The Progressive
Movement
Reform and Society
 Progressives
were a broad group
of reformers who sought to fix
society in the late 19th and early
20th century
 Wanted
to fix problems like
corruption and mistreatment
of the poor
What was the
Progressive Movement?
The Progressive era reformers and
unions helped create laws to protect
workers and children
A group of people asking for reform or
change for a better way of life
Negative Effects of
Industrialization
1. Child Labor
By 1910, almost 2 million children were working
2. Low Wages (about 10 cents a day)
Workers worked long hours… sometimes 10 – 12
hours a day
3. Unsafe working conditions
Rise of Organized Labor
1. Labor Unions were formed to deal
with problems in the workplace
What is a Labor Union ?
A group of workers that get together to
get better salaries and working
conditions from their employers
Example of a Labor Union:
The American Federation of
Labor (AFL)
•founded in 1886
•Opened to skilled, white men only
•Fought for higher wages
•Fought for shorter work weeks
•Fought for collective bargaining or group negotiations
(both sides labor and owners get something)
•Major tactic for achieving goals was strikes
Samuel Gompers: AFL founder
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English immigrant, started in cigarmaking trade
To fight Big Business, needed strong
Unions.
Use collective bargaining
Owners , workers and their Union sit
down, talk and meet in the middle.
How the AF of L
Would Help the Workers
o Represented workers in matters of national
legislation (law making).
o Maintained a national strike fund.(get paid
when on strike)
o Promoted the cause of unionism.
o Mediated disputes between management and
labor. (was in the middle)
o Pushed for closed shops (business that would
not hire non-union workers)
How did all unions help the workers?
They helped to get new laws made to
help the workers
U.S. II 4e; 1a
Strikes
What is “On Strike” or a “Strike”?
The union members stop working until the
get better salaries or working conditions
One example of a labor strike:
The Homestead Strike: In 1892 the workers
at the Carnegie steel factory in Pennsylvania
went on strike because the company
lowered their wages or salary… A small war
was fought between the company guards
and the union members… The strike lasted
for months; the workers did not win.
But…the workers won most other
strikes. After some time employers
learned to work together with union
leaders.
Progressive Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Progress is made
1. Laws improved safety conditions
Holden v. Hardy (1898)
Utah passes law limiting miners to
eight-hour work day as proper
health measure
Court upheld law due to hazardous
nature of mining
2. Reduced work hours - 8 hours
3. Everyone received minimum wage
or salary…
men, women, and children were
all paid the same
Men in the North--anywhere from $3.00/day for highly skilled
laborers to $1.25/day for unskilled workers.
Pay sufficient for people to survive if they worked full time, yearround.
Men in the South--$.75-$1.50/day in the South.
4. Banned child labor
5. Great Equality for African
Americans
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Booker T. (training, Tuskegee) Washington:
1895-1915 influential spokesman for reform
Economic Equality through Job Training at
Tuskegee Institute (1881)
Believed equality can be achieved through
vocational education aka Job training.
…and accepted social separation the
segregation of black from white. “Learn a
Trade or Skill and turn it into money and
freedom”
W.E.B. Du Bois- d’bois and d’girls full freedom
He was a writer and educator. Co-Founder of
NAACP in 1908. He believed in full
equality for African Americans… Political,
Economic, Social and
Civil rights.
Believed in Integration-No separation of
black and white
The Progressive era reformers and
unions helped create laws to protect
workers and children…
Muckrakers exposed the problems
The
Progressive Era:
Suffrage & Temperance
Movements
During the Progressive Era, there were many
efforts to change the laws of the United
States.
Women’s Suffrage
The Suffrage Movement helped women gain
equal rights
1. Increased Educational
Opportunities
2. Attained Voting Rights For
Women
Women gained the right to vote with the
passage of the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States…
Susan B. Anthony
1820 – 1906 …was one of the people
that worked for women’s suffrage
Elizabeth Cady Stanton1815 - 1902
She was also a women’s activist and leader of
the Suffragist Movement and
Susan B. Anthony worked together to help
women get the right to vote
The Temperance
Movement
1. Composed of groups opposed to the
making and consumption of alcohol
2. Supported the 18th Amendment
prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and
transport of alcoholic beverages
3. Reactions to the 18th Amendment were
both expected and unexpected
Unexpected
People made their own alcoholic
beverages. Gangsters, such as Al Capone,
made a fortune by providing alcohol that
was smuggled in from Canada and the
Caribbean
Expected
Legitimate businesses stopped selling
alcoholic beverages to their
customers. Alcoholism declined
during this time. Police and
government agents were in charge of
enforcing the new law