Exploring American History
Unit VII – Becoming a World
Power
Chapter 21 - The Progressive Spirit of
Reform
Section 1- The Gilded Age and Progressive
Movement
Birth of the Progressive Era - :52 min.
The Gilded Age and the
Progressive Movement
The Big Idea
From the late 1800s through the early 1900s, the Progressive
movement addressed problems in American society.
Main Ideas
• Political corruption was common during the Gilded Age.
• Progressives pushed for reforms to improve living
conditions.
• Progressive reforms expanded the voting power of
citizens.
Main Idea 1: Political corruption was
common during the Gilded Age
• Political machines strongly influenced city, county, and
even federal politics in the late 1800s.
• Political machines used both legal and illegal means to
get their candidates elected to public office.
– Stuffed ballot boxes with votes for their candidates
– Paid people to vote with bribes, or bribed vote
counters
• Supporters of political machines were often rewarded
with government jobs.
• The most notorious political machine was New York
City’s Tammany Hall, headed by William Marcy Tweed.
Corruption in Washington
• The administration of Ulysses S. Grant,
who was elected in 1868 and reelected in
1872, was charged with corruption.
• In Grant’s second term, federal officials
were jailed for taking bribes from whiskey
distillers.
• The scandal caused many Americans to
question the honesty of national leaders.
Cleaning Up Political Corruption
• Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–
1881) promised radical and
complete changes in
government and made some
minor reforms.
• Grover Cleveland (1885–
1889, 1893–1897), a
Democrat, worked hard to hire
and fire people based on
merit, not party loyalty.
• James B. Garfield (1881)
attempted reforms, but was
assassinated by a disgruntled
federal-office seeker early in
his term.
• Benjamin Harrison (1889–
1893) helped control inflation
and passed the Sherman
Antitrust Act.
• Chester A. Arthur (1881–
1885), Garfield’s vice
president, became president.
Backed the Pendleton Civil
Service Act passed in 1883.
• William McKinley (1897–
1901) avoided scandal and
helped win back public trust in
the government.
Political Corruption
• Explain: Why did member of political
machines stuff ballot boxes?
• Recall: What happened to federal
officials who took bribes from whiskey
makers during President Grant’s second
term?
• Predict: If government officials were
replaced after each presidential election,
what effect would this have on the
government’s workforce?
Political Corruption
• Identify: Which Presidents tried
to reform government corruption
before 1883?
• Recall: In what two ways did the
Pendleton Act change the hiring
process for federal jobs?
Who were the reformers?
What did they want?
Mostly middle class people (Roosevelt called
them Muckrakers) concerned with social
issues of the times. Issues such as;
immigrants - oldcomers and newcomers
city life- poor and needy, and prohibition
crime and corruption
strikes, Workman’s compensation, minimum wage
Political bosses
city/state governments- direct democracy, tax laws
Giant business corporations
Women’s Suffrage
Child Labor
Main Idea 2: Progressives pushed for
reforms to improve living conditions.
• Progressives were reformers who worked to solve
problems caused by rapid industrial and urban
growth.
•
•
•
•
•
Eliminate causes of crime, disease, and poverty
Ease overcrowding in cities
Advocate for better education
Promote better working conditions and less child labor
Fight corruption in business and government
• Muckrakers were journalists who wrote about child
labor, racial discrimination, slum housing, and
corruption in business.
• Influenced voters, causing them to pressure government
officials
Muckrakers
Name applied to American journalists, novelists, and
critics who in the first decade of the 20th cent. attempted to
expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics.
The term derives from the word muckrake used by
President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in 1906, in which he
agreed with many of the charges of the muckrakers but
asserted that some of their methods were sensational and
irresponsible.
The muckraking movement lost support in about 1912.
Historians agree that if it had not been for the revelations of
the muckrakers the Progressive movement would not have
received the popular support needed for effective reform.
Muckrakers
Ida Tarbell
Lincoln Steffen
•
Miss Ida Tarbell had been at work for years on her
history of the Standard Oil Company, and it began
to run in McClure's in November 1902.
•
Lincoln Steffen's first novel on municipal
corruption, "Tweed Days in St. Louis" appeared in
McClure's Oct 1902.
•
Henry Demerest Lloyd's Wealth Against
Commonwealth, published in 1894, attacked the
Standard Oil Company.
•
How the Other Half Lives, published in 1890 by
Jacob Riis, exposed life in New York's slums.
•
John Spargo, an Englishman, published The Bitter
Cry of the Children, an account of young kids at
work in sweatshops.
•
Perhaps the most famous Muckraking novel, The
Jungle by Upton Sinclair, exposed the horrors of
the Chicago meat-packing plants and the
immigrants who were worked to death in them.
Upton Sinclair
Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis and Upton Sinclair
•
In 1877 Riis became a police
reporter for the New York
Tribune. In the 1880s his work
gravitated towards reform and
he worked with other New York
reformers then crusading for
better living conditions for the
thousands of immigrants flocking
to New York in search of new
opportunities. He constantly
argued that the "poor were the
victims rather than the makers of
their fate".
As a writer Sinclair gained fame
in 1906 with the novel The
Jungle, a report on the dirty
conditions in the Chicago
meatpacking industry. The book
won Sinclair fame and fortune,
and led to the implementation of
the Pure Food and Drug Act in
1906.
Reform Successes
Reforms and Reformers
• Progressives started settlement houses, such as Jane Addams’s Hull
House.
