Click on the window to start video

1
Unit 6 Becoming a World Power 1898 1920 Chapter
16 The Progressives
Click on the window to start video
2
Section 1 - Progressivism MAIN IDEA -
Progressives focused on three areas of reform
easing the suffering of the urban poor, improving
unfair and dangerous working conditions, and
reforming government at the national, state, and
local levels. WHAT WAS PROGRESSIVISM? Industriali
zation brought problems such as dangerous working
conditions and extreme poverty. There was also a
great deal of government and business corruption.
The movement that fought these ills was called
progressivism. Journalists known as muckrakers
helped lay the foundation of the progressive
movement by exposing the dark side of society.
Ida Tarbell wrote about corrupt business
practices. Lincoln Steffens wrote about the
corruption of city governments.
3
(No Transcript)
4
REFORMING SOCIETY Reformers like Jacob Riis
called peoples attention to the problems of the
urban poor. In his book How the Other Half
Lives Riis presented visual images of desperate
urban poverty. In New York, the Tenement Act of
1901 brought some improvement to urban life. The
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People) was formed by a group of black
and white activists in 1909. It was formed to
fight for civil rights for African Americans. In
1913 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was founded
to fight anti-Semitism, or hostility toward Jews.
5
REFORMING THE WORKPLACE Florence Kelley worked
for laws to stop child labor and limit the hours
women could work. Business owners fought such
labor laws in court. In 1911 a terrible fire at
the Triangle Shirtwaist Company inspired the New
York legislature to pass fire safety laws. Many
workers joined unions to fight for better pay.
The International Ladies Garment Workers Union
(ILGWU) won a shorter workweek and higher wages
when tens of thousands of members struck. In the
case of Muller v. Oregon, the Brandeis brief
convinced the Supreme Court to uphold a law
establishing a 10-hours work day.
6
REFORMING GOVERNMENT Progressives worked to make
government less corrupt and more efficient.
Robert M. La Follette, of Wisconsin, pushed for
direct primary elections, reforms on campaign
spending, railroad regulation, and reforming
civil service in Wisconsin. Progressives pushed
for the Seventeenth Amendment. This gave voters
the power to elect senators directly.
Progressives also fought for three other reforms
The initiative gives voters the power to put a
proposed law on the ballot for public approval.
The referendum allows them to approve or veto a
recently passed law by voting on it. The recall
enables voters to remove an elected official from
office by special election.
7
(No Transcript)
8
Section 2 Women and Public Life MAIN IDEA Women
during the Progressive Era actively campaigned
for reforms in education, childrens welfare,
temperance, and suffrage. OPPORTUNITIES FOR
WOMEN By the late 1800s there were more chances
for women to gain education and employment. As
they looked to the world beyond their own homes,
they began working to better society. Women began
to go to college in larger numbers. By 1870 only
about 20 percent of college students were women.
By 1900 this increased to more than 33 percent.
Women also began to work in offices and industry.
By 1900 more than 2,000 women had found
employment in journalism in which only 35 women
worked in 1870. They were almost always paid less
than men.
9
(No Transcript)
10
GAINING POLITICAL EXPERIENCE In the Progressive
Era, women reformers campaigned for civil rights,
childrens health and welfare, and
prohibition. As women began to work for political
causes, one of their first concerns was
childrens health and welfare. They succeeded in
getting the Federal Childrens Bureau opened in
1912. Women also worked for Prohibition, the
movement calling for a ban on making, selling,
and transporting alcoholic drinks. They believed
alcohol caused crime, poverty, and violence. The
Womans Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), a
national organization dedicated to Prohibition,
was led by Frances Willard from 1879 to 1898.
Evangelist Carry Nation spread the message of
Prohibition by smashing up saloons and making
fiery speeches.
11
In 1919 the states ratified the Eighteenth
Amendment. This amendment barred the manufacture,
sale, and distribution of alcohol. The amendment
was unpopular and hard to enforce. Women also
worked for civil rights. In 1896 African American
women formed the National Association of Colored
Women. They campaigned to fight poverty,
segregation, and lynching. They also campaigned
against Jim Crow laws and alcohol abuse and for
womens suffrage.
12
RISE OF THE WOMENS SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT After the
Civil War, the Fifteenth Amendment gave African
American men the right to vote but denied it to
all women. Suffragists worked to change the
laws. Many people, businesses, and churches were
against them. Anti-suffragists feared that if
women got the right to vote, they would ignore
their duties at home. In 1869 Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National
Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). This
organization campaigned for a constitutional
amendment. In 1872 it supported the first woman
to run for president, Victoria Woodhull.
13
Meanwhile, the American Woman Suffrage
Association (AWSA) focused on changing laws
state-by-state. They won in several western
territories and states. In 1890 the two
organizations merged and formed the National
American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA),
first led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and then
Susan B. Anthony. Women finally won the right to
vote in 1920.
