Chapter 16:Uncovering Problems at the

Turn of the Century

What social, political and environmental problems did

Americans face at the turn of the 20th Century?

Roots of Progressivism Industrialization lured many immigrants to the U.S. who became the urban poor and lived in unhealthy living conditions.

Businesses boomed and provided jobs but they were low paying in unsafe conditions for ridiculous hours.

Progressivism, a wide-ranging reform movement targeting these problems, began in the late 19th century.

Journalists called muckrakers exposed people to the plight of the unfortunate in hopes of sparking reform.

The State of the Union in 1900

The “frontier” is considered closed in 1890 Mass production led to new ways to distribute and sell products on a national scale

Immigrants found work, entertainment and modern attractions in growing cities

By 1910: a majority of the population of cities like New York, Chicago and Cleveland was foreign born

½ of the nation’s labor force was foreign born

Growing cities couldn’t provide people necessary services like garbage collection, safe housing, and police and fire protection.

Families were jammed into slum tenements

Infrastructure (roads, power, sanitation, transportation) was inadequate

Industrial jobs were unsafe and unstable

Poor Living & Working Conditions

Unsafe products• Caveat emptor = “buyer beware”

How could the buyer beware if the buyer has no idea about the conditions in which the product is made?

Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to raise concerns about working conditions and the poor sanitary state of meatpacking plants• “I aimed at the public's heart, and by

accident I hit it in the stomach”

Poor Living & Working Conditions

From Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle 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 these 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. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shovelled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.

Now we have FOOD ACTION DEFECT LEVELS

Problems with the Environment Forests were cleared by loggers and

farmers Ranchers allowed their herds to overgraze Extractive Industries transformed the

earth• Take minerals from the soil

Copper, silver, gold, iron, coal Oil companies continued to pump

petroleum from the ground Pollution and factory waste contaminated

cities

Political Machines Lincoln Steffens wrote The Shame of

the Cities that revealed corruption in city government

A political machine is made up of full time politicians• Money + Power + Influence

Local politicians fed and cared for their constituents in exchange for votes• At least someone was looking out for the

urban immigrants

Political Machines Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed (NYC)

• The ultimate political machine

Corruption at the National Level The “Millionaire’s Club” (the Senate)

• State legislatures selected their 2 Senators• Patronage = give jobs to friends and

political supporters The Pendleton Act

• Civil Service Reform Tests to prove competency to hold governmental

jobs A merit system not just “who you know”

Social Tensions Growing gaps between the rich and the poor Working class immigrants wages couldn’t

keep ahead of the cost of living Tensions between races

• Jim Crow laws segregated public facilities• Voting rights were denied by literacy tests,

“grandfather clauses” and poll taxes Gender Inequality

• Women made up 18% of the workforce in 1900• Opportunities were limited• Only half of American colleges accepted women• No voting at the national level

Challenges for the American Family Child Labor Lack of education Alcohol

• Temperance Movement Morals and Values of children

Chapter 17 the Progressives Respond

Who were the progressives and how did they address the

problems they saw?

PROGRESSIVES Progressives were

reformers committed to improving conditions in American life

Jane Addams-social worker and founder of the Hull House, Chicago’s 1st settlement house.

Addams goal was to clean up the streets.

Origins of Progressivism Industrialization, Urbanization, and

Immigration contributed to great changes in America create both opportunities and problems.

The Progressives wanted to…• Promote Social Welfare• Protect the Environment• Make Government more Efficient and

Democratic

Origins of Progressivism Progressive Activists- people who took political

action to achieve reforms

Roots of Progressivism• Populism- rural movement to improve conditions of famers• Social Gospel- religious movement believing society must

take responsibility for the less fortunate• Progressivism- improve conditions of industrial workers

Progressives vs social DarwinismProgressives opposed Darwin's theory of Natural selection. They felt domination of rich and

powerful was a distortion of democracy.

Progressives Fight for Social Reforms

Progressives wanted to….• Improve Living Conditions in Cities

Progressives fought for court yards and garbage collection. Central Park was built because of progressives.

• Keep Children in School and out of Factories 1890-4%of teenagers went to school National Child Labor Committee-Florence Kelly 1904,

convinced 39 states by 1904 to prohibit child labor 1930-50% of teenagers were attending school Separate court system for Juveniles

• Improve Conditions in the Workplace Workers Compensation Laws- receive pay when injured Hours were limited for women but not men due to child

bearing

Progressives Push for Political Reforms

Fighting for Honest Effective Local Government• People had to buy their jobs (teachers had to

pay $120 of the first $141 they earned in Philadelphia)

• Toledo, Ohio Mayor Samuel Jones-reformed the police department, set a minimum wage, and improved city services

• Cleveland, Ohio Mayor Tom Johnson reduced streetcar fares, set up public baths, and increased the number of parks and playgrounds

• Soon cities were set up based on skills and experience rather than party loyalty

Progressives Push for Political Reforms

Reforming State Government• Goal- return the power to the people • SECERT BALLOT- citizens voted in a private booth • Direct Primary- elections held rather than party leaders

picking candidates• Recall- process which voters can remove an elected

official before his or her term expires through a petition• Initiative- citizens can propose and pass a law without

the state legislature• Referendum- a law passed by state legislature then

placed on the ballot for approval or rejection by the voters.

• Electing like-minded officials

Progressives Confront Social Inequality

Women Fight for the Right to Vote• “social housekeepers”- if women can clean up their

homes then they can clean up society• After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire a politician

answered the question, why women factory workers had no fire protection, by stating “that’s easy, they ain’t got no votes!”

