Chapter 21
APUSH
Mrs. Price
How far you go in life depends on your being
tender with the young, compassionate with the
aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of
the weak and the strong. Because someday in
your life you will have been all of these.” - George
Washington Carver
Progressivism

Belief that society was capable of improvement
Varieties of Progressivism
Antimonopoly: fear of concentrated power
 Social Cohesion: everyone is connected
 Faith in Knowledge: importance of science

Muckrakers
Journalists who exposed problems
 Targets: Trusts, railroads, govt, urban
political machines

Ida Tarbell

Exposed business practices
of Standard Oil Co.
Lincoln Steffens

The Shame of the Cities

Exposed political machines
Jacob Riis: How the Other Half
Lives

Exposed life of urban poor
Upton Sinclair
Supporters of Progressivism
Middle Class
 Labor
 Religious Groups

– Social Gospel Movement
– YMCA
Westerners
 African Americans
 Women

The “New Woman”
Product of social and economic changes
 Looked for opportunities outside of the
home

Women’s Clubs
Activities: settlement houses – Hull House,
supported libraries, etc.
 Pushed other issues: child labor, urban
housing, food & drug safety, prohibition

Women Suffrage
Attracted more support after changing
tactics
 Leaders: Anna Howard Shaw, Carrie
Chapman Catt, Alice Paul
 1919: 39 States had women suffrage
 1920: 19th Amendment ratified

Government Reform: Cities
Reduce power of machines & parties
 Secret ballot
 Commissions & City Managers

Govt Reform: State Level





Direct primary
elections
Initiative
Referendum
Recall
Reform Governors
(Robert LaFollette
WI)
Moral Issues of Progressivism

Temperance
1. Led by women
2. 1919: 18th
Amendment ratified

Immigration
Restriction
1. Eugenics: led to
calls for sterilization
2. Dillingham Report:
certain groups were
less able to assimilate
= restrict immigration
by ethnicity
Socialism
Strong in urban immigrant communities &
with farmers in South & Midwest
 Wanted basic structural changes in the
economy
 IWW Industrial Workers of the World
(“Wobblies”)
 US Socialist Party: Eugene Debs (1901)

Eugene Debs
American Socialist
Party