1. Progressivism

2. Organizing Progressives
Saw problems in industrial society, wanted to fix them
Problem #1: Laissez-Faire Economics
Progressives came from both political parties
Middle class, educated, urban
Muckrakers: journalists who investigate social problems
Gov’t needs to fix problems, but gov’t also needs fixing
Progressives did not always agree on how to fix probs.

4. Government Reforms Make gov’t more efficient, like businesses
Reforms to city government
City Commission or City Council with Managers
Democratic Reforms:
Direct Primaries
Initiative
Referendum
Recall
Woman Suffrage: giving women the right to vote

5. Woman Suffrage
When Congress passed the 14th and 15th Amendments, women try to be included…Congress refuses.
Two strategies emerge:
National Woman Suffrage Assoc.: Constitutional Am.
American Woman Suffrage Assoc.: State laws for voting
1890: Both groups merge into NAWSA
Women march, picket, and protest for suffrage
: Congress passes suffrage amendment
August 26, 1920: Nineteenth Amendment ratified

7. Labor Reforms
Social Problems: crime, illiteracy, alcoholism, child labor, health and safety
States pass laws restricting child labor and compulsory public education
Adult working conditions were also bad:
Worker’s Compensation Funds
Supreme Court gives gov’t right to limit working hours for women, not for men
Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire, new labor laws passed
Zoning laws and health codes

9. Temperance & Prohibition
Progressives notice many problems stem from alcohol
Temperance movement: advocates ending alcohol abuse/consumption/production
1911: Women’s Christian Temperance Union has 250,000 members (Frances Willard)
Prohibition: laws banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages

11. Progressives vs. Big Business
Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890: Break up big businesses to allow for more competition
Some just want businesses better regulated, not busted
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)-Railroads
Eugene V. Debs: advocates socialism for businesses that affect everyone
Ran for president in 1912, won over a million votes