• City planners
– Helped design safer building codes
– Opened new public parks
• Civil and sanitation engineers
– Improved transportation
– Addressed pollution and sanitation issues, including waste disposal
and clean water
• Death rates dropped in cities where city planners and civil engineers
addressed urban ills.
Progressive Programs - 5:35 min.
Progressive Movement
•
The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had
developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. The
frontier had been tamed, great cities and businesses developed and an overseas empire
established, but not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige and optimism.
•
Progressivism was rooted in the belief that man was capable of improving the lot of all within
society. Progressivism also was full of strong political overtones and rejected the church as the
driving force for change. Supporters of the movement were found in both major political parties,
Democrat and Republican.
• Specific goals included:
–
Remove corruption and undue influence from government
–
Conservation
–
Include more people more directly in the political process.
–
Government must play a role to solve social problems and establish fairness in economic
matters.
–
Race- Blacks and Native Americans
–
Child Labor, Workers- young and old, workers compensation,
–
Political Reform- Direct Election, political reform,
–
Anti- monopoly reform.
Social Reforms
• Education reform included the enacting of
school attendance laws.
• Susan Blow opened the first American public
kindergarten.
• John Dewey advocated new teaching methods
designed to help children learn problem-solving
skills, not just memorize facts.
• Joseph McCormack led the American Medical
Association in supporting public health laws.
Progressives Push for Reforms
• Recall: What sort of
reforms did Progressives
want?
• Making Inferences: What
audience do you think
muckrakers were trying to
reach?
Progressives Push for Reforms
• Recall: Name three writers who urged
reform.
• Cause and Effect: What resulted from
Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle?
• Evaluate: What is your opinion of the
importance of city planners and
engineers?
Progressives Push for Reforms
• Recall: When did the first
public kindergarten open in
the United States?
• Contrast: How were
Dewey’s ideas on education
different from earlier
methods of teaching?
Main Idea 2:
Progressive reformers expanded
the voting power of citizens.
• Progressives worked to reduce the power of the
political machines by
– Ending corrupt ballot practices
– Adopting the secret ballot
– Adopting the direct primary, which allowed
voters to choose party candidates rather than
having it done by party bosses
• The Seventeenth Amendment allowed Americans to
vote directly for U.S. senators.
Recall, Initiative, and Referendum
Recall
Initiative
Referendum
• Some states and
cities adopted
the recall.
• Some states
adopted the
initiative.
• Some states
adopted the
referendum.
• It was a special
vote that gave
citizens the
opportunity to
remove an
elected official
from office.
• It allowed voters
to propose a new
law and vote on
it.
• It permitted
voters to directly
approve or reject
a proposed or
enacted law.
Government Reforms
The Cities
• Some cities adopted a
council-manager form of
government, in which a
professional manager runs
the city.
• Other cities adopted a
commission form of
government, in which a
group of elected officials
runs the city.
The States
• Governor Robert M.
La Follette of Wisconsin
challenged the power of
the political bosses.
• He began a series of
reforms called the
Wisconsin Idea.
• His reforms decreased the
power of the political
machine.
• The Wisconsin Idea
influenced other states.
Progressive Movement
• The efforts and successes:
•
–
Interstate Commerce Act (1887) and the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890).
–
A minority supported socialism with government ownership of the means of
production.
–
conservation movement
–
railroad legislation
–
food and drug laws.
–
elect senators
–
prohibition
–
suffrage to women.
–
Workers compensation, civil service, and minimum wage
–
efforts to place limitations on child labor were routinely thwarted by the courts.
–
The needs of blacks and Native Americans were poorly served by the
Progressives.
–
Secret Ballot, Direct Election, direct primary and initiative, referendum and
recall
Robert La Follette- Leader in reform measures and the candidate of
the reform element of his party for the nomination for governor in
1896 and 1898: in 1900 unanimously nominated for Governor of
Wisconsin and elected by the largest plurality ever given a candidate
for that office.
Election Reforms
 Secret Ballot
 Direct Primary- People select the candidates
 INITIATIVE: The people may initiate(propose) by 58% petition of voters a bill to a legislature.
 REFERENDUM: The people may use referendum
(popular ballot) to enact, approve or reject acts of the
legislature.
 RECALL: All elected public officials in the State, except
judicial officers, are subject to recall (by petition) by the
voters of the State and forced to stand for re-election at
any time.
 17th Amendment: Direct Election of Senators. 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
Reforming Government
• City Government reforms
– New rules for police, releasing debtors from prison and
a fairer tax system.
– 5 member commission system
– Council-manager model
• State government reforms
• Election reforms
– Seventeenth Amendment
– Initiative, referendum and recall.
City Government
Commission Plan
 Replaced the mayor and council with a
small board of commissioners, each elected
at large and each responsible for a single
area of municipal administration.
Under the new plan voters could easily
identify and punish those responsible for
shortcomings in city services.
City Government
City Manager scheme
Under this plan an elected city council determined
basic policy and appointed a professional,
nonpartisan city manager who was in charge of the
day-to-day operation of the municipality. Worked
well in small cities.
Critics of corruption urged adoption of nonpartisan
elections, new methods of municipal accounting, a
civil service system for city employees, and state
constitutional amendments to halt state legislative
interference in municipal affairs.
Expansion of Voting Power
• Identify: What ballot change did
many states make, after being
pressured by Progressive
reformers?
• Analyze: How did the right to
recall officials give voters more
political leverage?
Expansion of Voting Power
• Compare: What is the difference
between an initiative and a
referendum?
• Identify Cause and Effect: What
effects resulted from Progressives’
work to reform city governments?