The Expansion of Industry
The Gilded Age
•
•
•
Gilded means covered with thin layer of gold
Term used to describe the thin layer of prosperity that covered the poverty and
corruption of much of society
Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few, while many people were very
poor.
Technological Revolution
• technology is high priority
– Patents-owners have
exclusive rights to make,
use, and sell inventions
– 500,000 patents issued
from 1860-1890
• Financing came from
investors willing to take
chance to make profit
– Stocks sold to raise capital
– Productivity increases
standard of living
•
•
•
•
•
Edwin L. Drake
Sent by Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co to drill for oil
Titusville, Pennsylvania
Used steam powered engine
1859 struck oil
Oil became major industry
Thomas Edison
•
•
•
•
Got $40,000 bonus for improving stock ticker
Left job to be inventor (age 23)
1880 light bulb invented
1882 created power station that powered
several buildings in NYC
Lewis Latimer
• Son of escaped slaves
• Improved filament on
light bulb to last longer
than a few days
• Self-taught mechanical
drawing
• Did patent drawing for
Bell’s telephone
• Invented toilet that
worked on moving trains
• Supervised construction
of lighting system in NYC
and other cities
George Westinghouse
• Used transformers and power stations to run
electricity over long distances
• By 1898 3,000 power stations; 2 million
homes in U.S. with power
• Invented air brakes for trains (safety
improvement)
Electricity’s impact on life
• Factories run 24/7
• Sewing machines=ready made clothes
• Thousands of jobs, including women, children,
immigrants
• Refrigeration
• Rural areas did not have electricity for decades
(Alabama in 1930s)
telegraph
• Telegraph invented
before Morse
• Morse patented it
• Invented Morse code
• Granville Woodsused telegraph to
communicate w/
moving train=fewer
collisions
Time Zones
• Created to help reduce delays in train traveled
• Called RR time
Why We Have Time-Zones.
Railroads and industry
• Faster and practical-higher speeds/move more
goods
• Lowered cost of production-received raw
materials and transported finished products
quicker
• Created national markets Model for big
business
• Stimulation of other industries-ex. Iron rail for
steel rails
Transcontinental Railroad
• Funded by Congress
• Central Pacific Railroad from
Sacramento, CA
• Union Pacific Railroad from
Omaha, Nebraska
• Met at Promontory Point,
Utah-golden spike
• Immigrant workers (many
Chinese)
Bessemer Process
• Made it easier and cheaper to remove impurities
from steel
• Made steel lighter, stronger, and more flexible
• Allowed for mass production of steel
• Allowed for building of Brooklyn Bridgecompleted May 24, 1883
The Growth of Big Business
Big Business
Robber barons
• Made money by
steeling from public/on
backs of workers
• Drained natural
resources
• Stretched laws
Captains of Industry
• Served nation by
building factories,
schools, etc
• Increased productivity
• Created higher standard
of living
Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth
• Make as much money as you can and then
give it away
• 80% of his wealth went toward some form of
education
• Funded over 3000 free public libraries
• Gave over $350 million away during lifetime
• “The Workingman’s Prayer” Comparison.
Social Darwinism
• Government should
not interfere in
business
• If left alone, fittest
businesses would
survive and become
rich
Carnegie Steel
• Used vertical
consolidation
• Bought up all
aspects of
production
• Created larger
profit margin for
own company
Standard Oil Company
• Used horizontal consolidation
• Used large size of company to negotiate lower prices for doing
business
• Cut prices of oil to drive competition out of business
• Bought out many firms in the same business
• Created a trust
Sherman Antitrust Act
• Attempted to limit the control
businesses would have over an
industry
• Outlawed combining
companies that restrained
interstate trade or commerce
• Ineffective for 15 years: vague
and large companies drug out
court fights
• Used in reverse against labor
unions
Immigrants/urbanization
• Factories needed labor to function
• Immigrants and farmers moved to cities in large
numbers to find work
• Workers were either paid piece work, by the job, or by
the hour.
• Many sweatshops sprang up with horrible conditions
and low wages
The Principles of Scientific
Management
• By Fredrick Winslow Taylor
• Designed to improve efficiency by breaking
down tasks and increasing productivity
Work environment
• Difficult for farmers and
immigrants to adapt to
working by the clock
• Unsafe
• Child labor- 5% of labor force
in 1880, one in five children
age 10-16 was employed
• Some children as young as 6
worked
• Social Darwinism supported
bad conditions=poverty was
result of weakness
The Great Strikes
strike: to stop work as a coercive message
• Why would workers
strike?
