The Progressive Era
Political Reform
Progressivism
 Not one single
unified movement
 A wide range of
economic, political,
social, and moral
reforms.
 Progress would only
occur through
human intervention
to solve problems.
Origins
 Reaction against Social Darwinism
 Populism-agrarian revolt that swept through the
Midwest in the late 19th C.
 Called for government intervention , free silver, and many
political reforms
 Populist Party or People’s Party
 supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan in
1896
 “Muckrakers”- crusading journalists.
Progressive Goals
 Goals included (many Populist ideas)
1) direct election of senators
2) elimination of graft
3) woman suffrage
4) prohibition
5) protecting workers and regulating child labor
6) protecting social welfare
Early 20th century governors of the progressive bent
with graft busting qualities were Hiram Johnson,
Robert La Follette, and Charles Evans Hughes.
4
Progressive Presidents
Political Change
 All states move to a secret ballot by 1890s
 17th Amendment (1913)-direct election of
senators
 State reform
 initiative (citizens originate legislation)
 Referendum (citizens vote on legislation)
 Recall (vote to remove a public official)
 Growth of socialism in America
 (Eugene Debs receives 1 million votes in 1912).
 19th Amendment (1920)-women's suffrage
LEADERS OF THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN THE
Susan B.
Anthony:
1820-1906
Carrie
Chapman
Catt:
1859-1947
Lucy Burns
1879-1966
Alice
Paul:18861977
Economic Reform
CHILD LABOR
 In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee assigned Lewis Hine
to photograph child labor practices.
 traveled photographing children in mines, factories, canneries, textile
mills, street trades and assorted agricultural industries.
 Hine’s photographs alerted the public to the fact that child labor
deprived children of childhood, health, and education.
 A driving force behind changing the public’s attitude and fueling the
fight for stricter child labor laws.
Reforms
 Monopolies
 Roosevelt the “Trustbuster”
 Ida Tarbell-The History of Standard Oil
 Led to break up of Standard
 Consumer protection laws
 Upton Sinclair and The Jungle
 Influences Roosevelt and his “Square Deal”
 The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
 Meat Inspection Act (1906)
 Labor reforms/worker protection
 Keating-Owen Act (1916) first federal law restricting child
labor
 Muller v. Oregon (1908)- set max work hours for women
Other Reforms
 The Federal Reserve Act (1913)
 Set up Federal Reserve System as the central banking
authority of the United States
 Regulate the money supply
 16th Amendment (1913)-federal income tax
 Attempt to redistribute wealth
Social Reform
Gospel of Wealth
 Idea outlined by
Andrew Carnegie
 Still supported Social
Darwinism
 Philanthropy- wealthy
give back to society
 Give to libraries,
education, the arts
 No direct relief
 Not enough for the
progressives
Urban Poverty
 Settlement Houses:
 provided services such as daycare, education, and
healthcare.
 designed to help the urban poor, especially
immigrant families.
 Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr were the co-
founders of Hull House, founded in 1889 in
Chicago.
JANE ADDAMS
ELLEN GATES
STARR
INSIDE HULL HOUSE
OTHER SETTLEMENT
HOUSES
Temperance
 Women’s Christian Temperance Union
 was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1874 and
concerned about the evils of alcohol
 By 1916, 19 states had prohibition laws
 18th Amendment (1919)-established Prohibition
Carrie Nation
Rights of
African- Americans
 The majority were poor and lived for the
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most part in the southern states.
They worked as tenant farmers.
Jim Crow Laws-were enacted in many
Southern areas to promote segregation of
Blacks from Whites
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)-court case that
established ”separate but equal”
Blacks had little political control.
Faced the brutality of mob violence and
lynching, Ku Klux Klan.
African American Fight for Rights
 Booker T. Washington educator and reformer
 argued that African
Americans raise themselves
economically, accommodate
temporarily until they would
win the respect of white
society.
“The individual who can do something that the
world wants done will, in the end, make his
way regardless of his race.”
 Others adopted a more
activist stance, such as;
 Ida B. Wells
 the anti-lynching
crusader
 W.E.B. Du Bois,
 Co-founder of the
NAACP
 demanded an end to
caste distinctions based
on race
"The Negro Race, like all races, is
going to be saved by its exceptional
men. The problem of education then,
among Negroes, must first of all deal
with the "Talented Tenth." ”
Progressive Presidents Overview
Theodore Roosevelt
 Square Deal
 Trust busting
 Arbitration
 RR regulation
 Health
 1906 Meat Inspection Act
 1906 Pure Food and Drug
Act
 Environment
 Conservation**
 1916 National Park Service
William Howard Taft
 Taft supported
Roosevelt’s “Square
Deal” but more
conservative.
 Taft v. Roosevelt
 Progressives turn against Taft and
the Rep. Party Splits
 The election of 1912
 Wilson’s (D) New Freedom
 Taft’s (R) Conservatism
 Roosevelt’s Progressivism “Bull
Moose Party”
 Eugene V. Debs’ Socialism
Woodrow Wilson
 Financial Reform
 Clayton Antitrust Act 1914
 Underwood Act 1913 to Lower
Tariffs
 Federal Income Tax
 Federal Reserve System
 Suffrage for Women with
the19th Amendment in
1920