THE PROGRESSIVE ERA
MUCKRAKERS Journalists focusing on social, economic, and political injustices Known for exposing corruption, scandal and injustice to the public view They investigated governments, labor unions, corporations, child labor, immigrant ghettos, prostitution, and family disorganization
SOCIAL GOSPEL T h i s m o v e m e n t w a s concerned with urban renewal and redevelopment Salvation Army gave material and spiritual aid to poverty stricken in urban areas Settlement houses were facilities that helped immigrants adapt to American culture Hull House opened in 1889 in Chicago by Jane Addams
WOMEN S SUFFRAGE Many feared that giving women the right to vote would end war forever and give aid to the temperance movement NAWSA - group founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to promote women s suffrage by appealing to states to give women the right to vote and testing laws in the courts National Woman s Party - party founded by Lucy Burns and Alice Paul which used more radical means such as picketing By 1920, women finally gained the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
POLITICAL PROGRESSIVISM Secret ballot took away the power of party bosses to control the election process (remember the Populists?) New forms of government including the commission plan (gave power to a nonpartisan commission) and citymanager plan (gave power to hired professionals) took power from political machines Robert LaFollette, the progressive governor of Wisconsin went after railroad companies to make sure they were treated the same as other companies Initiative - allowed the people to put legislation on the ballot Referendum - the people vote on legislation to make it law or to reject it Recall - removal of elected official by the vote of the people Seventeenth Amendment - established direct election of U.S. Senators by the people
In 1911, a fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York 146 workers (mostly women) were killed in the fire as a result of entrapment by locked emergency exits For the next three years, a state commission studied the condition of the industrial workplace and issued a series of r e p o r t s c a l l i n g f o r reforms
PROGRESSIVISM AND RACIAL GAIN A n e w m o v e m e n t c a l l e d f o r widespread change in society in terms of racial equality W.E.B. Du Bois argued that blacks should settle for nothing less than a full university education, aspire to the professions, and fight for the restoration of their civil rights In 1905, Du Bois and some of his supporters launched the Niagara Movement four years later, they joined with sympathetic white progressives and formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) The NAACP went after disfranchisement and segregation by challenging the laws in court
TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT Many progressives viewed alcohol as a hindrance to society by leading to drunkenness, lost wages, and violence but were opposed by immigrant groups and the working class In 1873, temperance advocates formed the Women s Christian Temperance Union this organization led the movement to ban saloons and eventually the complete prohibition of the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages Eighteenth Amendment became law to take effect in January 1920
ROOSEVELT TAKES CHARGE In September 1901, McKinley was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt became president Roosevelt viewed the federal government not as the agent of any particular group, but rather the mediator between group Roosevelt allied himself with progressives who wanted regulation of trusts, rather than destruction of them
Roosevelt turned his sights to reelection in 1904 and campaigned on his implementation of the Square Deal he started by citing his role in the miner s strike and then after winning reelection, took it one step further Roosevelt petitioned Congress for legislation that would give the federal government more power over federal railways the Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act of 1906 attempted to restore some regulatory authority to the federal government Roosevelt also pressured Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act which restricted the sale of dangerous or ineffective medicines After Upton Sinclair s novel The Jungle came out in 1906, Roosevelt pushed for passage of the Meat Inspection Act which helped eliminate many diseases once transmitted in impure meat Roosevelt also looked into the conservation movement and sought to expand the nation s national park lands and protect many of these lands from private development
ROOSEVELT STEPS DOWN In 1908, Roosevelt stepped down as president and allowed his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft to become president Taft was expected to please both conservatives and progressives, and pleased neither Taft also had a second strike against him because he did not have Roosevelt s dynamic personality T h i s p a v e d t h e w a y f o r Theodore Roosevelt to return after a long safari in Africa and a tour of Europe
THE BULL MOOSE AND WILSON On September 1, 1910, Roosevelt announced his decision to become the leader of Republican reformers and reunite the Republican Party when the Republicans failed to give him the nomination in 1912, he created his own party, the Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party) Roosevelt would be defeated because many of his loyalists would refuse to leave the Republican Party and follow him the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, would also prove to be detrimental to Roosevelt s cause Woodrow Wilson won the election with only 42% of the popular vote and won as a result of the split of the Republican Party
Wilson s New Freedom Wilson hoped to reform business and industry through government regulation Clayton Antitrust Act prohibited companies from acquiring the stock of other companies if it would create a monopoly and protected labor unions, allowing them to continue to function Federal Trade Commission (FTC) government agency that regulated corporations and attempted to put an end to unfair business practices Wilson also fought for tariff reform to lower tariffs and stimulate economic growth Sixteenth Amendment implemented a federal income tax program graduated tax (larger incomes were taxed more than smaller ones) Federal Reserve System banking system established to control of currency into the economy regional banks serve the banks in their district allowing member banks to borrow money, transfer money, and issue new paper money in the form of loans to the American people