Chapter 19

The Era of Progressive Reform1890-1920

Reform, Reform, Reform

Big themes:

SocialismProgressivismHelping WomenWomen’s Right

MUCKRAKERSThe muckrakers were those journalists that uncovered corruption or wrong doing in government and business.Many legislative changes came about after the muckrakers uncovered their stories.The Progressive movement used these stories to bring about “progress” in society.This movement later becomes known as the Progressive movement; historians give the time frame of 1890-1920!

Important MUCKRAKERS

Lincoln SteffensHe exposed political corruption in St. Louis and other cities.His work in exposing police corruption in New York helped to defeat the Tammany machine's candidate for mayor in 1894

Ida Tarbell Uncovered scandal of the power trust of the Standard Oil Co. through 18 installments in McClure’s Magazine Congress launched an investigation.Supreme Court ruled that the trust must be broken up.She influenced many other progressives to make a difference with their writings.

Upton SinclairWrote The Jungle, published in 1906, described the horrors of the meatpacking industry.Publication of the book led to the creation of a federal meat inspection program.Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act passed in 1906!

Goals of Progressivism

Prevent businesses from treating competing companies unfairlyImprove safety and working conditions for workersOutlaw child laborCreate programs to help the sick, unemployed, and elderlyReduce government corruptionGive women the right to vote

Progressive LegislationLook at the chart on page 550.Be sure to know the following:

Sherman Anti-TrustU.S. Forest ServiceMeat InspectionPure Food and DrugDept. of Labor16th, 17th, 18th and 19th (not in chart) amend.National Park ServiceWomen’s Bureau

She was arrested in 1872 for civil disobedience. She was convicted and fined $100. (she never paid it!)

Election of 1912 – Wilson wins!

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Wilson Taft Roosevelt Debs

Democrat

Republican

Progressive

Socialist

Under Presidents Taft and Wilson, progressive reforms continued until 1916. The Progressive party, led by TR, at times was called the “Bull Moose” party. (TR at one time said he felt as strong as a bull moose!)

Woodrow Wilson – 28th President

1913-1921Federal Reserve SystemProhibitionThe Birth of a Nation Women’s SuffrageWorld War I“Eight Men Out” – gambling scandal on the World Series!

Events during Wilson’s termsFederal Reserve System – Reorganized the federal banking system in 1913.

Created 8-12 regional Federal Reserve BanksSupervised by a Federal Reserve BoardEach Regional bank allowed other banks to borrow from them; hope to end bank runsCreated a new national currency, known as Federal Reserve notes – still in use today!

Prohibition• By the time the 18th Amendment was ratified in

January 1919, most southern and western states already had prohibition laws.

• In Oct, 1919, Congress passed a nation law (over Wilson’s veto) to enforce the 18th Amendment.

• The Prohibition Enforcement, or Volstead Act est. specific penalties for the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol, beginning Jan. 1920.

• It would be repealed in 1933 with the 21st amendment!

The Birth of a Nation

This was the first feature film ever shown at the White House.It was a “Reconstruction” saga that premiered in 1915.D.W. Griffith’s film told a story that dramatically portrayed the threat he believed black men posed to white womanhood.This film sparked the rise of the second KKK.

The domestic melodrama/epic originally premiered with the title The Clansman in January, 1915 in California, but three months later was retitled with the present title at its world premiere in New York, to emphasize the birthing process of the US.

The film was based on former North Carolina Baptist minister Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti-black, 1905 bigoted play, The Clansman.

•A second distinct group using the same name was started near Atlanta in 1915 by William Simmons.

•This second group existed as a money-making fraternal organization and fought to maintain the ways of the past against increasing numbers of Roman Catholics, Jews, blacks and immigrants into the United States.

•This group, although preaching racism, was a mainstream organization with 4 million members at its peak in the 1920s.

KKK – 2nd Time Around

Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s.

KKK parade in WashingtonDemonstrating their political power, Klansmen triumphantly parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1926, in full regalia. (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Its collapse thereafter was largely due to state laws that forbade masks and eliminated the secret element, to the bad publicity the organization received through its thugs and swindlers, and apparently from the declining interest of the members.

With the depression of the 1930s, dues-paying membership of the Klan shrank to almost nothing.

Meanwhile, many of its leaders had done extremely well financially from the dues and the sale of Klan paraphernalia.

Women’s SuffrageAmerican women activists first formally demanded the right to vote in 1848 at a meeting in Seneca Falls, New York.The leaders were Susan B. Anthony, Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone.Ratified in August 1920, the 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote just in time for the 1920 presidential election.Millions of new women voters helped elect Warren Harding.

Eight Men Out!

Eight Chicago White Sox players receive payments from gamblers to throw the World Series in 1919. Those banished from baseball for life as a result of the Black Sox scandal include “Shoeless” Joe Jackson!

World War I

We will fight this war in Chapter 20!!!!!