– Workers’ wages too low to
afford consumer products even
though high productivity
lowered prices
– Richest 9% control 75% of
wealth
– Some believed that wealth
should be equally distributed
and turned to the socialist ideas
of Marx and Engels
Labor Unions
• Knights of Labor-recruited skilled and unskilled laborers,
African-Americans, women; led by Terrance Powderly; wanted
eight hour workday, end of child labor; membership declined by
1890s due to violence
• American Federation of Labor- led by Samuel Gompers;
organized skilled laborers only; used collective bargaining; closed
shop
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Wobblies- organized
unskilled workers, full of Socialists, violent strikes
Employers Feared Labor Unions
• If paid higher wages and other demands, costs
would rise and profits would fall
• Fired union members
• Yellow dog contracts
• Refused collective bargaining
Great RR Strike of 1877
• Baltimore and Ohio RR company-10% wage cut & said would run double
headers (lay off workers)
• Workers clashed with the company and with local militias
• Pres. Hayes sent in troops to restore order
• Rioters burned RR property ($5 mill damage)
• Federal and state govs sided w/ companies
Eugene V. Debs
• Instrumental in the formation of the American
Railways Union, an industrial union, that
replaced craft unions in railway industry
• Canton, Ohio Speech-Mark Ruffalo
Haymarket Riot 1886
•
•
•
•
McCormick Reaper factory
Riots b/t strikers and scabs
Police killed several workers
Anarchists joined strikers to protest actions of police at
Haymarket Square
• Bomb thrown at police by anarchist, riot erupts, dozens dead
• Unions looked down upon by public as violent and antiAmerican
Homestead Strike, 1892
• Carnegie Steel in Homestead, Penn
• Henry Frick cut wages
• Frick used Pinkerton Security to put
down strike
• Shoot out b/t Pinkerton and strikers
left many dead
• Attempted assassination of Frick by
anarchist
• Public outcry against union violence
• Carnegie Steel, later U.S. Steel,
remained un-unionized until 1930s
Pullman Strike, 1894
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•
•
•
•
Pullman Sleeping Car (RR) company
Had built town to house workers
Company held tight control over town
Cut wages, maintained rent/food prices
Workers went on strike w/ aid of Debs and ARU; strikes prevented western
mail delivery
• Co. turned to gov for help
• Used Sherman Anti-trust Act to say that union was preventing trade
• Pres. Grover Cleveland sent in 2,500 troops
Politics, Immigration,
and Urban Life
Spoils System
• after winning an election, politician gives government jobs to supporters
as a reward for working toward victory
• Often jobs given to people who were completely unqualified
• term was derived from the phrase "to the victor go the spoils."
Gilded Age Political Parties
Republicans
• Appealed to industrialists,
bankers, eastern farmers,
blacks,
• Favored tight money supply
backed by gold, high tariffs
to protect business, gov aid
to RR, limits on
immigration, and blue laws
Democrats
• Less fortunate people,
northern urban immigrants,
laborers, southern planters,
western farmers
• Claimed to represent
ordinary people
• Favored increase money
supply backed by silver,
lower tariffs on imported
goods, higher farm prices,
less gov aid to big business,
fewer blue laws
Blue laws
• Laws forbidding “immoral” activities
• For example: men and women could not live
together before marriage, stores could not open on
Sunday, liquor could not be sold on Sunday
• No prostitution
Reforming the Spoils System
• 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes elected presidents.
• Hayes refused to use the spoils system /
• Began to reform civil service jobs (non-elected
jobs like postal carriers, civilian employees on
military bases)
• fired Chester Arthur from the New York state
Customs House.
1880 election
• Republicans split into Stalwarts,
supporters of Conkling who
supported the spoils system; HalfBreeds, followers of Senator James
Blaine who wanted to reform the
spoils system from w/i the Rep.
party, and Independents who
opposed the spoils system all
together.
• Republicans nominated James A.
Garfield, a Half-Breed, for president
and Chester Arthur a Stalwart for
Vice-President
Garfield assassinated!
•Charles Guiteau shot the President.
•Garfield lay in the White House for weeks.
•Alexander Graham Bell tried unsuccessfully to
find the bullet with device which he had
designed.
•On September 19, 1881, died from an
infection and internal hemorrhage.
•He had been president for 6 months and 15
days. The second shortest term in history.
Chester Arthur became President
• Arthur had supported the spoils systems
during his campaign
• After becoming president supported civil
service reform
• Used death of Garfield to push through the
Pendleton Civil Service Act, which created the
Civil Service Commission to test applicants for
government jobs. Jobs would now be based
on merit, not favor.
1884 presidential election
• Campaign focused on scandals rather than issues
• Cleveland opponents said that he had fathered
child out of wedlock
• Cleveland became the first Dem elected pres since
1856, despite scandal, thanks to the mugwumps, a
group of Republicans that decided that Blaine was
too corrupt to support.
Ma, Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?
He’s in Washington. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Grover Cleveland
•
•
•
•
Favored tight money policy,
which favored big business
(this is normally a
republican policy)
Oppose high tariffs
Took back 80 acres of RR
land
Supported RR regulation
Railroad Regulation
• Munn vs. Illinois 1887 allowed states to
regulate RR practices w/i their borders
• Most RR traffic crossed state lines
• any lawyers for RR said that only fed gov could
regulate interstate commerce
*** established the constitutional practice of
public regulation of private business that
serves the public interest
1887 Interstate Commerce Act
• Allowed gov to regulate RR
• Rates had to be set in proportion to distance
traveled, outlawed special rates, outlawed free
tickets.
