CH. 16 THE PROGRESSIVES

CH. 16-1 PROGRESSIVISMAMERICAN HISTORY

WHAT WAS PROGRESSIVISM?

• PROGRESSIVISM—a reform movement that addressed many of the social problems caused by industrialization

• Progressives sought to improve living conditions for the urban poor

• MUCKRAKERS—writers that “raked up” or exposed the filth of society

• Most articles focused on business and political corruption

• Ida Tarbell wrote a scathing report on Standard Oil Company and John D. Rockefeller

• Other authors wrote about insurance and stock manipulation, the exploitation of child labor, slum conditions, and racial discrimination

REFORMING SOCIETY

• 1920—more than 50% of all Americans lived in cities

• As cities grew they had difficulty providing services such as garbage collection, safe housing, police and fire protecton

• HOUSING REFORMS• Tenement Act of 1901 (NY State Legislature)

• Forced landlords to install lighting in public hallways and provide a toilet for every two families

• Outhouses were eventually banned from NY slums

• A healthier climate was created in NY• Death rate declined dramatically over the next

15 years in NY

• FIGHTING FOR CIVIL RIGHTS• 1909—NAACP created• Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Jane Addams,

and others• 1913—protested the introduction segregation

into the federal government• 1915—protested the film “Birth of a Nation”

because of its hostile stereotyping of African Americans

• 1913—Sigmund Livingston, a Jewish man, founded the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

• Mission was to fight anti-semetism• By 1920—the newspapers’ use of negative

references to Jews had nearly stopped

REFORMING THE WORKPLACE

• End of the 1800s—labor unions were actively campaigning for the rights of adult male workers

• 1893—Florence Kelley helped persuade Illinois to prohibit child labor and limit the number of hours women were forced to work

• 1904—Kelley helped found the National Child Labor Committee

• Mission was to encourage state legislatures to ban child labor

• Companies continued to hire children and not all states banned child labor

• Kelley led a successful campaign in Oregon to limit the workday in laundries to 10 hours

• Utah limited the workday in some women’s jobs to 8 hours

• 1900—40% of working-class families lived in poverty

• 1912—Massachusetts became the first state to pass a minimum wage law

• Congress didn’t pass a federal minimum wage law until 1938

• COURTS AND LABOR LAWS• Businesses began to fight labor laws in court• Early 1900s—several Supreme Court cases

• 1905—Lochner v. New York—USSC refused to limit to uphold a law limiting bakers to a 10-hour day because it prevented workers from make a contract with their employer

• 1908—Muller v. Oregon—USSC upheld a state law establishing a 10-hour workday for women in laundries and factories

• The argument was that long hours ruined a woman’s health

• 1917—Bunting v. Oregon—Extended protection of a 10-hour day to men working in mills and factories

• THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST COMPANY FIRE• (p. 525)• 500 young women employed• Factory made women’s blouses

• At the end of the 6-day workweek, fire erupted from a discarded match

• The 8th floor was ablaze and fire quickly spread to two other floors

• Escape was nearly impossible• Doors were locked to prevent theft• Doors that were not locked opened inward• Flimsy fire escape broke under the weight of the panic-

stricken employees• People tumbled to their deaths

• Dozens of workers leaped from windows to escape the fire

• More than 140 women and men died• As a result NY passed the toughest fire safety

laws in the nation

• THE UNIONS• Energetic labor unions joined the fight for better

conditions

• International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU)—1900—organized unskilled workers

• 1909—”Uprising of the 20,000”—general strike by ILGWU workers

• Achieved a shorter workweek and higher wages

• They attracted thousands of workers to the union

• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)—1905• Opposed capitalism• Leader was William “Big Bill” Haywood• Organized unskilled workers• Used traditional strategies such as strikes and

boycotts• Also used radical methods such as industrial

sabotage

• 1912—IWW had 20,000 textile workers on strike in Lawrence, MA to protest pay cuts

• After 10 weeks the mill owners gave in and raised wages

• Several strikes were complete failures• Government cracked down on IWW’s activities• Within a few years it lost power

REFORMING GOVERNMENT

• Progressives targeted government reform and wanted to eliminate corruption

• CITY GOVERNMENT REFORMS• Cleaning up government meant taking control of it• Reforms included new rules for police, releasing

debtors from prison, improved municipal services, a minimum wage, and kindergartens for children

• 1900—hurricane hits Galveston, TX• City government can’t handle disaster• Texas legislature sets up a 5-member

commission to govern the city• Commissioner were experts in their field, not

party loyalists• Council-manager model began in Staunton, VA

in 1908

• The city council appointed a professional politician to run the city

• STATE GOVERNMENT REFORMS• WI Governor Robert M. La Follette called for

electoral reforms such as campaign spending limits• Created state commissions to regulate railroads

and utilities, oversee transportation, civil service, and taxation

• NY Governor Charles Evens Hughes regulated public utilities and pushed through a worker safety law

• MS Governor James Vardaman limited the use of convict labor.

• Vardaman’s reforms were marred by extreme racism

• ELECTION REFORMS• Progressives wanted elections to be more fair

and make politicians more accountable to voters

• They pushed for the direct primary• Voters would choose which candidates would

run in the general election• MS adopted the direct primary in 1903

• Progressives backed the XVIIth Amendment (ratified in 1913)

• Voters, not state legislatures, had the power to directly elect US Senators

• Secret ballot—all candidates’ names printed on the same form—most states adopted by 1900

• Progressives wanted 3 additional reforms

• 1) the initiative—allowed citizens to put a proposed law on the ballot for public approval

• 2) the referendum—allows citizens to place a recently passed law on the ballot, allowing voters to approve or reject the measure

• 3) the recall—enables citizens to remove an elected official from office by calling a special election

• These measures made politicians more accountable to the voters

• THE END