THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT Libertyville HS

Impact of 1896 Election  New campaign style  Ascendancy of industrial over agricultural  Beginning of the end of era of high voter turnout  Decline of party and rise of interest groups

William McKinley: OOhio lawyer BBelieved in high tariff (increased to 50%!!) GGovernor of OH and US representative GGreatest pro business admin in US history PPanic of 1893 ended; prosperity reigned GGold Standard Act of 1900 FForeign affairs

Election of 1900  McKinley & T. Roosevelt (R)  Bryan & Adlai Stevenson (D)  Campaign  Economic times were good  R slogan: “Four More Years of the Full Dinner Pail”  D issues: silver and US imperialism Results McKinley: 292 ECV / 7.2 million Bryan: 155 ECV / 6.3 million

McKinley’s Second Term  9/6/01: McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, NY  Leon Czolgosz  2 nd gen. Polish immigrant  Anarchist beliefs  Assassination story  Last words: “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.”

Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt  Born to great wealth  Author, historian, hunter, naturalist, soldier, explorer  Congressman, governor of NY, Ass’t Sec’y of the Navy  Capitalist, but also known as a “trust buster” (anti- corruption)  Leader of Progressive Party, and a Reform minded GOP  First Progressive Era Pres.

Problems facing America, 1900  Political system problems  Corruption in gov’t  City machines  Wanted to increase political participation  Economic problems  Unfair tax burden  Working conditions  Hostility toward unions

Problems facing America, 1900  Economic Problems, cont.  Business consolidation Between 1897 and 1904, 4,227 firms merged to form 257 corporations The largest merger consolidating nine steel companies to create the U.S. Steel Corp. (Andrew Carnegie) By 1904, 318 companies controlled about 40 percent of the nation's manufacturing output One firm produced over half the output in 78 industries  Social problems  Living conditions of urban poor  Gap between rich, poor  Pollution

Goals of the Progressive Movement  Improve American life  Increase social justice  Women  African & Native Americans  Increase economic justice  Increase political participation  Fix problems of industrialization, urbanization  Only thing big enough to take on big business was gov’t

Members of the Progressive Movement  Middle Class  Urban professionals  Middle management  Concerned about urban poor, big business  Also concerned about worker led revolution  Farmers  Populist Party ideas  Break up monopolies (gov’t control of RRs)  Low tariff, easy credit Middle Class Family Farm Family

Members of the Movement  Workers (unionized)  Women  Advocates for many different progressive changes  Women’s suffrage  Social welfare (“Hull House”)  Temperance  Journalists  “Muckrakers”  Highlighted economic, social ills  Led to governmental action  Upton Sinclair (“The Jungle”)  Jacob Riis (“How the Other Half Lives”)  Lincoln Steffens (machine politics)

Progressive Solutions: Politics  Political participation  Direct election of Senators (17 th Am)  Women’s Suffrage (19 th Am)  Increased civil service  Campaign limits  Secret ballot  Machine politics  City Commission  City manager  Initiative / referendum  Recall of elected official 1900 NYC Polling place

Progressive Solutions: Economic  “Trust busting” (monopoly)  Trust: business entities that controlled a market, colluding to set prices, wages, etc  Roosevelt (44 trusts), Taft (90 trusts) were both trust-busters  Pro labor legislation  Child labor laws – no more than 10 hours / day  Food & drug inspection  Meat packers  Pharmacy companies

Progressive Solutions: Social  Environment / Pollution (Roosevelt)  Transferred forests to the U.S. Forest Service  Trees had to be planted as well as harvested  Withdrew millions of acres of public land from sale to protect resources  Used public land sale revenues to build dams, canal systems  Temperance & Prohibition (18 th Am)