Women's Suffrage at Last
was set for a new generation to carry the torch.
After the SENECA FALLS CONVENTION of 1848
demanded WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE for the first time,
America became distracted by the coming Civil War.
The issue of the vote resurfaced during Reconstruction.
The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution
proposed granting the right to vote to African
American males. Many female suffragists at the time
were outraged. They simply could not believe that
those who suffered 350 years of bondage would be
enfranchised before America's women.
The fight to victory was conducted by CARRIE
CHAPMAN CATT. By 1910, most states west of
Mississippi had granted full suffrage rights to women.
States of the Midwest at least permitted women to
vote in Presidential elections. But the Northeast and
the South were steadfast in opposition. Catt knew that
to ratify a national amendment, NAWSA would have to
win a state in each of these key regions. Once cracks
were made, the dam would surely burst.
A Movement Divided Activists such as FREDERICK
DOUGLASS, LUCY STONE, and HENRY BLACKWELL
argued that the 1860s was the time for the black male.
Linking black suffrage with female suffrage would
surely accomplish neither. SUSAN B. ANTHONY,
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, and SOJOURNER
TRUTH disagreed. They would accept nothing less
than immediate federal action supporting the vote for
women.
Stone and Blackwell formed the AMERICAN WOMAN
SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION and believed that
pressuring state governments was the most effective
route. Anthony and Stanton formed the NATIONAL
WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION and pressed for
a constitutional amendment. This split occurred in
1869 and weakened the suffrage movement for the
next two decades.
Anthony and Stanton engaged in high-profile,
headline-grabbing tactics. The NWSA was known to
show up to the polls on election day to force officials to
turn them away. They set up mock ballot boxes near
the election sites so women could "vote" in protest.
They continued to accept no compromise on a national
amendment eliminating the gender requirement.
The AWSA chose a much more understated path.
Stone and Blackwell actively lobbied state
governments. WYOMING became the first state to
grant full women's suffrage in 1869, and UTAH
followed suit the following year. But then it stopped.
No other states granted full suffrage until the 1890s.
The NAWSA to the Rescue After Lucy Stone and
Henry Blackwell passed away, their daughter, ALICE
STONE BLACKWELL saw the need for a unified front.
She approached the aging leadership of the NWSA,
and in 1890, the two splinter groups formed the
NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE
ASSOCIATION (NAWSA), with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony taking turns at the presidency.
Although the movement still had internal divisions, the
mood of progressive reform breathed new life into its
rank and file. Although Stanton and Anthony died
before ever having accomplished their goal, the stage
Amid the backdrop of the United States entry into
World War I, success finally came. In 1917, New York
and Arkansas permitted women to vote, and
momentum shifted toward suffrage. NAWSA supported
the war effort throughout the ratification process, and
the prominent positions women held no doubt resulted
in increased support.
On August 26, 1920, the NINETEENTH AMENDMENT
became the supreme law of the land, and the long
struggle for voting rights was over.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/42c.asp
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Regulating Business, 1890-1920
The following paragraph is from Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle:
“There was never the least bit attention paid to what was cut up for
sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old
sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it
would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the
hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would
be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust,
where the workers had trampled and spit uncounted billions of
consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in
rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and
thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these
storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over piles of
meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats
were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for
them; they would die, and then rats, bread and meat would go into
the hoppers together.”
The novel caught the attention of people across the United States.
Sinclair was a muckraker—a crusading journalist who focused on
what was wrong with society. His eloquence led to the passage of
the first federal legislation addressing the problem of pure food.
Pure Food and Drug Act
In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). In
addition to setting minimal standards for food processing, the act
regulated drugs for the first time, requiring prescriptions for some
drugs and ordering that any drug known to be habit-forming be so
labeled. The drug regulations were aimed both at regulating sales of
patented medicines and at reducing drug addiction. Other industries
were targeted for regulation as well.
Rockefeller's Standard Oil
John D. Rockefeller built the Standard Oil Company into a huge
corporation, which then entered into agreements with other large
corporations. The directors of the Standard Oil companies also sat
on the boards of directors of railroads and steel and copper
companies and invested in banks.
Rockefeller's purpose, said muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell, was no
less than "the regulation of the price of crude and refined oil by the
control of the output; and the chief means for sustaining this purpose
is still that of the original scheme—a control of oil transportation
giving special privileges in rates."
By the beginning of the 20th century, Tarbell reported, "But while Mr.
