PROGRESSIVE ERA

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PROGRESSIVE ERA

• 1889-1920

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• Muckrakers
• Name applied in 1906 by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
  to a group of journalists who exposed the abuses
  of power and corruption in American political and
  business life.
• They were largely responsible for mobilizing
  public opinion in favor of the progressive reform
  of the period.

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Upton Sinclair - The Jungle
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IDA TARBELL - HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL CO.
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FRANK NORRIS - THE OCTOPUS
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Lincoln Steffens - The Shame of the Cities
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Jacob Riis - How the Other Half Lives
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Ida B Wells Barnett - The Color Line
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Goals of Progressivism

• Protecting Social Welfare
• Worked to soften some of the harsh conditions of
  industrialization
• Social gospel preached salvation through
  service to the poor
• Settlement house movement community centers in
  slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to
  people in the area
• Health care
• Education
• Jobs
• Language classes
• Etc.

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• Promoting Moral Improvement
• Wanted people to uplift themselves by improving
  their personal behaviors
• Ex. Prohibition Movement (ban alcoholic
  beverages)
• 1872 WCTU spearheaded the movement
• By 1911 - 245,000 members
• Group did much more than fight for prohibition
• Worked for suffrage
• Visited prisoners and asylums
• Opened Kindergartens for immigrants

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3. Creating Economic Reform

• Big business often received favorable treatment
  from government officials and could use its
  economic power to limit competition.
• Fostering Efficiency
• Put their faith into experts and scientific
  principles to make society and the workplace more
  efficient.
• Ex. Muller v Oregon
• Justice Brandeis used data produced by social
  scientists to show how working long hours
  affected women and thus cost society.

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• Scientific management - time and motion studies
  to improve efficiency by breaking manufacturing
  tasks into simple parts Taylorism

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Reforms for Children, Workers, and Voters

• Movement for Social Justice
• Settlement House Movement - located in
  immigrant neighborhoods
• Provided services to those in the community
• Taught English
• Arts
• Music
• Childrens activities
• Health care
• Help with finding jobs
• Etc.
• Jane Adams 1889 Hull House - Chicago

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Jane Adams
Hull House
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Lillian Wald
Henry Street Library
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• Child labor laws by 1914 every state had laws
  on the books
• 1916 Keating Owen Act prohibited the shipment
  of products made with child labor,
• Ruled unconstitutional in 1918.
• 1924 child labor amendment was approved by
  Congress but was not ratified by the required
  three-fourths states
• 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act - abolished
• child labor in interstate industries.

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2. Movement to Regulate Business and Labor

• Lochner v. New York (1905)
• A New York state law ruled that bakery workers
  could not work more than 60 hours a week
  including overtime.
• Court declared the law illegal denied
  businesses due process.
• Muller v. Oregon (1908)
• An Oregon law prevented women from working more
  than 10 hours a day.
• Court declared the law constitutional.
• Used scientific studies for first time to help
  make decision.

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3. Reforms in the Election Process

• Initiative
• Referendum
• Recall
• Primaries
• Secret Ballot
• Many of these reforms were the results of the
  Populists platform.
• Wisconsin became known as the Progressive State
  and Governor Robert LaFollette was known as the
  father of Progressivism.

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President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
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Roosevelt was a conservative, but did not
hesitate to use the power of the presidency to
deal directly with social and economic
problems. Saw his job as one of stewardship -
responsible for the welfare of all. Domestic
policy became know as the Square Deal Reforms
fell into three categories
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1. Regulating Business

• Reputation as a trust buster
• Broke up over 40 trusts during his
  administration.
• Saw a difference in a good trust and a bad
  trust
• Felt that size did not immediately make a
  business bad.
• Northern Securities v. U.S.
• Northern Securities was a holding company
  controlled the railroad system of the Pacific
  Northwest in 1904.
• Supreme Court ruled that the holding company had
  to be dissolved because it was in restraint of
  trade.

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• Coal Strike
• Roosevelt called labor members and owners to a
  meeting to settle the strike
• Court cases
• Lochner v. New York - 1905
• Muller v. Oregon 1908
• Legislation
• Elkins Act 1903 - barred rebates
• Hepburn Act 1906 gave Interstate Commerce
  Commission power to nullify unreasonable railroad
  rates.

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• Commerce Dept. founded 1903

• Protecting the Consumer
• Meat Inspection Act 1906 - est. health and
  sanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry.
• Pure Food and Drug Act 1906 - banned harmful
  additives in food and misleading advertisement.
• Conserving Natural Resources
• Newlands Reclamation Act 1902 provided that
  money from the sale of desert land in the West
  be used to finance irrigation projects.

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• Forest Homestead Act 1906 opened up certain
  forest lands for agricultural use.
• Inland Waterways Act 1907 provided for the
  appointment of a commission to study the use of
  the nations major rivers
• National Park System - established with Gifford
  Pinchot as the head.
• Antiquities Act 1906 Provided that sites of
  historic and/or scientific interest be placed
  under national protection
• 1907 barred the cutting of trees on 150million
  acres
• Of government timberland