§ Previous Units§ CH 13: Problems: Rise of corporations, concentration of wealth/control of industries

§ CH 14 – Problems: increase in industry and immigration -> more wage workers in factories -

> city populations increase -> working conditions/city living

§ CH 16 – Problems: issues of injustices and the narrowing of rights (i.e. African Americans,

women, etc.) & political corruption

§ Next Unit, CH 17 The Progressive Era§ Now – we will study how society/government addressed these issues (or didn’t, the

“Progressive Era” can be misleading..)

§ How do individuals and groups address and/or resolve these issues of injustice and

inequalities?

§ Government solutions to social problems, an “Activist Government”

GROUP PROJECT§Each group wi l l be ass igned a problem of the Progress ive Era

§ Cities (living – cities were not prepared for rapid growth)§ Labor (laws to protect workers, right to form unions)§ Monopolies/Business Excesses (control of industries, competition)§ The Consumer (how to protect the consumer – e.g. food/drugs)§ Conservation (preservation, natural resources)§ Women’s Rights (when will women ever get the right to vote, to run for public office?)§ The Farm Problem (how did this new “world” create problems for farmers who were once the

backbone of the country)§ Corruption in Government (we have talked about this a lot…but how do you fix it? Esp. in cities)§ Inequality in the Distribution of Wealth (increasing gap between the rich and the poor)

§ Each group will become familiar with the problem of the era and the proposed solutions and will be responsible for presenting this information to the class

§ TODAY- take note of your assigned problem and proposed solutions

The Drive for Reform

Progressivism§New ideas and honest, efficient government could

bring about social justice

§Progressive ideas brought lasting reforms that still

affect society today

Industrialization, urbanization, and immigration brought many benefits & problems

The people who made up the Progressive MovementOrigins of Progressivism

§Came from all political parties, social classes, ethnic groups, & religions

§ Leaders emerged from the growing middle class, whose power and influence was

rapidly spreading

§ Dissatisfied industrial workers

§ A few wealthy Americans driven by a desire to act for the good of society

§Correct these problems and injustices

§Encouraged their state legislatures and the federal

government to enact laws to address the issues faced by

the poor

§Used logic and reason to make society work in a more

efficient and orderly way

§Many, motivated by religious faith, sought social justice

Industrialization and urbanization created troubling social and political problems

The Progressive Party Platform, 19121. Identify as many goals and/or beliefs of the Progressive Party.

o Direct primaries (State & National offices)o The initiative, referendum, and recallo Believe that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy which denied equal political rights on account of sex, pledges

itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alikeo Strict limitation of all campaign contributions and expenditures, and detailed publicity of both before as well as after

primaries and electiono Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary

unemployment, and other injurious effects incident to modern industryo The fixing of minimum safety and health standardso The prohibition of child laboro Minimum wage standards for working women, provide livable wages in industrial occupationso The general prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of 8 hour work day for women and young persons

o One day’s rest in seven for all wage workerso The eight hour day in continuous twenty-four-hour-industries

o Standards of compensation for death/injury by industrial accident and disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families or working people to the industry

o Establishing schools for industrial education under public control & encouraging agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools

o Establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods and discoveries of science at the service of American producers

o The organization of the workers, men and women, as means protecting their interests and of promoting their progress (unions)o Wise conservation of forests, coal and oil lands, water powers and other natural resources

Progressives target a variety of problems

§ Political reform § City officials who built corrupt organizations [ political machines ]

§ Used bribery & violence to influence voters§ Misuse of public money

§ City problems§ Paved streets, safe drinking water, decent housing, and adequate municipal services§ Dishonest business owners and politicians controlled municipal services

§ Used bribery and shady deals to become rich while conditions for urban residents remained unsafe and little changed

§ Big business§ “Bust the trusts” - create more economic opportunities for small businesses

§ Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 - inadequate and ineffective in limiting the abuses of big business

