The Progressive Era

(1890-1920)
The Drive for Reform
EQ: What problems did society face and
how were they exposed to the public?
The Drive for Reform
- Progressivism was a
movement by middle class
Americans who wanted the
government to fix economic
and social problems of the
day. They were mostly
- motivated by religion
› Social gospel
Movement
- improve society by
applying Christian
principles of Salvation
through good works
The Drive for Reform
When you want change
who do you go to…?
- The press!!!
- Called muckrakers
- journalists who used
sensational
investigative reports
to uncover the
problems with
society
- nickname given by
 Goals of the
Reduce political
corruption Progressive Movement
End child labor and
improve working
and living conditions

Limit monopolies/trusts

Women’s suffrage

Moral reform
(drinking, helping the
poor, etc.)
“Raking the Muck”
Progressive Presidents
⦿ Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1901-1909)
⦿ William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
⦿ Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
The Drive for Reform
⦿ Upton Sinclair was
probably the most
famous muckraker
⦿ wrote The Jungle, a
book that described
the horrors of the
meat packing
industry.
⦿ video
 The Drive for Reform
⦿ Ida Tarbell wrote
The History of
Standard Oil (1902)
› 19 part series in
McClure’s Magazine
⦿ Showed the
problems with
monopolies and
outed Rockefeller
 The Drive for Reform
⦿ Lincoln Steffens
wrote The
Shame of Cities
(1904)
⦿ exposed
corruption in big
city politics.
⦿ led to reform in
The Drive for Reform
⦿ Jacob Riis was a
photojournalist
⦿ told stories with
his pictures
⦿ wrote How the
Other Half Lives.
⦿ Showed the
Reform Movements
Helping the urban poor
Settlement house –
community center that
provided social services to
the poor in the cities
› taught English to
immigrants
› provided day care,
education, and
 Reform Movements
Child labor
⦿ dangerous & unhealthy
working conditions
⦿ should be in school
Successes:
- states set minimum age
to work (still pretty
young)
- created maximum
number of hours work
Reform Movements
Improving working conditions
⦿ Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory
› March 25, 1911 a fire
breaks out
› workers were trapped
by locked doors
› 146 women died in
less than 15 minutes.
 Reform Movements
Improving working conditions
⦿ Workers got injured/killed
received little to no
compensation
⦿ successes:
› created workers
compensation
› zoning laws: broke city
into sections
› building codes (light, air,
 Reform Movements
Prohibition Movement
⦿ blamed alcohol for
society's problems
› wanted to ban alcohol
⦿ led by Women’s Christian
Temperance Union and
Anti-Saloon League
› successful
› 18th amendment
Reform Movements
Prohibition Movement
⦿ Carrie Nation was a
leader for the
prohibition
movement.
⦿ radical - smashed up
saloons wielding a
hatchet
⦿ 6ft, 180 lbs.
⦿ called herself “a
Reform Movements
Reforming local and state gov’t
⦿ Robert M. La Follette was a
Progressive reformer at the
state level
⦿ Governor of Wisconsin and
U.S. Senator
⦿ regulated the RRs,
improved education, made
factories safer
⦿ WI called “laboratory of
Video
Video
Reform Movements
Reforming state and local
gov’t
⦿ direct primary ⦿ referendum
› citizens vote to
› citizens have
select for nominees
in upcoming power to
elections approve or
⦿ initiative object new laws
› gave ppl the power ⦿ recall
to propose any new › gave voters
Women in the Progressive Era
EQ: How did women contribute to the
Progressive Era and what major victories did
they have?
Women in the Progressive Era
conditions for women:
- difficult working conditions
- hand over wages to
husbands or fathers
- treated as second class
citizens
- no right to vote!!!!
Women in the Progressive Era
Leading the movement
- women worked as:
- muckrakers
- leaders in the temperance