• Set up Interstate Commerce Commission, but it was
very weak. Lost most cases that it tried in court (15
out of 16 b/t 1887-1905)
1888 presidential election
• Cleveland lost to Rep Benjamin
Harrison
• Harrison favored higher tariff
and won business support
• Made choices as president that
harmed the economy (pensions
to Civil War soldiers, and high
tariffs)
1892 presidential election
• Grover Cleveland became the only president in U.S. history
elected to two non-consecutive terms
• 1893 Panic-millions of workers lost jobs, wages cut, gov
offered no help
• Coxey’s Army marched on Washington D.C. to demand that
the gov create jobs
1896 election
• Cleveland did not win his
party’s nomination;
Republicans nominated
William McKinley
• William Jennings Bryan
nominated by both Populists
and Democrats
• McKinley won due to support
from the urban workers and
the middle class; won a
second term in 1890 on the
slogan “a full dinner pail”
(prosperity)
•
•
McKinley’s assassination
On Sept. 6, 1901, McKinley
was at the Temple of Music,
greeting the public. Leon
Frank Czolgosz waited in line
with a pistol in his right hand
concealed by a handkerchief.
at 4:07 P.M. Czolgosz fired
twice at the president. The
first bullet grazed the
president’s shoulder. The
second went through
McKinley's stomach, colon,
and kidney, and finally lodged
in the muscles of his back.
What happened to Czolgosz?
• Czolgosz was later found guilty of murder, and was electrocuted at Auburn
Prison on October 29, 1901.
Immigrant Experience
•Between 1865 and
1890, 10 million
people entered the
US
•Individuals hope
for personal liberties
/social mobility
•education, cheap
land, and religious
freedom
•majority of immigrants
traveled in steerage
•at first men came alone to
establish themselves in the
New Country
•men were called “birds of
passage”
•Leaving their homes required
great courage.
•The voyage across was often
miserable.
•Most immigrants could afford
only the cheapest
accommodations
•Ship owners jammed up to
2000 people on the ships
•In these close quarters,
disease is spread rapidly.
Diseases like the measles
infected many immigrants.
53
Political and religious persecution pushed many people
to leave their homes. In the late 1800s, the Russian
government supported pogroms, organized attacks on
Jewish villages. Millions of Jews fled Russia and
Eastern Europe to settle in American cities.
54
Ellis Island and Angel Island
• 70% came through Ellis (European descent)
• Asians enter through Angel Island in San
Francisco or through Seattle
• Faced quarantine for disease
• After 1890 huge shift in where immigrants
came from=most now from eastern and
southern Europe
THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: 1820-1980
South/East
Europe
Immigration in 1000s
10000
Germany
8000
Latin America
Asia
Scandinavia
British
Isles
6000
4000
2000
1820
1840
1860
1880
Push Factors
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
Pull Factors
+1840s: Irish Potato Famine
+1850-1920: Overpopulation, War
+Economic Opportunity
+Political/Religious Freedom
+Recent: Overpopulation, War, Oppression
+Land Availability
Statue of Liberty welcomed immigrants on
Manhattan Island through the “Golden Door” after
1886.
57
The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to
land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall
stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes
command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!"
cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your
poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to
me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Ellis Island-immigrants faced the dreaded medical
inspection. Doctors examined eyes, ears and throats.
The sick were quarantined to keep the disease from
spreading. Officials had only minutes to check each
new arrival.
59
Angel Island
• Chief port of entry for Chinese immigrants from
1910-1940 whose entry was excluded but for some
exceptions
• The Chinese on Angel Island spent weeks, months,
even years detained
• Angel Island’s purpose was to keep immigrants out
– Erika Lee, At America’s Gate
Detention
• Men and women—
even husband and
wife—were separated
until they were
admitted
Many immigrants heard
stories that the streets of
the United States were
paved with gold. Once in
the United States, the
newcomers had to adjust
their dreams to reality.
They immediately set out
to find work. Through
friends, relatives, labor
contractors, and
employment agencies
they found jobs.
62
Dream vs. Reality
***How did the dream of the immigrant
contrast sharply with the reality of the
experience?
***Immigrants adjusted to their new lives by settling in
neighborhoods with their own ethnic group, usually at port
of entry.
64
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT OF 1882
• This act provided 10-year moratorium on Chinese
labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law
denied entry of an ethnic working group on the
premise that it endangered the good order of certain
localities. It was not repealed until 1943.
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT
1882
• Chinese immigrants worked for low wages.
• Labor groups pressured politicians to restrict
Asian immigration.
• Banned all but a few Chinese immigrants.
• Not lifted until 1943.