Rockefeller produces only about a third of the entire production, he
controls all but about ten percent of it; that is, all but about ten
percent goes immediately into his custody on coming from the wells."
Standard Oil made alliances with railroads to drive out its
competition. It offered smaller companies two options: sell out or be
destroyed.
Roosevelt the Regulator?
While President Theodore Roosevelt urged legislation to control
corporations and trusts, he also criticized muckrakers like Sinclair
and Tarbell for looking only on the negative side. Their muckraking,
however, created the public demand for change that allowed the
Roosevelt administration to put in place regulations governing food
and drugs and to control corporate monopolies.
During his first term, Roosevelt began antitrust proceedings against
Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust owned by J.P. Morgan,
Rockefeller, Edward Harriman, and James J. Hill. He also directed
the beginning of more than 25 other lawsuits against large
companies and trusts, helped to outlaw railroad rebates, and
oversaw legislation giving the Interstate Commerce Commission the
power to regulate railroad rates. Though many of the antitrust
proceedings were eventually dropped, Roosevelt gained a reputation
as a "Trust Buster."
"Regulating Business, 1890-1920 (Overview)." American History. ABCCLIO, 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
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Moral Reform, 1890-1920
As the Populist Party gave way to the progressives, movements for
moral reform continued and strengthened. The Woman's Christian
Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League campaigned against
bars and drinking. By 1914, state laws prohibited saloons or alcohol
within 70% of the United States. Anti-drug campaigns tackled the
increasing use of heroin, opium, and cocaine, which were also
associated with saloons. The Harrison Act of 1914 was the first
federal law against the narcotics trade.
Demon Rum
Anti-alcohol campaigners pointed to the evils of "demon rum." Their
examples included abandoned families and men reduced to living in
gutters. They cited scientific evidence linking alcohol abuse with
many diseases, including insanity and cirrhosis of the liver.
Public Education
The movement to offer, and then to require, public education for all
children went hand in hand with the movement to restrict child labor.
In 1899, the New York Board of Education recommended increasing
public education.
"As the law stands," the board reported, "all children between the
ages of eight and twelve are required to attend school all of the time
the public schools are in session from October to June. From twelve
to fourteen, children may go to work provided they attend school
eighty days during the school year. This latter provision is in conflict
with the factory and other laws regulating child labor, which forbid the
employment of children under fourteen years of age. In my judgment,
the Board of Education of The City of New York should take the lead
in this matter and secure legislation to make the compulsory school
age extend from six to fourteen."
Education for All
By 1900, 33 states and the District of Columbia had compulsory
public education laws. Fifteen and a half million children attended
public schools, though only one in 10 continued in school past age
14. Only 6.4% of all U.S. 17 year olds were high school graduates.
By 1920, all of the remaining states had passed compulsory public
education laws. In 1940, for the first time, more than half of the
nation's 17 year olds graduated from high school.
The millions of new immigrants saw schools as a way to become
American. Immigrant children learned English and much more.
Settlement Houses
Settlement houses also helped to "Americanize" immigrants. Some
offered classes to teach English to adult immigrants. They also
provided opportunities for recreation, help in finding housing and
employment, and safe places for children while parents worked. As
part of the community, a settlement house responded to the needs of
the community.
"Moral Reform, 1890-1920 (Overview)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 17
Oct. 2012.
Important Items about Progressivism
Chapter 6
Progressive movement
Sherman Antitrust Act
muckrakers
Arbitration
initiative
Regulate
referendum
Interstate Commerce Commission
recall
National Park Service
suffrage
Direct Tax
Meat Inspection Act
Indirect Tax
Pure Food & Drug Act
Income Tax
Social Gospel Movement
Unfair Trade Practice
Bull Moose Party
Sixteenth Amendment
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Seventeenth Amendment
Federal Reserve
Eighteenth Amendment
Prohibition
Nineteenth Amendment
Square Deal
Conservation
NAACP
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
The Progressive Era
1890-1920
CHAPTERS 6 1. What did the following amendments accomplish and the reform movements behind them:
16th‐ 17th‐ 18th‐ 19th‐ 2. Who were the following people: Susan B. Anthony Teddy Roosevelt Woodrow Wilson William Jennings Bryan 3. Explain how the American financial system changed as a result of the Progressive Era. 4. What phrase would generally describe the changes in American politics? 5. What happened to the roll of the federal government in this era? *6. How were the Progressive Era reforms a reaction to the problems of the Gilded Age? (political, economic, social) 7. In general, what did the political changes mentioned in the above questions mean for the United States?