§ Reduce gap between the wealthy & poor§ Harsh conditions - miners, factory workers, and other laborers§ Social welfare laws & government regulations [help children & government aid workers/consumers]

Political reform, big business, reduce the gap between the wealth and the poor

Muckrakers

§Sensational investigative reports uncovered a wide range of ills

afflicting America in the early 1900s

§Theodore Roosevelt called these writers muckrakers

§ A muckrake is a tool used to clean manure and hay out of animals’ stables

§Muckrakers’ articles appeared in magazines and newspapers that

entered millions of American homes

§ People across the nation were horrified by the conditions that were revealed to

them

Socially conscious journalists and other writers dramatized the need for reform

Journalists uncover injustices

§ In 1903, Steffens published The Shame of the Cities, a collection of articles on political corruption§ His reports exposed how the government of Philadelphia let utility companies charge their customers

excessively high fees§ Showed how corrupt politicians won elections by bribing and threatening voters, and revealed how

political corruption affected all aspects of life in a city

§ Focused on crowded, unsafe, rat-infested tenement buildings where the urban poor lived § Between 1890 and 1903, he published several works, including How the Other Half Lives

§ The History of Standard Oil; ruins competitors, charge higher prices, and reap huge profits

Lincoln Steffens; uncovered social problems

Jacob Riis; a photographer for the New York Evening Sun

Ida Tarbell; reported Rockefeller’s ruthless methods

John Spargo; focused attention on the dangerous and difficult lives of child workers

Excerpt: The Shame of the Cities, Lincoln Steffens (1904)

1. What is Steffens’ opinion regarding businessmen (5 descriptors)?

o The typical business man is a “bad citizen”

o Busy …with politics

o Chief source of corruption

o Deploring reform

o Beats good government with corruption funds

o A self-righteous fraud

o Corruption, he claimed, was the result of "big business men" who corrupted city government for their own ends,

and "the typical business man"—average Americans—who ignored politics and allowed such corruption to

continue

o Greedy businessmen kept the political machines functioning

o It was their hunger for government contracts, franchises, charters, and special privileges, he believed,

that corrupted urban politics

Novelists Defend the Downtrodden

§Naturalist novels - honestly portrayed human misery and the struggles of

common people§ Theodore Dreiser - Sister Carrie

§ The fate of a small-town girl drawn into the brutal urban worlds of Chicago and New York

§ Frank Norris’s - The Octopus

§ Dramatized the Southern Pacific Railroad’s stranglehold on struggling California farmers

§ Upton Sinclair - The Jungle

§ Related the despair of immigrants working in Chicago’s stockyards and revealed the unsanitary

conditions in the industry

§ Frances Ellen Watkins – Iola Leroy

§ Portrayed some of the struggles of black Americans

Fiction writers put a human face on social problems

Reform society§ Activists promoted laws to improve living conditions, public health, and schools.

§ Urged government to regulate businesses

§ Believed that careful social planning would make American life better

Muckraker s i nc reased popu la r suppor t f o r P rog re s s i v i sm

The Social Gospel M a n y r e f o r m e r s t h o u g h t t h a t C h r i s t i a n i t y s h o u l d b e t h e b a s i s o f s o c i a l r e f o r m

§ Christianity and the Social Crisis, The Social Gospel

§ Blended ideas from German socialism and American Progressivism into a plan for

building a better society

§ By following the Bible’s teachings about charity and justice, people could make

society “the kingdom of God”

§ Protestant leaders follow

§ Began to urge the end of child labor and a shorter workweek

§ Pushed the federal government to limit the power of corporations and trusts

Settlement HousingProgressives aimed to improve the lives of poor people in the cities

A community center that provided social services to the urban poor

§ Gave mothers classes in child care and taught English to immigrants

§ Ran nursery schools and kindergartens

§ Provided theater, art, and dance programs for adults

Leading figure; settlement house movement

• Opened Hull House, a settlement house in

Chicago

• Hull House grew to include 13 buildings

• Inspired other women to become social

workers

• 1911; the country had more than four hundred

settlement houses

Jane Addams

The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements, J. Addams (1892)1. Where did Addams examine urban poverty?