Impact of Chinese Exclusion Act
18
69
1
8
8
2
1
8
9
2
1
9
0
2
1
9
4
3
GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT:
– Japan stop sending immigrants if schools stop
segregating Asian students
MEXICANS COME TO U.S. TOO
• Some became U.S. citizens when the nation acquired Mexican
territory in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War.
• About 1 million Mexicans arrived b/w 1910 to 1930 to escape
turmoil in their country.
• U.S. needed workers after severe limitations placed on other
workers from Asia
Urbanization
If you are an
immigrant, is your
life at all like what
you expected in
America?
What were you
“promised”?
What did you
actually find?
Rural to Urban migration
• Migration to the cities occurs in the early
1900s as a result of the technology that is
present on the farm. Not as many farmhands
are needed to accomplish the work.
City Life
Many poor families crowded into the cities oldest sections. Middleclass people lived father out in row houses or new apartment buildings.
Beyond them, the rich built fine homes with green lawns and trees.
72
Poor families:
•crowed slums
•streets were jammed with people, horses, pushcarts, and garbage
•living space limited so builders devised new kind of apartment to hold more people
• put up buildings six or seven stories high=tenements w/no windows, heat, or indoor
bathrooms
•Typhoid and cholera and raged for the tenants. Tuberculosis was the biggest killer.
73
Dumbbell Apartments
Dumbbell Apartments
• Jacob Riis wrote “How the Other
Half Lives”
African Americans:
•hard times of prejudice and violence
•blacks headed to northern cities
•1890’s, the south side of Chicago had a thriving African-American
community. Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and other northern
cities had growing African American neighborhoods.
76
Urbanization - Sanitation
• Horse manure piled up on
streets
• Sewage flowed through
open gutters
• Factory smoke filled the air
• Garbage was dumped in
the streets (no formal
trash collection)
•
•
•
•
•
Urbanization - Fire
Building materials were flammable
No fire departments
No water
Overcrowding
Fires occurred in every major city (2 major examples):
– Chicago (1871): 24 hours, 250 ppl died, 100,000 homeless, 3 sq mi
destroyed, $2 bil in damages, 18,000 buildings destroyed
– San Francisco (1906): 4 days, 1,000 ppl died, 200,000 left homeless, 5
sq mi destroyed, $500 mil in damages, 28,000 buildings destroyed
Political Machine
Organized group that controlled the activities
of a political party in a city and offered
services to voters and businesses in
exchange for political or financial support.
City Boss
Ward Boss
Local Precinct Workers
And Captains
Political Machine continued
• Precinct Workers – Worked to gain voters’ support on a
city block or in a neighborhood and reported to the
ward boss.
• Ward Boss – Helped the poor and gained votes by doing
favors or providing services. In return for votes they
would provide city jobs, contracts or appointments.
• City Boss – Controlled thousands of municipal jobs,
including police, fire and sanitation departments.
Controlled business licenses and inspections. Had a lot
of influence over courts and other municipal agencies.
Boss Tweed
• Thomas Nast’s cartoons in
Harper’s Weekly helped strip
Tweed of his power
• Tweed was charged with fraud and
extortion
• His machine was dismantled
• Mr. Tweed is quoted as telling Nast at
one point that "Let's stop those @#!%
pictures. I don't care so much what the
papers write about me -- my
constituents can't read, but *!@# it,
they can see pictures.”
• Thomas Nast: The Impact of proper
Journalism
Section 4
REFORMERS HELP THE POOR:
• Social Gospel movement…Early reform
program. Leaders preached that people
reached salvation by helping the poor.
• Attack causes of poverty and vice, not blame
poor
Social Gospel preached charity and
justice.
•
•
•
•
•
Labor reform
English classes
Child care
Clothing
Established settlement houses
Settlement houses
• Usually founded by
college educated men
and women
• Community centers to
serve needs
• Founders lived in poor
neighborhoods
• Most famous was Hull
House, founded by Jane
Addams
Nativism
• The new immigrants were not as eager to become
“Americanized” as earlier immigrants
• Nativists believed that Anglo-Saxon Protestants
were superior to all other ethnic groups
• The Immigration Restriction Act, 1897, required
literacy tests in English before entry into the US
• Immigration Restriction Act of 1921 severely limited
immigration from Europe and Asia
Temperance Movement
• Sought to ban alcohol
• Seen as root of evil, poverty,
abuse
• 3 major groups supported
Prohibition, or the legal
banning of alcohol:
Prohibition Party, Woman’s
Christian Temperance
Movement, Anti-Saloon
League
• Maine=1st “dry” state
Carry Nation
• Most famous prohibitionist
• Famous for smashing bars with hatchet and Bible
• Blamed alcohol for links b/t saloons, immigrants, and
political bosses
Purity Crusaders
• Vice became big business in cities
• Gambling, alcohol, prostitution, drugs
• Tried to end “vice” in community; take back
the neighborhood.
• Result: laws like the Comstock Law that
prohibited the sending of obscene material
through the mail, like birth control info
• Remember Victoria Woodhull?