14
(No Transcript)
15
Section 3 Theodore Roosevelts Square Deal MAIN
IDEA Theodore Roosevelt used the power of the
presidency to push for progressive reforms in
business and in environmental policy. ROOSEVELTS
VIEW OF THE PRESIDENCY Theodore Roosevelt was a
progressive reformer. Political bosses thought
they could silence him by making him vice
president. However, when President William
McKinley was shot, Roosevelt became president.
Roosevelt used the presidency as a bully pulpit.
This meant that he used it to publicize and get
support for important issues. In 1902 coal miners
in Pennsylvania struck for higher wages, shorter
hours, and recognition of their union. Roosevelt
became involved and forced both sides to accept
arbitration. This meant allowing a third person,
who would not take sides, to act as judge and
settle the dispute. The result
16
was a compromise. Roosevelt called the results a
Square Deal. This expression became Roosevelts
campaign promise and belief. It meant that the
needs of workers, business, and consumers should
be balanced. The popular Roosevelt easily won the
election of 1904. REGULATING BIG
BUSINESS Roosevelt wanted businesses to act
responsibly. He used the Sherman Antitrust Act to
sue a railroad for forming a monopoly and won.
Roosevelts administration filed hundreds of
lawsuits against monopolies. He went after trusts
and monopolies that sold bad products, competed
unfairly, or corrupted public officials. In 1903
Congress passed the Elkins Act, which forced the
railroads to charge the same prices to all their
customers. The Hepburn Act of 1906 authorized the
Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum
railroad rates. In 1906 writer Upton Sinclair
wrote a book about the filthy conditions in the
meat packing industry called The Jungle.
Roosevelt acted to protect the consumer. The Meat
Inspection Act required federal government to
inspect meat shipped across state lines. The Pure
Food and Drug Act outlawed making, selling, or
transporting food and medicine with harmful
ingredients.
17
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION Roosevelt signed laws
creating many national monuments and parks.
Naturalist John Muir, who convinced the
government to protect Yosemite, thought all
wilderness should be kept natural. Roosevelt
thought some lands should be protected but others
should be put to use. Accordingly, the Newlands
Reclamation Act allowed the government to build
irrigation projects to make dry land productive.
Conservationist Gifford Pinchot, who first used
the word conservation, supported Roosevelt. He
became the first head of the U.S. Forest Service.
18
Section 4 Taft and Wilson MAIN IDEA Progressive
reforms continued during the Taft and Wilson
presidencies, focusing on business, banking, and
womens suffrage. PROGRESSIVISM UNDER
TAFT Theodore Roosevelts friend and adviser
William Howard Taft became president in 1908.
Taft did not seek new reforms. He did support
increasing the nations forest reserves and
creating a Department of Labor to enforce labor
laws. He also passed the Sixteenth Amendment,
which allowed Congress to collect taxes based on
an individuals income. Taft eventually lost the
support of the Progressives. Theodore Roosevelt
refused to support President Tafts reelection,
and the Republican Party split after the
Ballinger-Pinchot affair. This began with a bill
meant to lower tariffs but which actually did the
opposite. Conservationists turned against Taft
when it came out that his secretary
19
of the interior, Richard Ballinger, allowed the
illegal purchase of protected land in Alaska.
When Gifford Pinchot accused Ballinger of
sabotaging government conservation efforts, Taft
fired Pinchot. By the 1912 election, many
Progressive Republicans had formed the new
Progressive Party. Their candidates for president
and vice president were Theodore Roosevelt and
the popular California governor Hiram W. Johnson.
With the Republicans split, the Democrats
won. WILSONS NEW FREEDOM. Woodrow Wilson became
president. He proposed a reform program called
the New Freedom. It called for lower tariffs,
banking reform, and stronger antitrust laws. In
1913 tariffs were lowered. To make up for the
loss in income, a graduated income tax was
introduced. This meant that people paid taxes
according to their income level. Another of
Wilsons reforms was the Federal Reserve Act,
which was meant to prevent bank collapse during
financial panics. The Clayton Antitrust Act,
which clarified antitrust laws, finally made
strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing by
workers legal. The Federal Trade Commission
enforces antitrust laws and unfair business
practices like deceptive advertising.
20
WOMEN GAIN THE VOTE. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns
formed the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage
in 1914. These activists picketed the White
House, chained themselves to railings, and went
on hunger strikes. By patriotically supporting
U.S. troops in World War I, women won more
support. Wilson, too, supported womens suffrage.
Ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment
finally gave women the vote. PROGRESSIVISM AND
THE RIGHTS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS. The Progressives
had a mixed record on civil rights. In 1906
African American soldiers were falsely accused of
a shooting spree. Their entire regiment was
discharged. The injustice of what became known as
the Brownsville incident was not corrected until
1972. With people devoting energy to the war and
not the reform movement, progressivism came to an
end.
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)