2. What did the Hull House serve as?

3. What was it established in the belief of? What would add to an already existing democracy?

4. What are the three motivations for Social Settlements?

5. According to Addams, where have American democratic ideals fallen short?

Hull-House Weekly Program1. Monday

2. Tuesday

4. Wednesday

5. Thursday

Identify a lecture, class, club, etc. offered for each day of the week

4. Friday

5. Saturday/Sunday

England & Europe

A “halfway” settlement house and social center for immigrants streaming into the city

The mere foothold of a house, easily accessible, ample in space, hospitable and tolerant in spirit, situated in the midst of the large foreign colonies, so easily isolated in American cities, would be in itself a serviceable thing. It would be an effort to add social function to democracy.

1) Desire to make the entire social organism democratic & extend democracy beyond its political expression 2) impulse to share the race life & to bring as much as possible of social energy to the accumulation of civilization to those portions of the race which have little 3) A renaissance of Christianity, a movement towards its early humanitarian aspects

Democracy has made little attempt to assert itself in social affairs. Political equality alone does not secure all good to all men.

Social Club, Debate Club, Greek Art, English Composition

“Child Labor”, “Our Jury System”, “Labor Organizations”

Classes in Singing, Reading Party, Mother’s Evening Club

Shakespeare, Algebra, “Concert”, “American Politics…”

Advanced German, Chemistry- with experiments, Men’s Gymnastics Class

Clay Modeling, Sewing Classes for Italian Girls,Fairy Story Club, History of Medieval Art

Protecting children & Improving Education

Keating-Owens Act§ Banned child labor

§ 2 years later, the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional§ Congress had overstepped its constitutional power in attempting to regulate the production of

goods. (10th Amendment- powers not delegated to fed govt. are reserved to states)

§ Not until 1938 that Congress would end child labor for good (Fair Labor Standards Act)

Florence Kelley§ Helped convince the state of Illinois to ban child labor§ 1902; Kelley helped form the National Child Labor Committee§ Created U.S. Children’s Bureau in 1912 which examined issues that

affected the health and welfare of children

John Dewey• Criticized schools for teaching children to memorize facts but not to think creatively• Teach new subjects: history, geography, as well as practical skills like cooking and

carpentry• Ideas were not adopted at once, but in later years, many states put them into

effect.

Improving education§ States passed laws that required children to attend school until a certain age

§ Debate: what children should learn and how they should learn?

§ Still debated today : What do you think?

Transcript: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916

1. How does this law specify child labor?

2. What authority does the law give for the purpose of securing proper enforcement of this law? (SEC 3.)

Forbade the shipment across state lines of goods (or between countries) made in factories which employed children under the age of 14, or children between 14 and 16 who worked more than eight hours a day, overnight, or more than six days/week.

Authorization to enter and inspect at any time mines quarries, mills, canneries, workshops, factories, manufacturing establishments, and other places in which goods are produced or held for interstate commerce.

3. What are violators of this law subject to? (SEC 5.)

First offense- punished by a fine of not more than $200, and for each offense subsequent to the same conviction - a fine of not more than $1,000, nor less than $100, or by imprisonment for not more than 3 months.

Industrial WorkersConditions§ Long hours, poor ventilation, hazardous fumes, and unsafe machinery

§ Each year some thirty thousand workers died on the job, half a million were injured

Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC

U.S. had the highest rate of industrial accidents in the world

§ Shocked Americans and focused attention on the need to protect workers

§ Workers had little chance to escape because managers had locked most of

the exits

§ The fire killed 146 workers, most of them young Jewish women – WHY?

