The Progressive
Movement
Gilded- “to make appear
more bright and attractive”
“An era of slums and
palaces”
Created by Katherine Lacks
Origins of the Progressive Movement
• industrialization and urbanization lead to
many problems
– social upheaval
– poor working conditions
– child labor
– domination by large corporations
– Corrupt governments
The Political Machine
The Organization (aka: City Bosses)
– organized group that controlled activities of
a political party in a city
– offered services to voters and business in
exchange for political and financial support
– voters received city jobs, contracts, political
appointments in exchange for votes
– organized like a pyramid
Created by Katherine Lacks
The Political Machine
City
Boss
Ward Boss
Local precinct
workers &
captains
• City Boss – controlled the
political party throughout
the city
• Ward Boss – worked to gain
all precinct’s support during
elections
• Local precinct workers and
captains – gained voter
support on block or in
neighborhood
Created by Katherine Lacks
The City Boss
• controlled 1000s of city jobs (including
police, fire, sanitation), business licenses
and inspections, influenced courts and
agencies
• helped solve many urban problems which
won loyalty from voters
• built parks, sewer systems, waterworks,
gave money to schools, hospitals,
orphanages, etc.
Created by Katherine Lacks
The City Boss
• many were 1st or 2nd generation
immigrants and had worked their way
up from poverty
• spoke language and could relate to
immigrant problems
• able to provide solutions
• helped immigrants become
naturalized, find place to live and get a
job in exchange for votes
Created by Katherine Lacks
Corruption was widespread during this era in the
government
The rapid industrialization
led to rapid urbanization and
local governments could not
keep up with the fast rate of
city growth
Immigrants from Southern and
Eastern Europe had no knowledge
of democratic society and were
easy prey for city bosses
Businessmen were closely
linked with big city bosses
making corruption hard to
fight
Created by Katherine Lacks
Graft & Scandal
• fraudulent elections - use names of
dogs, kids, deceased as voters
• graft - misuse of power
– turning in a bill higher than actual cost
and "kickback" (illegal payments) go to the
machine
– granting favors to businesses in return for
cash
– accepting bribes to allow illegal activities
Created by Katherine Lacks
Tweed Ring
• William Marcy Tweed - head of Tammany Hall NYC's powerful Democratic political machine
(1863)
• pocketed @ $200 million from city in kickbacks
(1869-1871)
• finally broken up in 1871
• Tweed indicted on 220 counts of fraud and
extortion - sentenced to 12 years
• escaped after serving 2 years but recaptured in
Spain later
Created by Katherine Lacks
William Marcy “Boss” Tweed
Created by Katherine Lacks
Reformers
• Social Gospel Movement
– preached salvation thru service to the poor
– inspired people to build churches in poor
communities and convinced some business
leaders to treat workers more fairly
Created by Katherine Lacks
Reformers
• Settlement-house Movement
– community centers in slum neighborhoods that gave
assistance and friendship to locals - especially immigrants
– ran mostly by middle-class, college-educated women
– promote education, culture, and social services
– provide classes - English, health, crafts, drama, music, etc.
– sent nurses to homes of sick, injured, etc.
– Jane Addams - co-founder of Chicago's Hull House - 1889
– Locust Street Social Settlement - Hampton, VA - 1st one for
African Americans
Created by Katherine Lacks
Reasons that the RICH were so rich (and there were
few of them) and the POOR were so poor (and there
were so many of them)
• No income taxes
• No Government regulations on business (at
first)
• Few unions to protect workers & help increase
wages
• Lack of proper education & Child Labor
• Strong Belief in Social Darwinism (among
“Rich”)
• Massive graft and corruption
Created by Katherine Lacks
WHAT WAS PROGRESSIVISM?
 IT CAN ALSO BE DEFINED AS THE BEGINNING
OF MODERN “LIBERALISM”
 LIBERALS/PROGRESSIVES BELIEVED:
 THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE MORE
ACTIVE
 SOCIAL PROBLEMS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED
THROUGH GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION
 PUBLIC FUNDS SHOULD BE USED TO
ADDRESS SOCIAL PROBLEMS
MOVEMENTS
THAT LED TO
PROGRESSIVISM
NEW INTEREST IN
THE POOR
CHARITY
WOMEN’S
SUFFRAGE
SOCIAL GOSPEL
SETTLEMENT
HOUSES
GOOD
GOVERNMENT
WHO WERE THE PROGRESSIVES?
small business
owners
reform
minded
politicians
teachers
and social
workers
The majority were from the well educated
urban middle class
Progressive Movement Basics
•
•
•
•
•
•
centered around reform
return control of gov. to the people
restore economic opportunities
correct injustices in American life
attracted support of middle-class city dwellers
wanted to correct problems caused by industry
4 Major Goals
• 1. Protecting social welfare
– relief of urban problems
– continuation of reform started by Social Gospel and
Settlement house movements
– YMCA – opened libraries, sponsored classes, built
swimming pools and handball courts
– Salvation Army – fed hungry, cared for kids in nurseries,
“slum brigades” to teach the value of hard work
– Florence Kelley – work in settlement houses and
protection of women and kids
Created by Katherine Lacks
4 Major Goals
• 2. Promoting moral reform
– belief that morality was key to improve lives of poor
– prohibition/temperance – banning of alcoholic beverages
– Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
• promoted prohibition
• Frances Willard – help organize into national organization
– demonstrated in saloons, opened kindergartens for immigrants,
visited prison inmates and asylums, worked for women’s suffrage
• Carry Nation – used hatchet to smash liquor bottles
– Anti-Saloon League
• angered many immigrant groups in whose lives saloons served
many purposes
• model for other single-issue interest groups
WCTU
4 Major Goals
• 3. Creating economic reform
– people were criticizing ideas of capitalism
– American Socialist Party (1900) – organized by
Eugene Debs
– muckrakers – journalists writing about corrupt
side of business
– Ida Tarbell – “History of the Standard Oil
Company”
Created by Katherine Lacks
4 Major Goals
• 4. Fostering Efficiency
– scientific management –(Frederick W. Taylor)
– effort to improve efficiency in workplace by
applying scientific principles to make tasks simpler
and easier
– workers became more productive which led to an
increase in goods and services
– assembly line - Henry Ford
• Ford reduced hours to 8/day and increased pay to
$5/day to keep workers happy
• very hard work
Created by Katherine Lacks
How did they do it???