Populism
and Politics 1877-1900
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nationwide interest in politics
Shaped largely by two major parties
Many divisions in politics in late 1800s
Suffrage?
Local concerns over national concerns
Success attributed to Party loyalty
Voters in this “Democracy?”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Immigrants?
African-Americans in North and South?
Again the Political parties are directly involved.
Remember what we discussed about voting in the 19th
century?
So which party was dominate?
Hence the importance of these intense campaigns.
Not about the economy during this time period.
Most communities were party loyal. Why do you think?
The Presidency: A Long Way from
King Andrew
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Weak and Restricted. Why do you think?
Remember President Johnson?
Also President Grant-always deferring to Congress
And finally…
Republicans-Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur
Democrat-Cleveland (Maybe the only exception-VETO)
Republican-Harrison
Remember the Zinn Reading: Conservative-Proposed
very little, with good reason…different position.
What About Congress?
• Powerful but inefficient
• Hit me!
• Also, why having an even political playing field
cause problems?
• What measures were in place to prevent passing
reform?
• Some centralization required due to increased
business before Congress; Remember
nationalizing economy.
• Speaker of the House
State Governments
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Closer to people-Regulatory power
Collected taxes
State constitutions restricted public authority
Gradually expanded their role…again due to the
economy
Regulate industries
All were not effective…especially in the South
Important: Public responsibility for social
welfare and economic life.
Leads to Federal Regulation.
Farmers suffered financially due to
economic and natural causes
• Drought, boll weevils, debt, tenant farming
• Farmers were against the high tariffs that had been
passed to help businesses.
• High tariffs hurt farmers: raised the price of
manufactured goods, like farm machines and
European countries retaliated by raising the tariff on
farm crops.
The Illustrious Life of the Tariff
• Tariffs protected manufactured goods in
the United States by placing a tax on
imported goods.
• Farmers saw tariffs as proof that the
government favored businesses in the
Northeast.
Money Issue
• Farmers favored inflation which was directly
tied to the money supply (how much money is
in circulation). Inflation caused the price of
farm goods to increase. It also helped farmers
who had borrowed money.
• Deflation helped people who loaned money.
Less money in circulation meant that loaners
would receive payments that were worth
more than the money they loaned.
Monetary policy
Should the government decrease the amount of
money in circulation or increase??
• The government had to decide if the
monetary policy of the United States
would be based on gold or silver.
• In 1873, the government decided to
use gold as the standard for which was
supposed to stabilize the economy and
prevent inflation.
• This act favored lenders (“gold bugs")
who would be paid back with currency
based on the amount of gold held by
the government.
“Silverites”
• Mostly silver miners and western farmers
• Farmers were hurt by the gold standard and
“deflation”.
• They favored, free silver, or the unlimited
coining of silver to increase the money supply.
Bland-Allison Act 1878
• Required federal gov to coin
more silver
• Vetoed by Pres. Hayes;
would cause inflation
• Over ridden by Congress
• Limited effect b/c gov
refused to coin more than
the minimum amount of
silver
•
•
•
•
Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890
Forced gov. to purchase and coin more silver
Gold reserves dwindled; caused Panic
Remember who actually had gold? Zinn Reading?
Cleveland blamed Silver Purchase Act; and saw to the
repeal of the Act in 1893, the year of the worst
economic Panic
The Grange
• Organization to help
farmers
• Founded by Oliver Kelley
• Bought goods in large
quantities at lower prices
• Pressured state legislators
for policies favorable to
farmers; RR regulation,
etc.
Interstate Commerce Act
• Passed under pressure from farmers to
regulate RR
• Signed by Cleveland in 1887
• Regulated RR prices charged to ship goods b/t
states, outlawed special rates, outlawed free
tickets to politicians
The Populists
• Nickname for the People’s Party
• Formed by farmers and workers to demand change
in government economic and social policy
• Wanted: increase in $ circulation, unlimited minting
of silver, progressive income tax, gov. ownership of
communication and transportation systems
• Advocated 8 hr work day
• Wanted to united black and white farmers to support
to same causes
William Jennings Bryan
• Made “Cross of Gold” speech…
“You shall not crucify mankind
upon a cross of gold!”
• Nominated by both Democrats
and Populist for President
• Won in West and South, but did
not win election because he could
not carry the heavily urbanized
and industrialized Midwestern
and northern states. They feared
inflation due to free silver.
• Even though Bryan lost election,
Populist ideas lived on in the
Democratic Party
Chapter 21
The Progressive Reform Era
The Early Twentieth Century
• The Populists Movement? Legacy?
• Encouraged change through politics
• Populism=Progressives
– Similar Goals:
•
•
•
•
Direct Election of Senators
Opposition to Monopolies
1900-1920-Dominant period
Difference? Populists vs. Progressives
The Progressive Movement
•
•
•
•
•
•
Why did populism fail?
Why were the progressives successful?
