Chapter 8, Section 1
The Roots of Progressivism
Who Were the Progressives?
 Big Ideas:
 Progressivism
was a response to the excesses
of the “Gilded Age”.
There was
no single group or movement, but a
collection of groups that emerged to tackle the
social problems in industrial American society.
Who Were the Progressives
• Many progressive groups believed
that the government’s laissez-faire
approach to dealing with the
economy resulted in a climate
where the poor and working class
were being taken advantage of.
• Progressives came from both the
Democrat and Republican parties,
from various economic and social
levels, and occupations.
• Progressives believed that, through
science and technology, many
social problems could be cured.
King Gillette’s Metropolis
King Gillette’s Metropolis
Who Were the Progressives
Street and building
layout for Gillette’s
Metropolis City
A= education
building
B= entertainment
building
C= food storage
building
Who Were the Progressives ?
• Journalists were among the
first progressives.
• They crusaded to bring
injustice, inequality, and
corruption to light.
• Teddy Roosevelt nicknamed
these writers muckrakers.
Who Were the Progressives ?
• Many writers focused on
particular issues or industries.
• Today we call this
“investigative journalism”.
• Charles Edward Russell
attacked the beef industry.
• Ida Tarbell wrote critically
of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil
Company.
• Lincoln Steffens reported
on corruption involving
elections and political
machines.
Who Were the Progressives
• One of the most influential
books of the period was Jacob
Riis’s How the Other Half Lives.
• His photos and descriptions of
poverty, disease, and crime that
afflicted immigrant
neighborhoods in NY City
brought awareness and calls for
reform.
Reforming Government
 Big Ideas:
 Progressives
wanted to reform the government
to make it more responsive to the people.
Progressives condemned corruption in
government,
but did not always agree on how to fix the problem.
Reforming Government
• Progressives wanted to bring a
scientific efficiency to
government.
• Progressives had two main
proposals for reforming city
government.
• 1. Divide city government into
several departments with an
expert in charge.
• 2. A city council would hire a
professional city manager to
run things instead of a mayor.
Reforming Government
• Progressives also sought to
diminish the power of party
bosses by changing the way
parties choose candidates.
• Led by Governor Robert M. La
Follette, Wisconsin became
the model of reform.
• By law, parties had to hold
a direct primary in which
all party members could
vote for a candidate instead
of letting the party bosses
pick.
Reforming Government
• Other local political reforms
followed in the wake of
Wisconsin’s success with direct
primaries.
• The initiative permitted a group
of citizens to introduce
legislation that the legislature
had to vote on.
• The referendum allowed
citizens to vote on proposed
laws, bypassing the legislature.
• The recall provided voters with
the option to vote an elected
official out of office before their
term was up.
• Washington
Referendum 74
• To allow same-sex
marriage in
Washington State
• The law was upheld
by voters in
the 2012
election by a final
margin of 7.4%
(53.7% approve,
46.3 reject)
Reforming Government
• When it came to the federal
government, progressives
wanted to tackle corruption in
the US Senate.
• Before 1913, state legislators
chose the state’s senators.
• The decision was usually heavily
influenced by party bosses and
business interests.
• Progressives successfully pushed
through the 17th Amendment
that allowed for the direct
election of senators by the
voters of the state.
Suffrage
 Big Ideas:
 Many
progressives supported suffrage: the
movement to win voting rights for women.
Issues
that were important to families were not
getting support at the ballot box.
Suffrage
• Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton convened the Seneca
Falls Conference on women’s
rights in 1848.
• Suffrage, the right to vote, was
not granted to women until
1920.
• Women entered the political
arena usually on two main
issues: abolition and /or
temperance.
Suffrage
• Anthony and Stanton broke with
the abolitionist movement and
formed the National Women’s
Suffrage Association in NY.
• Their group denounced the 15th
Amendment and did not allow
males to join. They focused on
changes to the Constitution.
• A rival group based in Boston,
the American Women’s Suffrage
Association, focused on getting
states to grant women the vote.
• -Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah were
the first states to do so.
Suffrage
• Eventually the two groups joined
forces and formed the NAWSA.
• The movement gained momentum
as middle-class and working
women saw the vote as the only
way to achieve social and
workplace reforms.
• March 3, 1913, the day before
Wilson’s inauguration, suffragists
marched on Washington DC.
• The women stormed the White
House and many were arrested.
• By this time, suffrage was achieved
fully in 15 states and partially in 13
states.
Suffrage
• In 1915 Carrie Chapman Catt
became the leader of the
NAWSA.
• She put her organizing power
behind Wilson’s reelection
campaign after he agreed to
support the suffrage.
• In 1918 the Senate failed to
pass a suffrage amendment by
two votes.
• In 1919, the Senate voted again
and passed the 19th
Amendment which was ratified
by ¾ of the states in 1920.