The Progressive Era

1
The Progressive Era

• 1900-1920

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The Progressive Era

• Greatest period of political reform in American
  history
• Wanted government to be more responsive to the
  people
• Embraced many, but not all of the goals of the
  Populists
• Emphasized government REGULATION NOT
  nationalization
• Led by the emerging urban middle class
• Motivated by intellectuals and Muckrakers
• First reforms began at the local and state level

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The Progressive Era

• Local Reforms
• City Mayor and City Manager systems
• Public utilities
• Example Sam Golden Rule Jones Mayor of
  Toledo, Ohio
• State Government Reforms
• Business regulations
• Laws to protect workers and consumers
• Example Wisconsins (Robert) La Follette plan
• Example California Workers Compensation Gov.
  Hiram Johnson

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The Progressive era

• Political Reforms (Making government more
  responsive)
• Initiatives (Voter proposed legislation)
• Referendum (Legislation referred to the people
  for a vote)
• Recall (The ability to remove an elected official
  with a special vote)
• Primary Elections
• Federal Amendments
• 16th Federal Income Tax (1913)
• 17th Direct Election of Senators (1913)
• 18th Prohibition of Alcohol (1919)
• 19th Womens Suffrage (1920)

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The progressive era

• Social Reform Movements
• Muckrakers (Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, Upton
  Sinclair, many more . . . )
• Womens Christian Temperance Union Anti-Saloon
  League
• Womens Suffragists Black Suffragists (Ida B.
  Wells)
• Niagara Movement NAACP
• International Workers of the World (IWW Big
  Bill Haywood)
• National Consumers League
• Florence Kelley led against child labor and to
  improve working conditions for women. Largely
  motivated by the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the
  Muller v. Oregon ruling

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The Progressive Era

• Influential Muckrakers
• Henry Demarest Lloyd, Wealth Against the
  Commonwealth (about Standard Oil)
• Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (about the
  meat packing industry, immigrants and tenements)
• Jacob Riis, (New York Times) How the Other Half
  Lives (series of articles about
  the tenements of New York City led to their
  elimination)
• McClures Magazine
• Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities
• Ida Tarbell, Mother of Trusts (Expose on
  Standard Oil)
• Cosmopolitan
• David Phillips, The Treason of the Senate

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The Progressive era

• Progressive Presidents
• Three main areas of reform were addressed to some
  extent
• Regulating business
• Protecting consumers
• Improving working conditions
• Theodore Roosevelt (TR) Republican 1901 - 1909
• William H. Taft Republican 1909 - 1913
• Woodrow Wilson Democrat 1913 - 1921