Answer: Money, time, influence, and…
Most important? Remember sectionalism
Progressive=Northern and Middle Class
Success similar to reformers in 1830s
Key Progressive Measures
• W.E.B. DuBois (NAACP)
• Feminist Movement-Sanger. Nineteenth
Amendment
• Robert LaFollette-State leaders…leader.
• Increased voter power:
– Ballot initiative
– Referendum
– Recall Election
– Workplace Improvement
Key “Progressive” Presidents
• Theodore Roosevelt
–“Trustbuster”
–Food and Drug Administration
–National Parks
–Protecting Land
Key “Progressive” Presidents
• William Howard Taft
–Two Key Amendments:
• Sixteenth Amendment…Anyone?
• Seventeenth Amendment…Anyone?
• Also attacked trusts
Key “Progressive” Presidents
•
•
•
•
•
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Woodrow Wilson
1912-Monumental Election
Reminiscent of Hamilton vs. Jefferson
New Nationalism vs. New Freedom
Complex Figure…like so many others.
The “Progressive” Presidents and the Era that
defined them.-Clip
The Turning Point
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Remember Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and John Locke?
What about their views on government?
Progressive Era- Turning point in government involvement.
For example, Prohibition.
Wilson gets away from Jefferson
– Fed. Gov responsible for protecting man’s freedom
– Roosevelt, Wilson, and trusts…
– Wilson’s view of government’s role:
• Restore competition
• How?
• Remember the tariff issue?
Key “Wilsonian” Creations
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Federal Trade Commission
Clayton Anti-trust Act-1914
Federal Reserve System
Key Question:
How long did “Progressivism” last?
“Goodbye to all that.”
“A beautiful shade of red comrade.”
Did it eat itself?
At the end of the 1800s, problems resulting from rapid
industrialization, immigration, and urban growth spurred
the creation of many reform movements during what is known
as the Progressive Era. This period lasted from 1890-1920.
Children in New York slums, 1900
"In a room not thirteen feet either way slept twelve men and
women, two or three in bunks set in a sort of alcove, the rest on
the floor. A kerosene lamp burned dimly in the fearful
atmosphere, probably to guide other and later arrivals to their
'beds' for it was only just past midnight....one of hundreds of
unlicensed lodging houses...a Bayard St. tenement...shelter for
'five Cents a Spot.'" Photo by flashlight, 1888, used as the basis
for an illustration in Riis' "How the Other Half Lives."
The "spacious" grounds surrounding tenement living
This photo shows the general unsanitary conditions of the
tenements. There are not enough garbage boxes as the
landlords are not made (by law) to supply enough. The first
house on the right is a small dilapidated, single-family frame
house now housing three families. 1900.
•Roots of reform came from earlier movements like nativism,
prohibition, purity crusades, social gospel philosophy, and
settlement houses.
•Governments had expanded some city services, but
corruption in business and government kept those benefits
from reaching the people that needed help the most.
•Private charities and social organizations could not solve
problems on such a large scale.
Lodging house , 1872
Why were progressives from the middle class and not
immigrant, poor, working class people?
Goals of the Progressive Era
Governments should do all of the following:
1. Be accountable to its citizens
2. Curb the power of wealthy special interests
3 Expand powers to improve the lives of all citizens
4. Become more efficient and less corrupt
*This is the first time that citizens had looked to the government
to solve their problems and assume responsibility for their welfare.
Journalists and other writers influenced public
opinion and government policy.
•Henry George wrote Progress and Poverty
•said that poverty remained because land
speculators bought and then held onto land until the
price rose
“Single tax” clubs sprang up
and supported Henry George’s
ideas.
Edward Bellamy wrote a book
called Looking Backward in
1888 about a Boston man who
was hypnotized in 1887 and
woke up in 2000. The man
found that America had become
a utopian society where the
government had taken over all
companies with the goal of
restructuring them to meet
human needs.
Utopia-an imaginary place where everyone lives in
harmony; a place where everything is right and for the
best.
The term muckraker was used by Theodore Roosevelt to
describe journalists and writers who wrote about corruption in
business and politics.
Upon reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Teddy Roosevelt wrote
the author, “the specific evils you point out shall, if their existence
be proved, and if I have power, be eradicated.
Packingtown-from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Workers walk over the meat and put it back
into the line to be processed. Rats will
crawl over the meat and workers will spread
poison around for them to die. When the
rats have been killed, the rats and the
leftover poison will then be packed together
in the meat.
The Shame of Cities by Lincoln Steffens exposed
political corruption in major cities like St. Louis,
Philadelphia, and New York. It focused on how
political machines controlled the vote.
From The Shame of Cities
Ida Tarbell wrote The History of Standard Oil to
reveal the abuses committed by the Standard Oil
Trust.
The Labor Movement
•Union membership grew very slowly in the 1890s
•courts on the side of big business
•issued an injunction, a court order that prohibits certain activities,
to prevent workers from going on strike
Pinkerton Guards escort strikebreakers (scabs)
•Some workers attracted to socialism, an economic and political philosophy
favoring public or government control of property and income.
