:
*single union for all workers
*abolition of Slave wage
system
*rejection of political action in
favor of general strike
"Shall you
Joe Hill
kneel in deep
submission,
from your
cradle to your
grave? Is the
height of your
ambition to
be a good
and willing
slave?"
Louis
Brandeis
Other
People’s
Money