“Competition was natural enough at one time, but do

you think you are competing today? Many of you think

you are competing. Against whom? Against Rockefeller?

About as I well as I would if I had a wheelbarrow and

competed with the Santa Fe Railroad from here to

Kansas City.”

Competition

- Eugene Debs

The Progressive Era

Progressive Era – broad name for a period of time when

reformers focused on improving things for ordinary people

(late 1800s, early 1900s)

Common Goals:

Social welfare

Moral improvement

Economic justice

Greater efficiency

Progressive Era

Child labor laws, aid organizations for poor

Consumer Protections, safety standards

Temperance Movement – prohibition of alcohol

Social Welfare and Morality

Call for shorter work days in the name of efficiency

Growing Opposition to corporate monopolies

Questioning of pure capitalism

Growth of socialist thought

Economic Reform & Efficiency

Ford – paid $5 a day – double the wage for comparable work

8 hour work day – assembly lines

Scientific Management - Taylorism – increased efficiency via

the simplification of tasks

Ford Plant and the Automobile

A

B

Child Labor – a crisis in late 1800s/early 1900s

Illinois Factory Act – 1893 – prohibited children under 14

from working; women – 8 hour workday

National Child Labor Committee – founded 1904 – fought to

end child labor & exploitation

Child Labor

Keating-Owen Act (1916) – tried to prevent interstate

trade of child labor made goods – overturned by SCOTUS

Comparable measure not made enforceable until Fair

Labor Standards Act - 1938

Attempt to Reform Child Labor Nationally

Child Labor Today

Red – Initiative and Popular

Referendum

Yellow – Popular

Referendum only

Green – Initiative

constitutional amendments

only

Blue – Neither Method

Initiatives – bills made directly by citizens

Referendums – direct vote on a legislative issue by citizens –

citizen voters reject or approve it

Recall – voters remove public officials by vote

Election Reforms (state/local)

16th Amendment – 1913 – progressive income tax

17th Amendment – 1913- voters elect their 2 senators to

congress directly

Past practice – state legislatures chose senators

18th Amendment – Alcohol Prohibition

19th Amendment - 1920 – women’s suffrage (voting rights)

Direct Election of Senators & Women’s Suffrage

U.S. Tax Brackets-2011

Single Taxpayer Rate

0- $8,500 10%

$8,500 to $34,500 15%

$34,500 to $83,600 25%

$83,600 to $174,400 28%

$174,400 to $379,150 33%

$379,150 and above 35%

Progressive Income Taxes Today

Child Labor Cartoons

“A simple and poor society can exist as a

democracy on the basis of sheer individualism

but a rich and complex industrial society cannot

so exist.”

- Teddy Roosevelt – 26th President of the United

States – 1901-1909

7.2 I: Rapid industrial and technological

expansion widened the gulf between “haves

and have nots” – causing many challenges to

the status quo. Key Concept 7.2: A revolution in communications and transportation

technology helped to create a new mass culture and spread “modern” values

and ideas, even as cultural conflicts between groups increased under the

pressure of migration, world wars, and economic distress.

I. New technologies led to social transformations that improved the standard

of living for many while contributing to increased political and cultural

conflicts

Teddy Roosevelt

Sickly child – overcame difficulty

Rough Rider; reputation as rabble-rouser; “kicked up” from

NY governor to Vice President

McKinley assassinated – 1901 – VP TR - president

Teddy Roosevelt’s background

TR credited with making the “modern presidency”

personality/popularity helped advance progressive reform

Expanded role of federal gov’t

The Modern Presidency

Roosevelt’s progressive reform program

Consumer Protections

“Trustbusting” – (breaking up monopolies)

Conservation

The “Square Deal”

Roosevelt – inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle

(about Chicago meat industry)

The Jungle – story about meat industry through immigrant

eyes

Consumer Protections

Meat Inspection Act - 1906

Pure Food and Drug Act – 1906 – targeted false

advertising; pushed “truth in labeling”

Consumer Protection Laws

Bubbly Creek

Vanishing Buffalo herds

Roosevelt helped set aside millions of acres of disappearing

wilderness; overdevelopment threatened nature

Expanded national parks – 80 million more acres

Newlands Act – transformed dry wildernesses via irrigation

Roosevelt’s Conservation efforts

Bubbly Creek Today

Buffalos Today

1900 – 4/5 of US industry controlled by trusts

Roosevelt – saw big business as having right to exist; worried

about power of “bad” trusts

Trusts during the Teddy Roosevelt Era

Roosevelt targeted “bad trusts” under 1890 Sherman

Antitrust Act

Went after “bad trusts” that most hurt public

Left “good trusts” that he saw as beneficial alone

Roosevelt and “Bad Trusts”

Consumer Protections

Conservation

Taft – TR’s chosen successor – won 1908 election

Meanwhile -Roosevelt went on Safari in Africa

William Howard Taft

Busted more trusts than Roosevelt

More cautious than Roosevelt; delayed reforms

Had to balance between eastern conservatives & western progressives

Did little for conservation

Lacked charisma of T. R.

Progressivism under Taft

A

B C

Wilson – Blue, Taft – Pink, Roosevelt – Green,

Debs – Yellow, Other - black

“Bull Moose” Roosevelt returned; ran against Taft

Roosevelt’s progressive platform for 1912:

Direct election of senators

Women’s suffrage

Workmen’s compensation

Minimum wage

1912 Election – Roosevelt Returns

Roosevelt and Taft split vote

Progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson elected

Most voted for “progressive” candidates

1912 Election - Outcome

Attacked “Triple Wall of Privilege”

Trusts

Tariffs

High Finance

Wilson’s New Freedom

Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) – backed by Wilson – stronger

anti-trust laws than Sherman (1890)

Banned mergers if they would create a monopoly

Labor Unions not subject to anti-trust laws

Unions had right to exist

Federal Trade Commission Act (1916) – presidential

commission – attacked violations of interstate commerce,

unfair trade, false advertising

Strengthening Anti-trust laws

Income Tax

U.S. Tax Brackets-2011

Single Taxpayer –Income level Rate

0- $8,500 10%

$8,500 to $34,500 15%

$34,500 to $83,600 25%

$83,600 to $174,400 28%

$174,400 to $379,150 33%

$379,150 and above 35%

Federal Reserve Act – 1913

Brought greater stability

Ability to regulate interest rates and economy

US divided into 12 regional “bank districts”

Each district – regional central bank

Federal Reserve System (Finance)

Other Progressive moves under Wilson

Workingmen’s Compensation Act – 1916 – gave assistance

to disabled federal civil service employees

Adamson Act – 1916 – 8 hour days or overtime for rail

workers

“So far as Mr. Booker T. Washington preaches thrift, patience, and

industrial training for the masses, we must hold his hands and stand with

him… But so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or

South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles

the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher

training and ambition of our brighter minds – so far as he, the South, or

the Nation does this – we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them.”

- W. E. B. Du Bois – The Soul of Black Folk

Progressive Era politicians made very little progress on issue of black civil

rights

African-American Civil Rights

Booker T. Washington W. E. B. DuBois

Both favored Booker T. Washington –black leader who urged self-improvement

and education – acceptance of discrimination in short term

W. E. B. DuBois - wanted more rapid change

Civil Rights - Roosevelt and Taft

Opposed anti-lynching laws as president

Federal Offices re-segregated under Wilson

Civil Rights Under Wilson