US History

ELP Unit 4

The Progressive Era

Progressive Eras EmergenceSocial and Economic Changes

Key Question 4

How did the Progressive Era emerge and contribute to the social and economic change?

Progressive Movement

Was a movement that set out to fix many of the injustices in the United States.Government CorruptionProhibitionAfrican American RightsWomen’s Suffrage

Corruption

Whiskey Ring Internal Revenue Collectors and other

officials were taking kick backs from Whiskey Companies

In return Whiskey companies would not have to pay taxes on their product

Political Cartoon

Each ring around the barrel is another form of corruption Tammany Ring Canal Ring Indian Ring

Sign in the back

I beg to repeat that these fraudes on the government shall be proded to the very bottom

More Corruption

Political MachineA group that controlled the activities of a

political party in a cityOffered services to voters and businesses

in exchange for political or financial support

Even More Corruption

Graft Illegal use of political influence for personal

gainFor example if the city signed a contract

with a construction company to build a city building that company would charge more then the actual cost and give that money back to the politician

The Most Corrupt

Boss Tweed (William M. Tweed)Head of the most powerful Political Machine

in NYCEX: New York County Courthouse should

have only cost $3 million but city was charged $13 million

Thomas Nast a political cartoonist helped to make the public aware of the Tweed Ring

Tammany Hall – Headquarters for Boss Tweed

Boss Tweed, “ As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it?

Progressive Movement

Protect social welfare – living/working conditions (women and children)

Promoting moral improvementEx: Prohibition – banning alcohol

Economic Reform – changing the way we do businessMuckrakers – writers who wrote about the

corruption of businessEfficiency – using all of your resources

properly

Rise of Roosevelt

Tough Guy – “Rough Rider”With a soft side “Teddy Bear”

Modern President – always in the news“Square Deal” – Roosevelt's policies to

help the average person

Teddy Roosevelt

Looked out for the everyday AmericanAttacked Monopolies (where one person

controls an entire industry)Food safety

The Jungle – Upton Sinclair

Wrote about meat industry and working conditions

Particularly looked at safety of food.Upton Sinclair is considered a muckrakerBook was read by Theodore RooseveltRoosevelt realized he needed to address

what he read in the book.

More Progressive Regulation

Meat Inspection Act – clean and good quality

Pure Food and Drug Act – accurate labels so people know what they are eating

William Taft

Department of Labor created under Taft8 hour working daySupported the elimination of child labor

Prohibition

Ban on making, distributing, consuming, and transporting alcohol.

Reasons

Damaged HealthCaused Poverty

Men spent all there money on alcohol, gambling and prostitutes.

Led to CrimeBars and Saloons gave America a bad

image.

Crime Rates Rise

Biggest reason for rise.Unemployment Rose (mainly because

prohibition) Illegal bars and saloons doubleLarge coast line makes smuggling alcohol easy.

Police pulled off covering other crimes to cover prohibition

Law was taking bribes.

Law Enforcement

Federal Prohibition BureauPoliced prohibitionDid not scare bootleggersStopped 5% of alcohol

Bootleggers

Where did America gain most of there illegal alcohol?

CanadaGreat Lakes made transporting Alcohol

into the US easy.Chicago became biggest importer

Rise of the Gangster

Lucky Luciano – Father of modern organized crime.

Meyer Lansky – Luciano Accountant opened many speakeasies primarily for gambling.

Rise of Gangsters

Al Capone – Bugs Moran Rival Considered a Modern

Day Robin Hood

Bugs Moran – Al Capone’s Rival. (N. Chi.) Capone killed 7 of his

men in St. Valentine Day Massacre

Gangsters

LeadersHard to catchNever really got hands dirtyHad his workers do the killings and

bootlegging

Alcohol Safety

AlcoholPoorly MadeAlcohol Poisoning rose by 400%

Poor TasteSome believe you could run cars on illegal

alcoholAdded fruits and flavoring (called Pansies)Drinks still exist

Prohibition Comes to An End

Great DepressionProhibition became even more unpopularRepealing prohibition create jobsEnded in 1933

African Americans and the Progressive Movement

Post Civil War

Slaves were granted full citizenship and rights.

What gave ex-slaves these rights?13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment

Right to Vote

People did not like African Americans voting

Tried to stop them from votingLiteracy Tests – Pass a test to votePoll Taxes – Pay a tax to voteGrandfather Clause – If your grandfather

voted then you get to voteAfrican Americans did not have the ability

to do any of these things

Ku Klux Klan

Believed in white supremacy and anti-immigration

Used terror as a means to intimidate

Racism

Racism – treating someone differently because of the color of their skin

Jim Crow’s creation

Plessy v. Ferguson – created the idea that you could separate the races as long as both races had equal access schools, neighborhoods, waiting rooms, public facilities etc……

Segregation – separating the races

Early African American Leaders

Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee InstituteBelieved African Americans needed to gain

skills to offer America William Du Bois and the National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People Believed African Americans needed to be

given equal rightsNAACP created to fight for equal rights

Other Responses

Marcus Garvey Back to Africa MovementGarveyism inspired later

movementsA. Philip Randolph

Fought to end segregation during

and after WWIILeader in March on Washington

Women’s Suffrage

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Seneca Falls, New York 1848

• In the early 1800s, many women were involved in the abolition (anti-slavery) and temperance (no alcohol) movements

• A group of women and men gathered at a conference in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848

• This conference was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

• Conference attendees wrote the Declaration of Sentiments

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Fifteenth Amendment, 1871

• Granted African-American men the right to vote

• Disappointed many women who thought African-American men and women would be enfranchised together

• African Americans were split over whether men should get vote before women

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Before 1910

• National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• Big leaders: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Two big strategies:• Try to win suffrage state by state• Try to pass a Constitutional

Amendment (but this would need to be ratified by 36 states – or three-fourths)

Susan B. Anthony

In the late 1800s, Susan B. Anthony tried several times to introduce an Amendment bill for women’s suffrage, but it was always killed in the Senate.Susan B. Anthony

Anti-suffragists

Those who opposed extending the right to vote to

women were called anti-suffragists.

Many anti’s were women.

Political cartoon mocking anti’s: “O Save Us, Senators, from Ourselves!”

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Beliefs of Anti-Suffragists

• Women were high-strung, irrational, and emotional

• Women were not smart or educated enough

• Women should stay at home• Women were too physically frail; they

would get tired just walking to the polling station

• Women would become masculine if they voted

Map of Women’s Suffrage Before 1920

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The Next Generation

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in 1902• Susan B. Anthony died in 1906• But in the early 1900s many young,

middle-class women were going to college and joining the suffrage movement

• Many working-class women also joined the cause, hoping the right to vote would help improve working conditions

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Safe or Sorry?

Carrie Chapman Catt led the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She believed in:

• Careful state-by-state strategy• Supporting President Wilson even

though he didn’t outright support suffrage because Democrats were a safer bet than Republicans

• Acting ladylike so as not to embarrass the movement

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National Woman’s Party

Alice Paul led the NWP and believed in more aggressive strategies:

• Focused on passing a Constitutional Amendment

• Adopted un-ladylike strategies from British suffragettes (e.g. heckling politicians, picketing)

• Refused to support President Wilson if he wouldn’t support woman suffrage

• NWP members were arrested for picketing in front of the White House. They were put in jail, went on a hunger strike, and were force-fed.

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19th Amendment, 1920

Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify, and it passed by only 1 vote.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United

States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Progressive Amendments

16th - Tax people based on income.17th - Gave people the right to elect

senators.18th - Prohibition19th - Women’s Right to Vote