movement
- worked in settlement
houses
- leaders against unfair
working conditions
- Florence Kelley: National
 Women in the Progressive Era
Margaret Sanger - opened
country’s 1st birth control
clinic (1916) and founded
American Birth Control
League
- less kids = better family
life
Ida B. Wells - black teacher
that founded Nat’l
Do Now…
● Go to Canvas> Open the Progressive
Women assignment…
● Watch the Videos and complete the
Progressive Leaders Chart.
● Due: By the end of class
Do Now..
● Canvas>Modules>Progressivism>Ida B.
Wells.
● Complete Article & Video
● Answer all questions & Submit by
2:07pm
Women in the Progressive Era
AH 1 Review!
1. suffrage = ?
2. 1st women’s right convention?
3. what document was drafted there?
4. what important phrase did this document say?
5. who were the early suffrage leaders?
6. which amendment gave African American males the
right to vote but still denied it for women?
 Women in the Progressive Era
The Fight for Suffrage
Carrie Chapman Catt - new
leader of the suffrage
movement
- president of NAWSA
(suffrage organization)
- “winning plan”: fighting for
suffrage on 2 fronts
- state level: using
voting rights prior to 1920
Women in the Progressive Era
Alice Paul -
suffragette with
more radical tactics
- marches
- protests
- hunger strikes
Formed the National
Woman’s Party to
fight for the vote.
Women in the Progressive Era
The Fight for Suffrage
- in 1919 Congress
approves an
amendment to allow
women to vote
- in 1920 it is ratified and
becomes part of the
Constitution.
- 19th Amendment: right
Women in the Progressive Era
why did women finally gain the
right to vote?
- contributions to WWI war effort
- Catt’s “winning plan”
- radical efforts by NWP
African Americans Demand Reform
EQ: How did African Americans fight against
racial discrimination?
 African Americans Demand Reform
Jim Crow laws: segregation laws
that required separation of the
races
Plessy v. Ferguson (1898) -
“separate but equal” aka
segregation is legal
de jure segregation
- segregation by law (South)
de facto segregation
- segregation by custom/tradition
African Americans Demand Reform
Booker T. Washington
- move slowly toward racial
equality
- achieve economic
independence first and
civil rights will follow
- founded the Tuskegee
Institute
- a vocational school for
African Americans Demand Reform
Atlanta Compromise
- speech given by
Washington
- submit to white
authority
- would not agitate for
civil rights or the vote
- in return, guarantee for
free basic education
African Americans Demand Reform
W.E.B. Du Bois
- first African American to get
PhD from Harvard + prof at
ATL Univ
- demand full and immediate
equality
- fight for rights given by
Constitution
- belief in “Talented 10th” -
small elite group of African
Americans that would lead
African Americans Demand Reform
Niagara Movement
- headed by Du Bois
- NO gradual progress!
- must have formal education
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP)
- formed in 1909 to protect black
rights
- abolish segregation and
African Americans Demand Reform
Ida B. Wells … (again)
- owned Tennessee
newspaper
- used it to expose
lynching- murder by
a mob
- “Southern horrors of
legalized murder”
- life long crusader of
African Americans Demand Reform
George Washington
Carver
- teacher at Tuskegee
- discovered hundreds
of new uses for the
peanut
- ink
- mayonnaise
- shaving cream
- helped end Southern
Roosevelt and Taft
EQ: How did Theodore Roosevelt change
the power of the presidency?
Roosevelt and Taft
Characteristics of the Progressive Presidents:
- powerful and involved
- used their power for good of the nation
- regulated industry to give power back to the
people
Roosevelt and Taft
Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
- elected as VP in 1900,
became president after
assassination of William
McKinley
(the Cross of Gold guy)

