The Progressive Response

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The Progressive Response
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5 major problems faced America at the turn of the
Century

• 1. poor working conditions
• 2. Consumer fraud
• 3. Unfair practices by large corporations and
  trusts
• 4. Political corruption
• 5. The destruction of the wilderness areas to
  fuel the build up of industrial and urban America

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A group called the Progressives emerged to fight
these problems. gt generally white,
middle-class professionals from both parties
gt accepted industrialization, but
believed significant reform was needed
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Key Figures
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President Theodore Roosevelt

• His plan for reform was called the Square Deal
• plan included
• regulation of unfair business practices,
• consumer protection,
• increased rights for workers,
• protection of natural resources

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President Woodrow Wilson

• Clayton Anti-Trust Act - law passed in 1914 to
  strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
  specified big business activities that were
  forbidden.

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Robert LaFolletteGovernor of Wisconsin and a
U.S. SenatorNicknamed Fighting Bob
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First step in reform

• Expose the problems to the public

Muckrakers group of men and women who brought
these conditions to the public eye, in print and
through vivid images. They investigated a wide
range of social problems.
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Ida Tarbell History of Standard Oil Company
exposed the ruthless tactics of Rockefeller
Examples
Lincoln Steffens The Shame of Cities
exposed city corruption
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Most famous example
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle exposed the Chicago meat-packing
industry
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The Jungle

• "Here was a population, low-class and mostly
  foreign, hanging always on the verge of
  starvation, and dependent for its opportunities
  of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal
  and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers
  under such circumstances immorality was exactly
  as inevitable, and as prevalent, as it was under
  the system of chattel slavery. Things that were
  quite unspeakable went on there in the packing
  houses all the time, and were taken for granted
  by everybody only they did not show, as in the
  old slavery times, because there was no
  difference in color between master and slave."
  Chapter 10

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The Jungle

• The meat would be shoveled 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.
• There was no place for the men to wash their
  hands before they ate their dinner, and so they
  made a practice of washing them in the water that
  was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the
  butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of
  corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the
  waste of the plants, that would be dumped into
  old barrels in the cellar and left there.
• Under the system of rigid economy which the
  packers enforced, there were some jobs that it
  only paid to do once in a long time, and among
  these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels.
  Every spring they did it and in the barrels
  would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale
  water--and cartload after cartload of it would be
  taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh
  meat, and sent out to the public's breakfast. Ch.
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The source of genuine reform in this matter is an
enlightened public opinion!!!!!
Upton Sinclair
I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit
its stomach.
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Poor working conditions
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• Example
• Steel workers worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a
  week
• Textile workers worked 60 to 84 hours a week
  (primarily women and children)

NO Unemployment insurance
NO workmans compensation
FEW pension plans
Worksites unsafe
child labor freely permitted
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1900 only 3 of Americas workers belonged to
Unions
Roosevelt generally sided with labor unions Ex.
1902, coal miners strike in Pennsylvania.
Roosevelt threatened to take over the mines and
run them with federal troops if owners did not
negotiate. 1st time government had used its
power to benefit labor.
Created the Department of Commerce and Labor in
1903 made activities of industry open to public
scrutiny in an effort to keep them honest
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Late 1800s ? Industrial growth led to reduction
in quality goods

• No safeguards against poor quality or misleading
  advertisement

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) barred the use of
harmful additives in food and forbade the
use of misleading statements in the
advertisement of drugs
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Progressives typically disliked monopolies
because they amassed great power and often had
consumers at their mercy.
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Roosevelt- Trust Buster
- intolerant of abuse of power - believed in
government supervision and regulation of
business
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Woodrow Wilson
Federal Trade Commission established in 1914
by the Federal Trade Commission Act Empowered to
prevent large companies from destroying small
ones more competition
Clayton Anti trust Act Prohibited pricing
policies that might destroy competition
outlawed the buying of stock of competing
companies
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GOAL OF PROGRESSIVES

• Make the government more responsible to the will
  of the people

• Allowing voters to have a greater direct impact
  on public policy

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Political Machines
- political power was in the hands of a network
of men who could be influenced through bribes and
favors, controlled many city governments Once
elected politicians had little accountability
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Progressives pushed for

• Primary elections
• The power of initiatives referendums
• Recall elections
• see chart on page 392

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1913 17th Amendment gt direct election of US
senators
1920 19th Amendment gt womens suffrage
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Roosevelt is often referred to as the father of
the national park system.
WHY?
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He had the foresight to preserve huge tracts of
Wilderness areas during a time period of
tremendous urban and industrial development
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W.E.B Dubois most prominent leader of the
NAACP - 1st African American to receive a PhD
from Harvard - historian and outspoken leader of
the black community
In its early years NAACP defended blacks that had
been arrested unjustly, fought for anti-lynching
laws investigated riots
By 1914, NAACP had a national membership of 6000
offices in 50 cities.
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Create an acrostic of the Progressive Era in your
spiral. You may use your notes or the text to
complete the acrostic. Draw and color an
illustration for 5 of your sentences.

• P
• Ratified the 19th Amendment, which allowed
  womens suffrage.
• O
• G
• R
• E
• S
• S
• I
• V
• E
• S