THE AGE OF REFORM
CHAPTER 9 SECTION 1 NOTES
The Progressive Spirit
• By early 1900’s Industrialization had
transformed United States
• Growth led to unsafe working conditions,
crowded cities and larger gap between
rich and poor
• Progressivism grew from Populist reform
but centered on urban problems
• Plight of workers
• Poor sanitation
• Corrupt political machines
THE PROGRESSIVES
• Most were native born, college educated,
middle and upper class
• Urban middle class had grown from
750,000 in 1870 to 10 million in 1910
WOMEN AND PROGRESSIVES
• Joined reform movements because
acceptable way to influence politics
and society
• More women were enrolled in
college but job opportunities were
limited
• Reform work offered way to use
knowledge of medicine,
psychology, sociology and other
subjects
WOMEN AND PROGRESSIVES
• Ella Flagg Young became superintendent of
schools in Chicago in 1909—promoted public
education by raising salaries of teachers
• Some made careers of reform work while others
volunteered
– General Federation of Women’s Clubs and National
Association of Colored Women
• Women participated in Progressive Party
Convention of 1912—platform supported
women’s suffrage and abolishment of child
labor
Progressive Issues
• Dangerous workplace
• Major concern was way corporate
America did business
• In 1910 70% of industrial workers had
54 hour work weeks
– Higher accident rates
• 25% of one Pittsburgh steel mill workforce
injured or killed per year from 1907-1910
Progressive Issues
• Demand limits on corporate power
– Promoted laws to limit monopolies and help
small businesses
– Called for 8 hour work day
– Minimum wage
– Safer work conditions
– Abolishment of child labor
Social Problems
• Wanted people to have greater control
over government
• New election reforms and other reforms
more responsive to desire of voters
• Inspired by spirit of social justice
– Believed in power of science and technology
to solve social problems
• John Dewey “education should prepare students
to function in society, not just give them factual
information
Inspiration for Reform
• Popular magazines such as Munsey’s
and Everybody’s published stories
about corruption in politics and
business as well as social problems
• McClure’s Magazine founded by S.S.
McClure in 1893
• Teddy Roosevelt coined term
Muckrakers to describe investigative
journalists
Inspiration for Reform
• October 1902 McClure’s publishes Tweed
Days in St Louis by Lincoln Steffens and
Claude Wetmore—describes St. Louis’s
political machine and comparison to Boss
Tweed of New York
• Ida Tarbell writes series of 19 articles about
“History of Standard Oil”—uncovering
details about corrupt practices of John
Rockefeller—published in McClure’s
– Ida never wanted to be associated with
muckrakers—her father’s company had been
bought out by Standard Oil
Muckraking Books
• Lincoln Steffens writes
Shame of the Cities in 1904—
describes urban political
corruption
• Ray Stannard Baker writes
Following the Color Line in
1908—describes plight of
African Americans
Writers and Social Problems
– Novelists describe darker side of
new industrial society’s effect on
people
• Theodore Dreiser writes Sister
Carrie (1900) and The Financier
(1912)—describing workers
brutalized by greedy business
owners
• Edith Wharton describes how
closed-mindedness of elite society
leads heroine to social isolation and
despair in The House of Mirth in
1905
Writers and Social Problems
• The Promise of American Life published in
1909 by Herbert Croly argues that
government should use regulatory and
taxation power to promote welfare of its
citizens
• Jane Addams Democracy and Social
Ethics (1902) urges private citizens to
show more social responsibility
– Although progressives wanted to
transform society and its values they
remained committed to Democracy for
all citizens