1. The Progressive Era
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONs: How did Muckrakers and other progressives reform society? What has been the legacy of progressive presidents?

2. TEKS and Objectives We will… I will…
(3C) analyze the Social Gospel (5B) evaluate the impact of muckrakers and reform leaders such as Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. DuBois on American society (5C) evaluate the impact of third parties, including the Progressive Party (15B) describe the changing relationship between the federal government and private business, including the Pure Food and Drug Act (15E) describe the emergence of monetary policy in the United States, including the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 (26A) explain the actions taken by people to expand economic opportunities and political rights, including those for racial, ethnic, and religious minorities as well as women, in American society (26D) identify the political, social, and economic contributions of women such as Jane Adams to American society
Evaluate the work of important muckrakers and their impact on American society during the Progressive Era
Analyze an excerpt from the Pendleton Act

3. Roots of the Progressive Movement (1900-1920)
The Social Gospel Movement
Led by Protestant ministers
Called for social reforms (abolition of child labor and safe working conditions)
Opposed free enterprise (capitalism)
Emphasized helping less fortunate
Supported Temperance Movement (banning alcohol)

4. Roots of the Progressive Movement (1900-1920)
Socialism
Government should take over basic industries
Change needed to avoid social revolution (communism)
The Muckrakers
Investigative reporters, writers, and social scientists
Exposed industrial/government abuses
Raked up “muck” (dirt)

5. Famous Muckrakers Jacob Riis Ida Tarbell Lincoln Steffens
How the Other Half Lives
Photographed conditions of urban poor
Ida Tarbell
History of the Standard Oil Company
Exposed Rockefeller’s ruthless business practices
Lincoln Steffens
The Shame of the Cities
Exposed government corruption

6. Famous Muckrakers Frank Norris Upton Sinclair The Octopus (fiction)
Depicted RR abuses on farmers
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
Described unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry

7. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
This book portrayed the new industrial economy as inhumane, destructive, and uncaring. One scene in the book described piles of rat-infested, rotting meat being used to make sausages: “[T]he meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage.” How might a reader in 1906 have reacted to this passage?

8. The Social Reformers Jane Addams and Hull House Anti-Defamation League
Settlement house for immigrants
Provided child care, nursing services, and English lessons
Anti-Defamation League
Jewish organization
Opposed to religious prejudice
Ida B. Wells
National anti-lynching (hanging) crusade

9. The Social Reformers W.E.B. DuBois Booker T. Washington
First African American to earn PhD from Harvard
One of the founders of the NAACP (National Association for the Advance of Colored People)
Demanded immediate equality
Supported open protests
Criticized Washington
African-American leader
Supported gradual equality
Believed African Americans should not be too demanding

10. Progressive Political Reforms
Secret Ballot
Voters less subject to pressure/intimidation
Initiative
Voters could directly introduce/vote on bills in state legislatures
Referendum
Voters could compel legislators to put bills on the ballot

11. Progressive Political Reforms
Recall
Voters could remove elected officials from office
Direct Party Primaries
Special elections for presidential candidates
Direct Election of Senators
17th Amendment
Voters elected Senators (not state legislature)

12. Civil Service Reform Pendleton Act (1883)
Opened federal jobs to anyone (i.e. United States Post Office)
Civil Service Commission

13. The Pendleton Act
In 1889, six years after the Pendleton Act was passed, Theodore Roosevelt gave this speech on The Duties of American Citizenship: “Government jobs belong to the American people, not politicians, and should be filled only with regard to public service. Against nothing is fearless and specific criticism more urgently needed than against the ‘spoils system,’ which is the [disgrace] of American politics. What more irrelevant question could there be than that of the politician who asks a job seeker for his political favor, ‘Who did you vote for in the last election?’ Certainly reform is needed when you think of he New York City treasurer who acknowledges his annual fees to be $85,000, and who pays a deputy $1,500 to do his work. Note the corruption in the New York legislature, where one man says you should never allow the Constitution to come between friends!” Why did Roosevelt feel it was inappropriate to ask a job-seeker whom he or she had voted for? Why did Roosevelt think civil service reform would help eliminate corruption?