States pass laws to make workplaces safer§ Workers’ compensation laws, which set up funds to pay workers who were hurt on the job

§ Laws limited the workday to 10 hours

§ Lochner v. New York (1905) - Supreme Court rules that such laws were unconstitutional

(the right for an individual to contract – 14th Amendment)]

§ Lochner Era

Government Reform§ Free government from control of political bosses and powerful business interests§ Give people more control over government & more effective and efficient in serving the public

The need to reform the political process in order to reform society

G a l v e s t o n , T e x a s § Greatest national calamity in American history§ Killed more than 8,000 people

§ Emergency measure – form commissions§ Proved efficient in rebuilding efforts§ Permanently adopt the commission form of

government§ Galveston Plan

§ Other cities decided to take up the commission form of government

§ By 1918, 500 cities had adopted some form of it.§ Curbed the power of bosses and their political

machines § Reform governments purchased public utilities so that

electric, gas, and water companies could not charge city residents unfairly high rates

The Galveston Plan of City Government, W.B. Munro (1907)

1. Why did Galveston give the system of “government by commission a trial?”

2. What did this government look like? What is the commission responsible for? (The Galveston Experiment)

3. What conditions in Galveston improved? What was this attributed to [4]? (The Results in Galveston)

4. Which neighboring Texan cities created a similar framework of administration? (The Galveston Example…)

5. Finish the statement, “If the system does not guarantee efficient administration...” (The Important Advantage of Centralizing Responsibility)

After massive hurricane, the city found itself face to face with bankruptcy. In less than 20 years the city was nearly 3 million dollars in debt from this alone. They needed a new way to deal with this financial problem.

Administration of the city was entrusted to 5 commissioners, 3 of whom were appointed by the governor and 2 elected by citizens (later amended to all elective commissioners.) There is a popular election every 2 years, of 5 commissioners, 1 of whom if the mayor- president. The commission draws up & passes the annual budget, awards all contracts, and makes all important appointments. There is a complete centralization of all powers and a definite location of all responsibility.

The financial condition of the city, all municipal services became more efficient, citizens were more willing to seek and accept civic office, and the general tone of municipal administration was noticeably raised. This was attributed to 1) the use of approved business methods in financing 2) the elimination of all leakages in expenditures 3) the making of all appointments (election) on the basis of individual merit 4) the strict accountability of each commissioner for the on-goings of his own department. This system rendered a strict adherence to fundamental rules.

Houston, Fort Worth, Austin, Dallas, and El Paso.

It at least promises to disclose where the blame for inefficiency should be made to fall.

Municipal = town/city government

1. What is the work of administering the affairs of a city similar to? (Approximates the Government of the City to that of...)

2. What is a system of divison of powers able to counterbalance? What does this justify the risk of? (The Commission is More...)

3. What is a chief complaint of municipal politicians? (The Commission System Claimed to be...)

4. What is a secondary complaint of the system? How is this so? (The System will Tend to Increase the Influecne of...)

5. What do sponsors of the commission plan argue its adoption would ensure? (A Change in Form of Government will Avail Little...)

6. What can lessen the danger of concentrated power? What does this system of government promise? (Conclusion)

To that of conducting the affairs of a private business corporation. The salient (noticeable) characteristic of sound corporate management is the centralization of powers in the hands of a small board of directors

A system of division of powers is almost certain to counterbalance what it gains in security against what it loses in inability to cope with problems which demand prompt, united and uncompromising attention. It justifies the risk of assuming a reasonable amount of risk that concentrated power will be abused (less elected officials)

That the plan is un-American and undemocratic; that it involves a departure from American traditions of local self-government and proposes a step in the direction of municipal dictatorships.

That the system will serve to strengthen rather than weaken the influence of the regular partisan organizations in civic affairs. The concentration of power and patronage in the hands of a few commissioners might make it seem imperative to the party leaders that the commission should be controlled.

Its adoption would ensure administration by skilled experts, since appointments made by a small body would probably be dictated by reasons of merit and experience alone.

