1. The Progressive Era
Chapter 21

2. Intro to The Progressive Era
Progressives are forward thinkers; they want to make progress toward better conditions
Progressive reformers focused on:
Urban problems
Government corruption
Big business/industry

3. The Muckrakers I
Muckrakers were journalists that exposed corruption and ills to call attention to many pressing issues
“rake” = to expose
“muck” = dirt/corruption
Their writings helped reformers promote causes
We have already met some muckrakers:
Ida Tarbell (Rockefeller’s monopoly)
Jacob Riis (urban slums)

4. The Muckrakers II
Lincoln Steffens’ The Shame of the Cities (corruption in politics and government)
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (unsanitary and unhealthy conditions in meatpacking industry)
Lewis Hine (child labor)
Robert La Follette (election fraud)
Thomas Nast’s political cartoons (government corruption, big business)

5. Urban Problems and Reforms I
Problems: Unsafe streets and crowded tenements
Muckraker: Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives)
Reforms/Progress:
New building codes (fire escapes, indoor plumbing, clean water supply)
Sanitation departments (garbage disposal service)
Fire and police companies established
Gas and electric lights

6. Urban Problems and Reforms II
Problems: Immigrant assimilation and rampant poverty
Reforms/Progress:
Immigrant aid societies (by immigrants, for immigrants)
Religious groups/charities (Salvation Army, “Social Gospel” idea, YMCA/YWCA)
Settlement houses (by middle class, for immigrants, like Jane Addams’ Hull House)

7. Urban Problems and Reforms III
Problem: unsanitary food preparation (ex. Meatpacking industry)
Muckrakers:
Upton Sinclair (The Jungle)
Reforms/Progress:
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906): Illegal to deliberately mislabel food and drugs; illegal to transport impure or diluted foods
Meat Inspection Act (1906): federal inspection of meat processing

8. Urban Problems and Reforms IV
Problem: Alcohol consumption
Thought to be immoral, wasteful, cause of poverty and the problems of the poor
Reformers: Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Francis Willard, Carrie Nation, Anti-Saloon League
All wanted temperance/prohibition (to ban alcohol)
Reforms:
Volstead Act
Eighteenth Amendment (1919) (repealed by Twenty-first Amendment in 1933)

9. The Amendment Process

10. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

11. Prohibition in Action

12. Problems of “The Noble Experiment”
Gangsters began illegally transporting (bootlegging/rum-running) and selling alcohol, which increased violence and gang activity (and generated tons of money for gangsters!)
Ex. “Scarface” Al Capone
Moonshiners began making their own alcohol
Citizens gathered to drink in illegal speakeasies
Law enforcement and politicians often took bribes to “looked the other way”

13. Government Corruption I
Problems:
political machines controlled elections
Ex. “Boss” William Tweed at Tammany Hall in New York City
spoils system/patronage
When political supporters are rewarded for their support with jobs and other favors
Those who are given jobs are not always qualified or honest
Muckrakers/Reformers:
Thomas Nast (political cartoons) “I made up my mind not long ago to put some of those fellows behind bars, and I am going to put them there.”
Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities)
Robert La Follette (the Wisconsin idea-direct primary)

14. Government Corruption II
Reforms/Progress (think Populists!):
Secret ballot
Initiative: voters can petition legislature to consider passing a new law
Referendum: voters decide whether a bill or amendment should be passed
Recall: voters remove an elected official from office
Direct Primary: voters choose candidates who will run for office
Seventeenth Amendment (1913): direct election of senators
Pendleton Act (1883) created Civil Service Commission to give exams for federal jobs

15. Other Political Reforms: Women’s Rights
Problem: women could not vote
Many abolitionists who fought to give freedmen the right to vote were women
Reformers:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, Alice Paul
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Reforms/Progress:
Nineteenth Amendment (1920): “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

16. Women’s Suffrage by State, 1919

17. Other Political Reforms: African Americans’ Rights
Problems: discrimination, segregation
Reformers:
Ida B. Wells (anti-lynching campaign, co-founder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Booker T. Washington
Accommodation: Vocational training for economic stability to earn respect from whites
W.E.B. DuBois
Protest unfair treatment and demand equal rights, including the right to vote
Co-founder of the Niagara Movement and the NAACP

18. Labor Problems Problems: Muckrakers/Reformers: Reforms/Progress:
unsafe working conditions
child labor
unfair labor practices
Low wages, long hours
Muckrakers/Reformers:
Lewis Hine (child labor)
Labor unions (ex. Samuel Gompers, Eugene V. Debs)
Reforms/Progress:
Shorter work days, better pay, safer working conditions (varied by industry, as a result of labor unions)
Department of Commerce and Labor: government department for business, industry, and labor issues
Employers Liability Act (1906): railroad companies must pay workers’ compensation
Restrictions on child labor

19. Industrial Problems I
Problems: monopolies/oligopolies, high prices, little to no competition
Reformers/Muckrakers:
Ida Tarbell (Rockefeller)
Thomas Nast (political cartoons)
Theodore Roosevelt, the “Trust Buster”
William Howard Taft

20. Industrial Problems II
Reforms/Progress:
Square Deal: Roosevelt’s platform for government regulation of business
Interstate Commerce Act (1887): regulated railroad pricing; created Interstate Commerce Commission
Elkins Act (1903): increased power of ICC; declared rebates illegal
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): used against labor unions, not trusts
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914): made specific practices of monopolies illegal (ex. Price fixing and buying stock in competing companies)

21. Financial Reforms Sixteenth Amendment (1913): graduated income tax
Federal government taxes workers’ income; the more a worker makes, the more he/she pays
Aka “progressive tax”
Federal Reserve Act (1913)
National banking system: country is split into 12 districts, each with a Federal Reserve bank
Government can now issue currency
Government can control the amount of money in circulation and interest rates
Ex. Lower interest rates for recessions to encourage spending