Origins
A Spirit of Reform in the late 1800’s
1. Henry George believed that poverty could be eliminated by using land productively by everyone. Also taxing the nonproductive more than the productive.
2. Edward Bellamy believed that the government should create a trust to take care of the needs of the people rather than profit.
3. Many groups wanted change for the majority of people such as the socialist, the union members and members of municipal or city government levels.
4. Municipal reforms in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that gave cities limited self-rule rather than state rule are known as Home Rule.
Progressivism Takes Hold
1. Progressivism aspects of reform from many programs and other movements.
2. Because they were afraid of losing their high standard of living, progressives’ were afraid of revolution.
3. Progressives believed that the government should play a bigger role in regulating transportation and utilities.
4. Develop better social welfare programs.
5. The suffrage movement became a big issue among women.
6. Child labor laws as well as many other things were brought about by government regulations.
Progressive Methods
1. Journalist also helped create support by alerting the public to wrong doing or muckrakers.
2. Investigating the issue then publicizing the results putting pressure on legislators to take action is known as Systematic manner.
Florence Kelley
1. Kelley was recommended for investigating the labor conditions around Chicago.
2. Kelley earned a law degree so that she could prosecute violators of child labor laws as well as regulations in sweatshops.
3. Kelley believed in municipal reforms after a political favor placed another inspector in her place.
4. 1899 National Consumers League was organized (NCL)
Progressivism: Its Legislative Impacts
Urban Reform
1. Reform began mostly at the city level
2. Some machine politicians worked with reformers to improve voter registration, city services, established health programs and enforced tenant codes.
3. By 1915 two out of three cities owned utilities.
4. Welfare services were put into effect.
5. Hazen Pingree put in parks, baths, and put into effect a work-relief program.
Reforms at the State Level
1. Progressive governors also got involved with the movement.
2. LaFollette brought about a direct primary in which voters elect nominees for upcoming elections.
3. Employers and employees negotiating differences as well as workers accident insurance became major reforms in the work place.
4. The Supreme Court said that it was illegal to set maximum hours for workers because it violated the individual’s right to make a contract with the employer – 1905 Lochner vs. New York.
5. The Supreme Court upheld a decision that limited women’s work hours to 10 hours per day – 1905 Muller vs. Oregon.
6. The National Child Labor Committee convinced about 30 states to abolish Child Labor by 1907.
7. In 1912 minimum wage for women and children was put into effect in Massachusetts.
8. Women were replaced with men because they would work longer for less wages
9. Women’s push for voting rights was stifled by the belief that females are physically weaker.
Reforms at the Federal Level
1. The United Mine Workers called a strike lasting until Teddy Roosevelt insisted that both sides submit to arbitration – May, 1902.
2. A process in which an impartial third party decides on a legally binding solution is known as arbitration.
3. Teddy Roosevelt threatened to use the army to take over the mines if the owners didn’t accept the agreement.
4. “Square Deal” reduced miner’s hours from 10 to 9 and gave the miners a 10% raise while not officially recognizing the minor’s union.
5. The Hepburn Act authorized the IEC to limit rates if the shippers complained them unfair – 1906.
6. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act required accurate labeling of ingredients, strict sanitary conditions, and a rating system for meats – 1906.
7. Holding companies are corporations that hold the stocks and bonds of numerous companies thus achieving a monopoly.
8. John Muir and John Wesley Powell urged congress, in 1872, to establish Yellow Stone as the United States first national park.
9. Yosemite in California became a national park in 1890.
10. A National Reclamation Act (1902) aimed at planning and developing irrigation projects aroused controversy between city residents and farmers over use or water.
11. 1912 the United States government set up a Children’s Bureau within the Department of Labor.
12. Women’s Bureau was also established in 1920.
13. Mary Anderson and Julia Lathrop were the first women Bureau heads in the federal government.
14. Prohibition was thought to protect society from poverty and violence associated with drinking.
15. Women’s support for prohibition caused brewery and liquor interests to oppose women’s suffrage.
16. Prohibition became the 18th amendment in 1919 until its repeal in 1933.
Progressivism: Its Impact on National Politics
The Presidency After Roosevelt
1. Teddy Roosevelt handpicked William Howard. Taft as the next Republican presidential nominee.
2. On the Democratic Side William Jennings Bryan also ran (for the third time)
3. Taft won the election and promised to carry on the progressive movement.
4. A rebel movement arose because Taft wouldn’t lower the tariffs on imports.
5. Gifford Pinchot opposed Taft’s agreement to allow several million acres of Alaskan public lands that had rich deposits of coal be sold by Richard A. Ballinger. Pinchot was fired.
