Progressive Era

1
Progressive Era

• Late 1800s to 1920
• Period of experimentation and reform
• Government moving into new roles (for better or
  worse??)

2
Populist Party (Peoples Party)

• Early influence during Progressive Movement
• Comprised mostly of farmers
• Born out of Farmers Alliance (Granges)

3
(No Transcript)
4
Issues Raised

• Bi-metallic Supporters
• More silver-based more for everyone.
  Gold-based meant more for the rich, not the
  everyday people.
• Direct Election of Senators
• Low Tariffs
• Government ownership of railroads, telephones,
  and telegraphs
• Ending Child Labor
• Could pay children less, and children could
  handle smaller parts.

• Womens suffrage Susan B. Anthonys disdain
  that blacks could vote and women couldnt.
• Suffrage granted to women following WWI with the
  NINETEENTH AMMENDMENT!!!
• Public Works Projects during economic hardships
• Graduated income tax

5
(No Transcript)
6

• Child Labor Was a Huge Problem!

7
Labor Unions and Child Labor
8
1896 Presidential Election

• Country seems divided between Gold Bugs and
  Silverites
• Republicans pick William McKinley
• Democrats expected to pick Grover Cleveland
• Both support Gold
• Populist support William Jennings Bryan

9
William Jennings Bryan

• The Great Commoner
• The Boy Orator
• Tried to appeal to Democrats and Populists
• Cross of Gold Speech

10
1896 continued

• Democrats change minds and pick Bryan to run
• Populist in dilemma
• Continue supporting Bryan or pick another
  candidate?

11
Populists Supporters
Demographics
Republican Supporters

• Farmers
• Women
• Labor Unions (see following video clip!)
• Reformers

• Big Business Owners
• Wealthy
• Bankers

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
What is the cartoonist saying about the
President?
15
1896 Election Impact

• Voters sided with powerful campaign
• McKinley spent millions, hired professional
  staff, smear campaign
• Bryan spent 300,000 and handled his own campaign
• Politics has forever more been decided by big
  money support
• Last agrarian versus urban battle

16
President McKinley

• 2 Term President
• Defeated Bryan again in 1900
• Provided leadership during economic recovery
• Strong supporter of American Imperialism
• Assassinated in 1901

17
Populist Party Fades Away

• William Jennings Bryan loses 2 more elections
• Democrats eventually take up many Populist issues
• By 1908, Populist party finished at national
  level
• Former Populists increasingly known as
  Progressives

18
Progressives

• Progressives have four main goals
• Protecting Social Welfare
• Promoting Moral Reform
• Creating Economic Reform
• Fostering Efficiency

19
PROGRESSIVISM
CivilRights
Suffragettes
Muckrackers
Temperance
Labor Unions
MidclassWomen
Goo Goos
Popul ists
20
Promoting Moral Reform
21
Progressives Promoting Moral Reform Prohibition

• Want to ban alcohol
• Bars cause problems for society
• Prohibition Party
• Womens Christian Temperance Union
• Anti-Saloon League
• Wont succeed until 1919

22
Carry Nation
23
(No Transcript)
24
Purity Crusaders

• Big cities had visible vice problems
• Gambling
• Prostitution
• Drugs
• Rid communities of activities that harm family
  values
• Blue Laws emerge
• Comstock Law barred obscene material

25
Social Gospel Movement

• 1880s/90s urban churches organize
• Attempt to understand and counsel why drinking,
  gambling, and other behaviors exist

26
Progressives Protecting Social Welfare
Settlement Movement

• Led by young, educated men and women
• Offer social services in areas where you live
• Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr form Hull House
• Classes
• Display culture
• Provide job training
• Child Care
• Etc.

27
(No Transcript)
28
Progressives Creating Economic Reform

• Progressives begin questioning laissez-faire.
• Organization created to control the U.S. money
  supply and create national banking systemThe
  Federal Reserve.
• Allows for easier access to loans and credit.
• Some subscribed to Socialism.
• Some spoke out against capitalistic big business
  and its corruptions.
• Called muckrakers.
• Upton Sinclairs The Jungle
• Led to FDA and close examination of working
  conditions.
• Muckrakers woke many up to the cruelties existing
  within capitalism and the fact that men,
  especially immigrants, were being taken advantage
  of.
• Unions gain steam.

29
Progressives Fostering Efficiency

• Opposite of muckrakers in that some tried to make
  American society more efficient.
• Led to studies of exact times it took to produce
  products.
• Increased productivity.
• Led to creation of the assembly line by Henry
  Ford.
• Cut down on the fact that some workers worked far
  faster than others.
• Huge increase in production, but higher turnover.
  WHY?
• In response, Ford shortens work day to 8 hours
  and paid them twice as much as other
  industrialists.

30
W.E.B. Du Bois

• W.E.B. Du Bois 1895 First African American to
  receive a doctorate from Harvard.
• Encouraged the top 10 of the African-American
  community to engage in liberal education and
  immerse themselves in mainstream American life in
  hope of inclusion.
• Need to have well-educated leaders in the black
  community.
• ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
• Co-founder of the NAACP!!!

31
Booker T. Washington

• Booker T. Washington
• Born a slave in Virginia
• Graduated from Hampton Institute
• Sought to have African-Americans acquire useful
  labor skills and, instead, prove their economic
  worth.
• This, he believed, would end racism.

32
Booker T. Washington, contd.

• Founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
  which aimed to enable black graduates to teach
  and to do
• Agricultural work
• Domestic work
• Mechanical work
• No race can prosper till it learns that there is
  as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing
  a poem.

33
(No Transcript)
34
Progressives Strive for Better Government

• Attention shifts to State and Local Government
• Easier to get support from smaller groups
• Meaningful changes introduced
• Professionals and well-qualified hired for
  government jobs
• Strive to end patronage.
• (Theres that word again!)
• Corruption in city and state government demanded
  action

35
Primary Elections

• Political Machines hand picked Presidential (and
  other) candidates
• Average citizen didnt have say in process
• Primary elections developed to allow voters to
  pick best party candidate
• Winner of primary election represented party in
  general election
• Progressives pushed for popular vote of Senators,
  who had been tools for political machines and
  unresponsive to the public.
• Voters nominated senatorial candidates in direct
  primariesSEVENTEENTH AMMENDMENT!!!

36
Initiatives

• Procedure in which voters can propose a law or
  state constitutional amendment
• Accomplished through petitions

37
Referendums (a.k.a. Proposals)

• State legislature refers measures to voters for
  approval or rejection
• --or--
• Voters petition to get a measure placed on the
  ballot
• Often times deal with Bond Sales

38
Recall Elections

• Citizens can vote out elected officials before
  their terms expire
• Petition required
• School board members, city council, judges, etc.