•American socialists wanted to end the capitalist system, distribute wealth more
equally, and have government ownership of American industries.
•1901 Socialist Party of America formed
•Won about 1000 city government offices by 1912
•Most Americans against socialism and still favored capitalism!!
Emma Goldman: An Exceedingly
Dangerous Woman
“What is patriotism?”
• A Menace to Liberty
• The last refuge of scoundrels
• Sandra Oh Reading.
Many women believed that they had to have the right to vote in
order to institute progressive reforms that they believed in.
•Women and children faced horrible conditions in factories
•Many women’s organizations sought to reform the workplace
Many women work in crowded
factories, such as this lock and drill
department in Ohio in 1902
Child textile worker
Child mine worker
The Lowell Mill Girls
Florence Kelley-against child labor
Florence Kelley was the daughter of a United States congressman.
She studied at Cornell University and the University of Zurich. While in
Europe she became a follower of Marx and Engels.
Kelley moved to New York City where she married a fellow member of
the Socialist Labor Party. The marriage was not a success and in
December 1891 she left him and moved to Chicago with her three
children. Soon after arriving in Chicago, she joined Jane Addams’s Hull
House.
Kelley was placed in charge of investigating labor conditions in Chicago. Because of her
efforts, in 1893 Illinois passed a law prohibiting child labor, limiting working hours for
women, and regulating sweatshop conditions. When she became frustrated that the
attorney general would not enforce the law, she earned a law degree to take action
herself. Later in life she would fight tirelessly to improve health conditions for women
and children
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones
With miner children
With President Coolidge
Mother Jones’s husband and four children died in a yellow fever epidemic. She then
lost everything that she had in the Chicago fire in 1871. She was forced to go to work
to support herself. It was then that she appealed to the Knights of Labor for help and
took on their cause of improving working conditions. She organized unions for both
men and women. She became best known for her work improving mining conditions
in West Virginia and Colorado. Well into her eighties, she was still making pro-union
speeches. In 1905 she helped to found the International Workers of the World (IWW).
In one mill, I got a day-shift job. On my way to work I
met a woman coming home from night work. She had a
tiny bundle of a baby in her arms.
"How old is the baby?"
"Three days. I just went back this morning. The boss was
good and saved my place."
"When did you leave?"
"The boss was good; he let me off early the night the
baby was born."
"What do you do with the baby while you work?"
"Oh, the boss is good and he lets me have a little box with
a pillow in it beside the loom. The baby sleeps there and
when it cries, I nurse it.“
From Mother Jones’s autobiography
Mother Jones Reading
Veteran labor organizer
“Mother” Mary Jones, age 88,
urges steel workers to vote “Yes”
for a strike against the steel
corporations
Progressives often met with resistance from the very
people that they were trying to help.
•Poor people needed their children to work to help support
the family
•If progressives succeeded in outlawing child labor, many
families would have to survive on even less money.
Some people did not believe that it was the
government’s responsibility to be so
involved in the lives of its citizens- that the
government should not interfere in housing, health care, and
even moral issues like alcohol consumption.
Progressive legislation
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
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March 25, 1911, New York City
Employees were mostly young Italian and Jewish girls
Fire was fed by fabric and trash
Doors and window were locked to prevent women from
taking breaks
Fire escape was old and in disrepair and collapsed when
women piled onto it.
Fire department ladders not long enough to reach upper
floors where women worked
Water pressure would not reach upper floors
146 workers died
•Few of the terrified workers on
the 9th floor knew that a fire
escape was hidden behind iron
window shutters
•The ladder descended next to the
building forcing those fleeing to
climb down through flames
•Other shutters stuck open across
their path
•Design had been deemed
inadequate and the material from
which it was made was
insubstantial
•After a few made their way down,
the heat of the fire and weight of
the people caused the ladder to
twist and collapse
Fire fighters arrived soon after the alarm was sounded but ladders only
reached the 6th floor and pumps could not raise water to the highest floors
of the 10-story building. Still the fire was quickly controlled and was
essentially extinguished in half an hour. In this fire-proof building, 146
men, women, and children lost their lives and many others were seriously
injured.
•Protesting voices arose,
bewildered and angry at the
lack of concern and the greed
that had made this possible.
•Outraged cries called for
action to improve the unsafe
conditions in workshops.
Max Blank and Isaac Harris,
owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist
Company, were indicted on April
11th in the death of Margaret
Schwartz. The trial began 8
months later only to finish in 18
days. The task of the jurors had
been to determine whether the
owners knew that the doors were
locked at the time of the fire.
On December 27th factory
owners were acquitted of
responsibility. Three years later
23 individual suits were settled
at a rate of $75 per death.