The Bully Pulpit

- terrific platform to advocate an
agenda… Teddy will use the
Roosevelt and Taft
Square Deal
- TR’s platform - 3 C’s
- Consumer
Protection
- Conservation
- Control
Corporations
- fair gov’t
- keep powerful &
wealthy from taking
Square Deal - 3 C’s
Roosevelt and Taft
Consumer Protection
Meat Inspection Act (1906)
- meat must be inspected before it is
sold
- inspection of processing plants
- what brought this issue to light?? - Sinclair’s The
Jungle
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
- inspect foods & medicine and
guarantee the quality such items.
- banned shipment of impure food
 Roosevelt and Taft
Conservation
- TR designated 230 million acres of land
for public use & parks
- roughly the size of France
- created U.S. Forest Service
- est. 150 nat’l forests & 5 nat’l parks
- close friendship with John Muir, a
conservationist whose efforts helped est.
Yosemite Nat’l Park
- TR known as our “Conservationist President”
Roosevelt and Taft
Control Corporations
- TR known as a “trust
buster”
(trust: controls an entire
good or service - a
monopoly)
- gave power to the
Sherman Antitrust Act
and used it to break up
Roosevelt and Taft
Coal strike of 1902
- one of the first
things TR did in
office was end a
coal strike in PA
- TR supported the
laborers!!!!!!
Roosevelt and Taft
Northern Securities v.
U.S., 1904
- railroad company
owned by J.P. Morgan
- the trust was
ordered to be broken
up
- TR’s first big victory
Roosevelt and Taft
American Tobacco v. U.S., 1911
- American Tobacco founded by J.B.
Duke
- broke up the tobacco trust into several
smaller companies
- American Tobacco Co
- R.J. Reynolds
- Liggett & Meyers
Roosevelt and Taft
Standard Oil Co. v. U.S., 1911
- Standard Oil monopoly
broken up!!!!
- Exxon
- Mobil
- Chevron

video
Roosevelt and Taft
The Greatest Trustbuster???
(not quite)
- TR broke up 41 trusts
- Taft broke up 90 trusts
- Wilson broke up 203 trusts
Roosevelt and Taft
Conquering the Railroads!
Elkins Act (1903)
- imposed fines on RRs that
gave special rates to
shippers (this hurt the
common man)
Hepburn Act (1906)
- gave ICC power to
enforce regulation
- set max. prices
Did TR accomplish his “Square Deal”?

Consumer Protection Conservation Controlling Corporations

Roosevelt and Taft
- TR promised that he
would not run again
- TR handpicked his
successor to carry
out his policies
- chose William
Howard Taft, a
close friend
- **SPOILER
 Roosevelt and Taft
Taft’s policies
Payne-Aldrich Tariff
- raised taxes on imported goods
- Taft signed it, Progressives were
angry
Gifford Pinchot
- Taft fired him from position of
Chief of the U.S. Forest Service
- he was appointed by TR

*attacked all trusts-- not just the bad!

The Election of 1912
New Nationalism - TR’s
philosophy that strong
nat’l gov’t is needed to
promote social justice and
human welfare
- plans to run for
president again!
Republican Party
nominates Taft instead of
The Election of 1912
TR forms a new party!
- The Progressive Party
- aka the Bull Moose Party
- “I feel as strong as a bull
moose!”
The Election of 1912
Roosevelt - Progressive Party
Taft - Republican Party
Wilson - Democratic Party
- Republican Party is split….
Wilson wins!
The Election of 1912
The Election of 1912
Wilson’s New Freedom
EQ: Was the “New Freedom” an effective
solution to the problems of industrialization?
Wilson’s New Freedom
Woodrow Wilson
- 28th president/leader
of Progressive
Movement.
New Freedom - Wilson’s
program
- strong gov’t
- anti-trust
- more freedom for
small businesses
Wilson’s New Freedom
Wilson attacked the
“triple wall of privilege”
- the tariffs
- the banks
- the trusts
**these prevented
businesses from being free
Wilson’s New Freedom
Underwood Tariff Act
- cut tariffs (40% ->
25%)
- create a graduated
income tax (wealthy
people pay higher %).
16th Amendment
- gave Congress the
power to collect an
Wilson’s New Freedom
Reforming banks
Federal Reserve Act
(1913)
- reorganized federal
banking system
- federal gov’t in charge
of nation’s money
supply.
- make sure one
Wilson’s New Freedom
Federal Trade Commission
(1914)
- monitor business
practices
- keep monopolies from
forming
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)
- strengthened the
Sherman Act
The Progressive Amendments
16th:

17th:

18th:

19th:
Question to Consider:
Were the Progressives successful in
making government more responsive to
the will of the people?