APUSH
Progressivism
Imaima Casubhoy and Julia
Walter
What is Progressivism?
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A Movement to:
○ return control of government to the people
○ restore economic opportunities
○ correct injustices in American life
Goals:
○ protecting social welfare
○ promoting moral improvement
○ creating economic reform
○ fostering efficiency
Who Were the Progressives?
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Urban Middle Class:
○ Doctors, lawyers, ministers, storekeepers, white-collar office
workers, and middle managers in banks, manufacturing firms, and
other businesses
Protestant church leaders, African Americans, Feminists
Philosophy:
○ Similar to Jacksonians and Jeffersonians
○ Committed to democratic values and shared the belief that honest
government and just laws could improve human condition
Important People
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Margaret Sanger
○ Fought to legalize birth control.
■ She coined the phrase
○ Started development of birth control pill.
○ Influence on Planned Parenthood Movement
Carrie Chapman Catt
○ Formed National Woman Suffrage Association in 1900
○ Argued for women being able to vote
○ 19th Amendment- Women’s suffrage amendment
■ League of Women Voters
● Dedicated to keep voters informed about politics
Important People
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Alice Paul
○ Broke away from NAWSA in 1916
■ Formed National Woman’s Party
○ Focused on winning support of Congress and President for 19th
amendment
Florence Kelley
○ Worked with National Consumers’ League to protect women from
long working hours
Charles Evans Hughes
○ Battled fraudulent insurance companies
Scientific Reform
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Pragmatism
○ William James and John Dewey
○ “good” and “true” could not be known in the abstract as fixed and
changeless ideals
■ Practical approach to morals
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Experiment with ideas and laws and test them till
something that can produce a well-functioning
democratic society
Scientific Management
○ Frederick W. Taylor
■ Used stopwatch to time the output of factory workers
○ Progressives believed government would be more efficient if put in
Political Reform
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Return control of government to the people
■ direct election of Senators (17th Amendment)
■ initiative, referendum, recall
■ direct primary
■ commission & city manager forms of city government
■ reform mayors/governors responsive to common people’s
interests
Robert M. La Follette- Wisconsin
○ Limit interests of big businesses and corporations
Learning Targets
Which one(s) don’t fit? And why?
4, 5, 8, 6, 15, 19
Trust Busting
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The effort to prohibit the consolidation of business practices resulting in
monopoly
○ By 1900, trusts control 4/5’s of United States industries
■ trust – a method of consolidating competing companies, in which
participants turn their stock over to a board of trustees who run
the companies as a single corporation
○ Sherman Antitrust Act – 1890
■ vague language made Act unenforceable and ineffective
○ Teddy Roosevelt as “trustbuster”
■ sued “Northern Securities Company” – 1902
■ also sued the beef, oil, and tobacco trusts
■ brought total of 44 antitrust suits
Trust Busting
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Clayton Antitrust Act – 1914
○ declared certain business practices illegal
■ acquiring stock of other corporations to create a monopoly
■ prosecution of officers of company if company violated the
law
○ exempted trade unions and farm organizations
○ not considered trusts
○ allowed:
■ strikes, peaceful picketing, boycotts, collection of strike
benefits
○ prohibited:
■ injunctions (unless strikes threatened injury to property)
Federal Reserve Bank
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Created by Wilson to create flexible economy
○ Decided gold standard too inflexible and rejected Republican
proposal for private bank
○ National banking system with 12 districts
○ Reason we use Federal Reserve Notes (dollar bills)
Mann-Elkins Act and ICC
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Interstate Commerce Commission
○ Established in 1887 to regulate railroads
Mann-Elkins Act
○ Created in 1910
○ Strengthened the ICC by extending to cover telephones,
telegraphs, and wireless companies as common carriers
■ A common carrier is a person or company that transports
goods or people for the public
○ Another example of Progressive reform in government
Learning Targets
Which one(s) don’t fit? And why?
3, 7, 9, 17, 19, 20,
Socialism
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An economic and political system in which the public/government owns
and operates the means of production and distribution of wealth for the
benefit of all
○ rose from problems associated with workers and labor issues
■ favored among labor activists (Eugene V. Debs)
○ capitalist system made rich richer and poor poorer
○ obvious appeal for the downtrodden
○ threatened the wealthy, whose wealth would diminish
Socialism
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American Socialist Party - 1900
○ formed by Eugene Debs
■ an uneven balance between big business, government, and
ordinary common people
○ “Competition was natural enough at one time, but do you think you
are competing today? Many of you think you are competing.
Against whom? Against Rockefeller? About as I would if I had a
wheelbarrow and competed with the Santa Fe [railroad] from here
to Kansas City.”
Social Reforms
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Municipal Reforms
○ Mayor Samuel M “Golden Rule” Jones- Toledo, Ohio
■ Free kindergartens, night schools, public playgrounds
○ Tom L. Johnson- Mayor of Cleveland
■ Fought hard, but unsuccessfully, for public ownership and
operation of cities public utilities and services
○ 1915- 2/3 of nation’s cities owned their own water systems
■ Cities also got to own and operate gas lines, power plants, and
urban transportation
○ Galveston, Texas
■ First to adopt commission plan where voters elected heads of city
departments
● Fire, police, sanitation
Social Reform
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Social Welfare
○ Settlement House workers- Jane Addams, Florence Kelley
○ Better schools, juvenile courts, liberalized divorce laws, safety
regulations for tenements and factories
○ Separate reformatories for juveniles and limit on death penalty
Child and Women Labor
○ National Child Labor Committee
■ State compulsory school attendance laws to keep children out
of mines and factories
Temperance and Prohibition
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Rurals believed they could clean up morals by prohibition
○ Drys- Prohibitionists
Speakeasies
○ Clubs or bars were bootleg (smuggled) alcohol was sold
■ Smuggled from Canada or made in basements
■ Gangs, esp. Chicago gang led by Al Capone, fought for
dominance of bootleg trade
Even elected officials like President Harshing served alcohol
18th Amendment started prohibition, and the 21st amendment ended it
○ Causes for Repeal
■ Increase of criminal activity, growing public resentment, and
Great Depression
Conservation
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Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909
○ lover of wilderness/outdoor life
○ Forest Reserve Act - 1891
■ set aside 150 million acres as national reserve
■ not sold to private interests
○ Newlands Reclamation Act - 1902
■ $ from sale of public land for irrigation projects
○ White House Conference - 1902
■ established National Conservation Commission
● Gifford Pinchot
○ earlier appointed head of U.S. Forest Service
Conservation
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William Howard Taft
○ Bureau of Mines
■ Added large tracts in Appalachians to national forest reserves
■ Set aside federal oil lands
Learning Targets
Which one(s) don’t fit? And why?
2, 3, 7, 8, 12, 15, 19
Long Essay Question
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Compare the movements of the 1890s and 1910s to the movements of
the 1920s and how their shift in attitude reflected the changing
economy and culture of the Roaring Twenties.
Homework: Write a thesis for this question and bring it to class.
Homework Timeline
● Tuesday
○ Thesis due
● Wednesday
○ Clayton Antitrust Act and Margaret Sanger
Documents due