Concentration of power is never dangerous when accompanied by an equal concentration of responsibility. It promises to compel the “bosses” to work in the open [i.e. honestly, transparency.]

§Direct pr imaries § Traditionally, it was the party leaders who picked candidates for state and local offices

§ An election in which citizens themselves vote to select nominees for upcoming elections§ By 1916, all but four states had direct primaries

§Make sure that e lected off ic ia ls would fo l low cit izens’ wishes § 3 other po l i t i ca l re fo rms :

§ Initiative: gave people the power to put a proposed new law directly on the ballot in the next election by collecting citizens’ signatures on a petition. Voters themselves could pass laws instead of waiting for elected officials to act

§ Referendum: allowed citizens to approve or reject laws passed by a legislature

§ Recall: gave voters the power to remove public servants from office before their terms ended

§Direct e lect ion of senators by voters, not state legis lators§ Became law in 1913 when the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was approved

Progres s i ves also pushed for election reforms

Initiative, Referendum, and Recall1. What is the initiative (a)?

2. How may an initiative measure be proposed (b)?

3. What is the referendum (a)?

4. How may a referendum measure be proposed (b)?

5. What is the power of recall (a)? How is it initiated?

6. What qualifications must a petition meet (b)?

The power of the electors (citizens of voting age) to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them.

Presenting to the Secretary of State a petition that sets forth a proposed statute or amendment to the Constitution and is certified to have been signed by electors equal to 5% (statute) and 8% (amendment.)

The power of the electors to approve or reject statutes or parts of statutes (except: urgency statutes, calling elections, and those providing for tax levies or appropriations for usual current expenses of the state.)

By presenting to the Secretary of State, within 90 days after the enactment date of the statue, a petition signed by electors in number to 5% of the votes for all candidates for Governor at the last election.

The power of the electors to remove an elective officer. It is initiated by delivering to the Secretary of State a petition alleging reason for recall. Proponents have 160 days to file signed petitions.

It must be signed by electors equal in number to 12% of the last vote for the office, with signatures from each of 5 counties equal to 1% of the last vote for the office in the county.

Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Governor of Wisconsin§ Won the passage of many reform laws

§ Forced railroads to charge lower fees and pay higher taxes

§ Helped to improve education, make factories safer, & adopt the direct primary

Hiram Johnson, Governor of California§ Shattered the Southern Pacific Railroad’s stranglehold on state government

§ Put in place the direct primary, initiative, referendum, and recall

§ Pushed for the careful use of natural resources such as water, forests, and wildlife

Woodrow Wilson of New JerseyReduced the railroads’ power and pushed for a direct primary law

Progressive Governors

Theodore Roosevelt of New YorkDeveloped a fair system for hiring state workers & made some corporations pay taxes

“The Danger Threatening Representative Government”, Robert M. La Follette 1. According to La Follette, what is the basic principal of the government? How is this accomplished?

2. What is a representative government?

3. According to La Follette, what is it that is “swelling the tanks of the dissatisfied?”

4. How does he describe the corporation of today?

5. What does he believe Americans are exchanging for cheap goods?

6. La Follette states that, “the corporation does not limit its operations to the legitimate conduct of its business.” What is his point?

7. How do corporations become political machines? (i.e. what are politicians sure of if they obey their “corporate masters?”)

The will of the people. This was to be accomplished by electing men to make, and men to execute the laws, who, would represent in the laws the will of the people.

A government where every man had equal voice, equal rights, and equal responsibilities.

A growing conviction in state after state, that we are fast being dominated by forces that thwart the will of the people and menace representative government.

It has invaded every department of business, and it’s powerful but invisible hand is felt in almost all activities of life. The business once transacted by individuals in every community is in the control of corporations. All individualities are lost.

Independence

Specially retained representatives are either elected to office, directly in their interests or maintained in a perpetual lobby to serve them.

Renomination (reelection)