• Women had been fighting for the right to vote since 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention

• National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)- led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton to organize the suffrage movement at state and national levels

• 1876 Wyoming granted women the right to vote followed by many other Western states. By 1915 15 states granted women the right to vote. Many southern states denied women.

• 1916 Jeanette Rankin was elected to the House of Representatives in Montana, 4 years before women received the right to vote at the National Level.

Progressives Confront Social Inequality

African Americans Struggle for Equality• African Americans faced a tougher battle than

women…• 4/5 of African Americans lived in the South and

were disenfranchised due to literacy tests, poll taxes, and the grandfather clause denying them the right to vote

• Booker T Washington- founded Tuskegee Institute- vocational college for African Americans in Alabama

• W.E.B. Du Bois- founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People- fought the battle of racism and segregation through the courts focusing on outlawing Lynching.

• Between 1894-1898- 550 African Americans were lynched. It was not outlawed until the 1950’s.

Chapter 18: Progressives on the

National StageHow well did Presidents

Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson promote progressive goals in

National Policies?

Three Progressive President's Theodore Roosevelt

• Teddy became president in 1901 after the assassination of McKinley

• Youngest president at age 42, he was short and stout, impulsive, but knew how to get things done

• SQUARE DEAL- Roosevelt’s program of reform focusing on regulating big business and protecting workers and consumers

Three Progressive President's William Howard Taft

• Succeeded Roosevelt in 1908 with his support• Taft was quite, reserved, and cautious- the exact opposite of

Roosevelt• Taft supported low tariffs in his party platform but in 1909

after taking office he signed the Payne-Aldrich Bill, which raised tariffs and tarnished his record as a progressive

Three Progressive President's Woodrow Wilson

• Election of 1912-Roosevelt decided to run again because Taft betrayed the progressive ideals, but when the Republicans chose Taft to represent them Roosevelt formed a third political party, Progressive Party aka “Bull Moose Party”

• Woodrow Wilson was running for the Democrats and Eugene V. Debs as a Socialists.

• Wilson received 42% of the votes, Debs 7% and the Republican party split Taft-23% and Roosevelt 27.5%, giving Wilson the presidency.

• Wilson promotes NEW FREEDOM- a reform program set in place to eliminate trusts and reduce corruption in the federal government

• HE was most noted for is laws on banking, tariff reform and the creation of the Federal Trade Commission.

Addressing Effects of INdustrialization

BUSTING TRUSTS• Roosevelt passed the Sherman Anti-

Trust Act- could not merge and form a trust or monopoly and became known as a “trustbuster” by breaking up J.P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Company and limiting the power of the Railroads

• Taft brought 90 lawsuits against trusts during his presidency being very harsh

• Wilson strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by passing the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in 1914- outlawed underselling and protected labor unions

• Many conservatives thought the government should not have interfered at all with business

Addressing the Effects of Industrialization

Protecting Consumers and Workers• Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspections Act

which required the department of Agriculture to thoroughly inspect meat and The Pure Food and Drug Act established the FDA (food and drug administration) to test and approve drugs before they went to the market

• Roosevelt helped coal miners when he pressured the miners and owners to submit to arbitration- a legal process in which neutral outside party helps resolve a dispute. This process decided that miners should have higher wages and shorter hours but also declared that the owners did not have to recognize the union or higher union workers.

Addressing the Effects of

Industrialization

Protecting Consumers and Workers• Taft and Wilson expanded

worker protections by establishing the Children’s Bureau to investigate child labor. Wilson passed the Keating Owen Child Labor Act in 1916 which prohibited companies from hiring children under the age of 14.

• Taft and Wilson also supported an 8 hour work day, under Taft the 8 hour day became the rule for government employees.

Addressing the Effects of Industrialization

Protecting the Environment• Preservation- the protecting of wilderness

lands from all forms of development• Conservation- the limited use of resources• Roosevelt backed the creation of the U.S.

Forest Service- which protected forest and other natural areas from excessive development. Roosevelt set aside 150 million acres of national forest

• Taft added 2.7 million acres to the National Wildlife Refuge System

• Wilson supported the creation of the National Park Service to manage national parks (Yellowstone) for preservation and public use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWrklFuYnb0

Reforming the National Government Reforming the Banking System

• Taft urged Congress to reform the banking system but no one could agree on the proper solution

• Wilson passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913- this divided the country into 12 regions and create the Federal Reserve System- a central bank of the United States. “The Fed” would offer a safety net to private banks buy lending them money and would set the monetary policy to regulate the amount of money in circulation by interest rates.

Reforming the National Government Reforming Taxes and Tariffs

• Big business’s favored high tariffs-taxes on imported goods, but progressives felt this was unfair to consumers

• Taft passed the 16th Amendment- Income tax amendment, a graduated income tax which placed a higher burden on those who had more money.

• Wilson signed the Underwood Tariff Act in 1913 which reduced tariffs and created the graduated income tax

Reforming the National Government

AMENDMENTS• 17th Amendment- direct election of

senators, gave the people more power

• 18th Amendment- prohibition of “the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors” Women’s Temperance Christian

Movement-argued drinking of alcohol made men unable to support their wives and children. “The Saloon Must Go”

• 19th Amendment- “the right of citizens of the United states to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United states or by any state on account of SEX! WOMEN CAN VOTE