Reforming Local and State Governments
• Government officials helped to reform
government on the local and state level by
holding fair elections, getting the people more
involved in politics, concentrating on
economic issues (fairer taxes, safer schools,
parks, etc)
Created by Katherine Lacks
How did they do it???
Protecting Workers
• movement to end child labor
–
–
–
–
1910 – 2 million industrial workers under the age of 15
suffered from health problems
National Child Labor Committee (1904)
Keating-Owen Act (1916)
• prohibited transportation of goods produced with child labor across state
lines
• declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court
– some success on state level – by 1920 the number of child laborers
was cut in half
• movement to limit work hours
– Muller v. Oregon – allowed state to legally limit working hours for
women
• workers' compensation also obtained to aid families of
workers hurt/killed on the job
Created by Katherine Lacks
How did they do it???
Protecting Workers
• Election Reforms
– Initiative: bill originated by the people
– Referendum: vote (by people) on an initiative
– Recall: voters may remove public officials from elected
positions by forcing them to face another election before
the end of their term
– Secret ballot: allows voters to choose without outside
influence
– Direct primary: voters choose candidates for public office
• 17th Amendment (1913): direct election of Senators
by popular vote
– forced Senators to be more responsive to the public
Created by Katherine Lacks
How did they do it???
Women’s Suffrage
• Susan B. Anthony: leader of the movement
• National American Woman Suffrage
Association (NAWSA)
• 3 part strategy
– convince state legislatures to grant women's
suffrage
• 1869: Wyoming, later Utah, Colorado, Idaho
– pursue court cases to test 14th Amendment
(Equal Protection Clause)
– push for national constitutional amendment
Susan B. Anthony
Alice Paul
NAWSA
Carrie Chapman CattCreated by Katherine Lacks
Created by Katherine Lacks
Created by Katherine Lacks
The Muckrakers
• Muckraker: a 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.
Created by Katherine Lacks
THE MUCKRAKERS
Upton Sinclair
Lincoln Steffens
Jacob Riis
Ida Tarbell
Health Protection
• The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
– told of unhealthy practices in the meat packing
industry
– Sinclair was invited to the White House to discuss
the book
– TR appointed commission of experts to report on
accuracy of Sinclair’s descriptions
– report backed up his claims
Created by Katherine Lacks
Upton Sinclair’s The
Jungle
How did they do it???
Health Protection
• Meat Inspection Act (1906)
– dictated strict cleanliness requirements for meat packers
– created program of federal meat inspection (grade a, b,
etc)
• Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
– halted sale of contaminated foods and medicines
– called for truth in labeling
Created by Katherine Lacks
Meat
Inspection Act
“I aimed at the
hearts of
Americans and
hit them in the
stomach”
The 16th Amendment, 1909-12, allowed the
Federal government to collect a dire3ct tax n
the income of US citizens
Created by Katherine Lacks
Civil Rights
• TR did not support civil rights but did support few individual
African Americans
• Appointments and dismissals
– appointed an Af. Am. as head of Charleston, SC custom house
– angered Af. Ams by dismissing entire regiment of Af Am soldiers
accused of rioting without questioning them first
• TR invited Booker T. Washington to the White House for
dinner. BTW promoted equal education for all races!!!
• W.E.B. Du Bois demanded immediate social and economic
equality for African Americans!!!!
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(1909)
– aim for full equality of races
Created by Katherine Lacks
William Howard Taft
Created by Katherine Lacks
Election of 1912
• Republican -Taft
• Progressive - Roosevelt
• Democrat - Wilson
• Socialist - Debs
Created by Katherine Lacks
Roosevelt was shot in
Wisconsin in 1912 by
saloonkeeper John
Schrank. The bullet hit
a thick eye glass case, a
50 page folded copy of
the speech he was
about to give, and then
entered his rib cage.
Created by Katherine Lacks
"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't
know whether you fully
understand that I have just been
shot; but it takes more than that
to kill a Bull Moose."
Created by Katherine Lacks
Election of 1912
• TRs platform: direct election of Senators
– adoption of initiative, referendum, recall in all states
– advocates women’s suffrage, national workmen’s comp., 8hour workday, minimum wage for women, federal child
labor law, federal trade commission to regulate business
• Wilson: endorsed progressive platform called New
Freedom with stronger antitrust laws, banking
reform, reduced tariffs
• Taft and TR tore each other apart
• Wilson won (435 electoral votes)
• mandate to break up trusts and expand gov role in
social reform
Created by Katherine Lacks
The 17th Amendment, 1913, called for the
direct election of US Senators
Woodrow Wilson
• Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
– effort to strengthen Sherman Act
– declared certain business practices illegal
– specified that labor unions and farm
organizations had right to exist and not subject to
antitrust laws
– injunctions against strikers prohibited
Created by Katherine Lacks
The 18th Amendment, 1917-19, called for the
abolition of alcohol production, transportation
and consumption of alcohol.
Women’s Suffrage
The 19th Amendment, 1920, extended the
right of suffrage to the female (voting age!)
citizens of the US
Created by Katherine Lacks
Why does the
Progressive
Movement
end?