Keober
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Kessler, Becky
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NYT - March 26, 1911
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Triangle Fire by L. Stein
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Klein, Jacob
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1301 Washington
Avenue, Brooklyn (120
Stanton Street)
March 26 and 28,1911 —
NYT; "The Washington
Fire Place" The
Independent, April 20,
1911
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Konowitz, Ida
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238 Clinton Street
NYT - March 28, 1911
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1503 Webster Avenue,
Brooklyn
Triangle Fire by L. Stein;
NYT - March 28, 1911
fracture of right leg; St.
Vincent's Hospital (3/26)
Kupla, Sara
Launswold, Fannie
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NYT - March 26, 1911
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Lefkowitz, Nettie
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27 East 3rd Street
NYT - March 28, 1911
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Lehrer, Max
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114 Essex Street
NYT - March 26, 1911
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"The Washington Fire
Place" The Independent,
April 20, 1911
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Lehrer, Sam
Leone, Kate
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515 East 11th Street
NYT - March 28, 1911
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Lermack, Rosie D.
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177 East 100th Street
NYT - March 27, 1911
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Leventhal, Mary
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604 Sutter Place,
Brooklyn
Triangle Fire by L. Stein;
NYT - April 1, 1911
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Levin, Jennie
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Triangle Fire by L. Stein;
NYT - April 1, 1911
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Levine, Abe
Brooklyn
NYT — March 26, 1911
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Levine, Max
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NYT — March 26, 1911
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380 South 4th Street
NYT — March 27, 1911
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Triangle Fire by L. Stein;
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Levine, Pauline
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Maltese, Catherine
Maltese, Lucia
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35 2nd Avenue
Triangle Fire by L. Stein;
NYT - March 27, 1911
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Maltese,
Rosalie(Rosari)
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35 2nd Avenue
Triangle Fire by L. Stein;
NYT - March 27, 1911
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Manara, Mrs. Maria
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227 East 28th Street
NYT — March 27, 1911
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Manofsky, Rose
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412 East 74th Street
NYT — March 27, 1911
multiple injuries;
Bellevue Hospital
Remembering the Triangle
Shirtwaist Fire
William Howard Taft
Progressivism under Taft
• Promised to follow progressive lead of TR
• TR had placed Gifford Pinchot, a strong conservative, over the
US Forest Service
• Taft placed Ballinger, a man that supported business, over the
Department of Interior.
• Ballinger allowed a businesses to take possession of coal rich
land in Alaska that was set aside as public lands
• Pinchot complained publicly about Ballinger and Taft fired
Pinchot
Taft a failure as a
Progressive President?
• Roosevelt
returned from
Africa and was
furious about the
job Taft was doing
• Taft was not
excited about
continuing with
another term in
the Presidency
Election of 1912
• Roosevelt sought the
nomination from the
Republican party but did not
get it
• The Progressive (Bull Moose)
Party created; Roosevelt
presidential candidate
• Supported: women’s suffrage,
child labor ban, worker’s
compensation, and direct
election of senators
• Basics of Election-Clip
Wilson: 42% Popular Vote
Taft:
23% Popular Vote
T. Roosevelt 27% Popular Vote
Debs
8% Popular Vote
Woodrow Wilson-1912
• President of Princeton University; religious man
• Underwood Tariff -removed high tariffs
• To make up for lost income to the countrypassed the 16th amendment for collecting federal
income tax
• Clayton Anti Trust Act made Sherman Anti Trust
stronger by protecting unions
• Created the Federal Trade Commission to watch
businesses to make sure they were behaving and
not attempting to become powerful monopolies
• Federal Reserve System to control cash flow and
help stop economic panic
WILSON HAS BIG PLANS
• Progressive “New
Freedom” platform
WILSON’S FAULTS
• Did not support Civil Rights
• Allowed bathrooms to be segregated again at
the White House
• Did not support Women’s Suffrage
“Dear Mr. Adams…”
The Women Get Organized
• 1st organization of women: Seneca Falls New
York
• Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Susan B. Anthony will join the movement
• Susan B. Anthony argued that the 14th
amendment gave women the right to vote
14th Amendment
Amendment XIV
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No
state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Susan B. Anthony
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In the 1800s, women in the United States had few legal
rights and did not have the right to vote. Susan B.
Anthony was arrested for casting an illegal vote in the
presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then
fined $100 but refused to pay.
3 ways to possibly
acquire the vote
• 14th amendment
• Each state pass a law allowing for women’s
suffrage
• A Constitutional Amendment so that every
state would then have to recognize the
amendment to the “Law of the Land”
NAWSA: National American
Women’s Suffrage Association
• NAWSA continued to fight a state by state
campaign and push for an amendment to the
Constitution along with the Congressional
Union
Congressional Union
• Lucy Burns and Alice Paul
tried new tactics in their
fight for suffrage
• They burned speeches
Wilson had made
• Picketed the White House
• Were arrested and started
hunger strikes in jail
ALICE PAUL
19TH AMENDMENT WAS PASSED IN
1920
“Not for Ourselves”
• Ken Burns- Overview of Women’s Suffrage• (Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony)