■Essential Question:
–How did the chaotic conditions of
urban America in the Gilded Age
contribute to “progressive”
reforms in the early 20th century?
The “Culture Wars”:
The Pendulum of Right v. Left
2nd Great
Awakening
Social
Gospel
C
I
V
I
L
1920s
Revivalism
1950s
Revivalism
Christian
Evangelical
Movement
W
A
R
Antebellum
Reforms
[1810s1850s]
Populism
[1870s1890s]
Progressivism
[1890s-1920]
New Deal
[1930s1940s]
Great
Society
&
1960s Social
Movements
C
O
N
S
E
R
V
A
T
I
V
E
R
E
V
O
L
U
T
I
O
N
Life at the Turn of the Century
The average life expectancy was 47
only 14% of the homes had a bathtub
only 8% of the homes had a telephone. A 3
minute call from Denver to NYC cost $11.00
Maximum speed limit in most cities was 10
mph
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tenn. were
more heavily populated than California
Life at the Turn of the Century
The average wage in the U.S. was
.22 cents an hour
the average worker made between
$200 and $400 per year
More than 95% of all births in the
U.S. took place at home
sugar cost .04 cents a pound; eggs
cost .14 cents a dozen
Life at the Turn of the Century
Drive by shootings - in which teenage boys
galloped down the street on horses and
started randomly shooting at houses, etc. were an ongoing problem
the population of Las Vegas, NV was 30
Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer,
and iced tea hadn’t been invented
There was no Mother’s or Father’s day
Life at the Turn of the Century
One in ten U.S. adults couldn’t read or
write. Only 6% of all Americans had
graduated high school
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were
available over the counter at corner
drugstores. One pharmacist said, “Heroin
clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to
the mind, regulates the stomach and is, in
fact, a perfect guardian of health.”
What is Progressivism?
■From
1890s
to
1914,
progressives
Democrats, Republicans, & Socialists all
addressed
rapid economic
&
found reasonsthe
to support
progressivism
social changes of the Gilded Age
■Progressive reform had wide
appeal but was not a unified
movement with a common agenda
■Progressive reforms included
prostitution,
poverty,
child
labor,
Some
reformers targeted
local
community
problems,
others
aimed
for state changes,
factory
safety,
women’s
rights, &
others wanted&national
reforms
temperance,
political
corruption
Social Gospel taught
Optimism &What
belief is
in Progressivism?
Christians that it was
progress (“investigate,
■But,
Progressivetheir
reform
hadto end
duty was
educate,
& legislate”)
poverty & inequality
distinguishing characteristics:
Looked to the
Desire to “humanize”
government to help
industry & urbanization
achieve goals
Their actions
impacted the entire
nation; not regions
like the Populists
Progressive
Themes
Led by educated
Change the environment middle-class “experts”
in order to change people
who developed
(no Social Darwinism)
“rational” solutions
Why did America Need
Progressivism?
Reforming
America’s Cities
Reforming America’s Cities
■Progressive reform 1st began in
cities in the 1890s to address
factory, tenement, labor problems:
–Early reformers realized that
private charity was not enough
to cure all social ills
–The Social Gospel movement
was a new religious philosophy
that focused on improving
society & saving individual souls
The Female Dominion
■Some of the 1st reformers were
educated, middle-class women:
–Women found reform was a way to
improve their communities & to
break out of their traditional, 19th
century social roles
–Led by Jane Addams’ Hull House in
Chicago, settlement houses were
built in slums, offering health care,
baths, & cheap food
Hull House in Chicago
The Female Dominion
■Women were key leaders in:
–Charity Org Society—collected
data on poverty & slums; led to the
NY Tenement Commission
–Nat’l Conference of Social Work
used professional social workers &
called for minimum wages,
maximum hours, widow pensions
■In the 1930s, the gov’t passed the
National Child Labor Laws
MembershipThe
grewFemale Dominion
in the WCTU
■Women’s groups, like the WCTU,
helped gain key reforms:
–Prohibition—Shocking reports of
alcohol abuse led 19 states to
outlaw booze & the passage of
the 18th Amendment (1920)
–Prostitution—By 1915, almost
all states banned brothels & the
Mann Act banned the interstate
transport of “immoral” women
Attacking Political Machines
■Mugwumps were reformers who
strove to end corruption among
political machines in cities:
–The Gilded Age saw the height
of urban machines whose
politicians controlled lawmaking,
police depts, & the courts
–The “Good Gov’t” movement
found ways to shift power from
bosses to mayors & city councils
Thomas Nast was the Gilded Age’s most
important Mugwump cartoonist
Nast’s Favorite Target: Boss Tweed
Tweed’s Downfall:
“Those damn pictures”
Muckraking Journalism
■New “muckraking” journalism
drew attention to social problems,
such as urban poverty, corruption,
& big business practices:
–Popular monthly magazines, like
McClure’s & Collier’s, used
investigative journalism & photos
–Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half
Lives (1890) was the 1st exposé
of urban poverty & slums
Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives
included photographs!
Muckraking Journalism
■Other groundbreaking exposés:
–Henry George’s Progress &
Poverty (1879) showed the
growing gap between rich & poor
–Lincoln Stefan’s Shame of the
Cities (1902) exposed corrupt
political machine bosses
–Ida Tarbell’s History of Standard Oil
(1904) revealed Rockefeller’s
ruthless business practices
Muckraking Journalism
■Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
(1906) led to federal investigation
of the meatpacking industry, gov’t
inspections, & improved sanitation
aimed
at theexposed
public’s heart
■Sam“IH.
Adams
the &
by
accident
I
hit
it
in
the
stomach”
dangers of patent medicines which
led to the Pure Food & Drug Act
requiring listing of ingredients &
banned “adulterated” drugs
Standardizing Education
■Psychologist William James
promoted the idea that one’s
environment dictates behavior
■School leaders applied these
ideas to reform pubic education:
–Schools became a primary
vehicle to assimilate immigrants
–John Dewey promoted “creative
intelligence,” not memorization
or strict teaching
Working-Class Reform
From
1901
to of
1920,
14.5 work
million
“new”
By
1914,
60%
the
U.S.
force
was
Immigration
to
the
USA,
1901-1920
European,
Mexican,
&
Asian
immigrants
foreign born; Most immigrant laborers
were
traveled tolived
America
to join&the
force
unskilled,
in poverty
in U.S.
ethniclabor
conclaves
MexicanMexican
immigrants
worked in Western
Immigration
farms, railroads, & mines as well as
to
the
USA,
1900-1920
Southern & California agriculture
Angel
Island,
Francisco
This was
not like
EllisSan
Island
in NYC where
immigration processing took hours;
At Angel Island, processing took months
Conflict in the Workplace
■The new industrial advances like
mass production & management
sped up production but led to:
–Long hours, low wages,
dangerous settings for workers
–Labor unrest & strikes
–Union membership jumped from
4% in 1900 to 13% by 1920
–Progressive reforms for workers
Labor Union
Membership,
1897-1920
Industrial Exploitation Case Study:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)
“It is our purpose
to overthrow
the capitalist
Organizing
Labor
The WTUL
strikemeans
vs. Hart,
Schaffner, &
system
by forceful
inst necessary…
Marx
Co led
to the 1canFederation
collective
■Gompers’
American
[There
is
nothing
a worker
do that] willof
victory
in
U.S.
labor
history
bringbargaining
as
much
anguish
to
the
boss
than
a little
Labor was the largest U.S. union
sabotage
in
the
right
place.”
but toit all
was
exclusive; led to:
Open
workers
—IWW co-founder “Big Bill” Haywood
regardless
of
race,
sex,
–Women’s Trade Union League
ethnicity, or skill
(1903) formed to help working
Called
the “Wobblies”
women
& educate the public
–Industrial Workers of the World
(1905) urged revolution & the
creation of a workers’ republic
via sabotage & strikes
Did not threaten
to overthrow
Organizing
Labor
the capitalist system
■Eugene V. Debs
formed the
Socialist Party
of America &
applied Marxist
ideas into a
moderate &
appealing
political platform
Working with Workers
Ledbusinesses
to an increase used
in production
& to
■Many
violence
a more stable & loyal workforce
break up strikes, but others
improved workers’ conditions:
–Henry Ford introduced an 8-hour
workday & the “five dollar day”
–The Amoskeag textile factory in
NH used paternalism & benefits,
like playgrounds & health care
Amoskeag
built
playgrounds
&
baseball
Amoskeag
hired
whole
families
Amoskeag
Company
…and
providedTextile
company
housing
fields for families & their children
The
Women’s Movement
& Black Awakening
The Women’s Movement
■Successful progressive reforms
led by women strengthened calls
for women’s rights & suffrage:
–The National Association of
Colored Women advocated for
“Women’s vote will help cure ills of society”
the rights of black women
–The National American Woman
Suffrage Association was key in
getting the 19th Amendment
passed in 1920
Women’s
Suffrage
Before
1900
The Women’s Movement
■Margaret Sanger championed the
cause for increased birth control
for women:
–Her journals provided
contraceptive information for
poor & middle-class women
–In 1916, Sanger opened the
1st birth control clinic in the U.S.
Reforms
By 1900,African-American
80% of African-Americans
lived in
rural
areas, mostprogressivism
as Southern sharecroppers
■Southern
was for
whites only; Keeping blacks from
voting was seen as necessary:
–Allowed for poll taxes, literacy
tests, property qualifications (&
grandfather clauses for whites)
–Strengthened Jim Crow laws
requiring separate theaters,
restaurants, hotels, & schools
–But did regulate RRs & industry
African-American Reforms
■Black leaders were
divided on how to
address racial problems
–Booker T Washington
was Harvard educated,
studied black urban culture, & was
1st president of Tuskegee University
–His “Atlanta Compromise” stressed
black self-improvement (not lawsuits
or agitation against whites)
“[African-Americans]
African-American Reforms
have■W.E.B.
a right to know,
to was
DuBois
think, to aspire…
We
moreforaggressive
must strive
the right
which
the world
■Dubois
led the
accords to man.”
Niagara DuBois
Movement
—W.E.B.
in 1905 calling for
immediate civil rights,
integrated schools, &
promotion of the “Talented 10th”
to be the next generation of black
civil rights leaders
The Niagara Movement & NAACP
■In 1909, National Assoc for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) was formed by William
Walling & others; Du Bios was put
in charge of The Crisis publication
■The
NAACP
had
some
victories:
But…“I have never seen the colored
–Guinn
(1915)and
ended
people v
soU.S.
discouraged
so bitter
as they are atgrandfather
the present time.”
Oklahoma’s
clause
—Booker T. Washington, 1913
–Buchanan v Worley (1917)
ended KY housing segregation
Conclusions:
The Impact of Urban
Progressive Reform
Conclusions
■Social progressivism led to
successful reforms in American
cities by attacking corruption &
advocating for the less fortunate
■Urban reformers drew national
attention to:
–The plight of women & blacks
(with mixed results)
–The need for reform at the
state & national levels