6. Upset House Republicans rebelled against Taft and joined Democrats in initiating an investigation into Ballinger’s actions-he eventually resigned.
7. Rebels took action against the Republican old guard who blocked much reform legislation.
8. Rebels changed the committee’s membership by making it elective and excluding the powerful. House Speaker, Joseph Cannon, a republican reform opponent.
9. Teddy Roosevelt began speaking out about the need for more federal regulations of business, welfare legislation, and progressive reforms such as stronger work place protections for women and children, income and inheritance taxes, direct primaries, and the initiative , referendum, and recall. This was called New Nationalism.
10. Taft supported the Mahn-Elkins Act(1910) that placed telephone and telegraph rates under control of the Interstate Commerce Commission rather than big business.
The Election of 1912
1. The progressive party was formed after Teddy Roosevelt’s supporters walked out of the RNC when Taft accused Teddy Roosevelt of fraud. They became known as the Bull Moose Party.
2. Bull Moose Party’s platform included tariff reduction, women suffrage, more regulation of business, an end to child labor, an eight-hour work day, a federal worker’s compensation system, and the popular election of senators.
3. Teddy Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson ran a vigorous campaign.
4. A four way election
5. Four men sought presidency in 1912. Wilson-Democrats, Taft-Republicans, Eugene Debs-Socialist, and Roosevelt-Bull Moose Party.
6. Wilson ran on a reform platform too, but unlike Roosevelt, he criticized both big business and big government.
7. Wilson, calling this policy New Freedom, promised to enforce antitrust laws without threatening free economic competition.
8. The Democrats won over both Houses of Congress.
9. Wilson created a Federal Trade Commission in 1914 to be sure business complied with federal trade regulations.
10. Also in 1914 the Clayton Antitrust Act spelled out specific activities big businesses couldn’t do in restraint of trade-strengthening United States antitrust laws.
11. The Clayton Antitrust Act exempted union’s activities from antitrust lawsuits unless they led to “irreparable injury to property.”
12. Wilson lowered tariffs and instituted major financial reforms.
13. 1913 Wilson helped establish the Federal Reserve System.
14. The Federal Reserve System let banks borrow money to meet short-term demands, helping to prevent bank failures.
15. Wilson also established the Federal Farm Loan Board (1916).
16. Wilson opposed women’s suffrage because his platform had not approved it. 17. A Controversial Appointment
18. Wilson nominated a progressive lawyer named Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court in 1916.
19. Named “the peoples’ lawyer” Brandeis had fought for many public causes without pay.
20. Brandeis, being Jewish caused many problems as well as his “radical” approach to reform.
21. Brandeis’ appointment to the Supreme Court marked the peak of progressive reform at the federal level. 22. Wilson was reelected in 1916.
The Legacy of Progressive Reform
1. A Limited View of Progress
2. The African Americans of this era felt that progressives weren’t doing enough to concern themselves with race relations during this time.
3. 1912 Roosevelt refused to seat the southern African American delegates for fear of alienating white southern progressives.
4. Some supporters of women’s suffrage did so only to double the “white vote” in the United States and exclude the African Americans.
5. African Americans fell further behind because of their smaller population and the effectiveness of voting restrictions in the South.
6. Progressives also focused on cities leaving out tenant and migrant farmers and non-unionized workers in general.
7. Some progressives supported immigration restrictions and literacy test.
8. Progressives also supported the imperialistic adventures of the day. 9. They believed in “civilizing” under-developed nations, no matter what the residents of those nations wanted.
10. The End of the Progressive Coalition
11. August 1914, a war broke out in Europe
12. Americans worried how long they could stay uninvolved in the conflict.
13. By 1916, the reform spirit had ended whit the exception of women’s suffrage.
Suffrage at Last: A Turning Point in History
Suffrage at the Turn of the Century
1. In August 1920, Tennessee had to make a huge decision, whether or not to ratify the 19th amendment.
2. Carrie Chapman Catt directed the lobbying effort for the “suffs”.
3. The National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was established.
4. Women’s Rights
5. Women had won many rights. Married women could buy, sell and will property.
6. Myra Bradwell of Chicago was denied a state license to practice law in 1869. She appealed to the Supreme Court where her denial was upheld. (Bradwell vs. Illinois 1873).
7. By 1900’s women were becoming more involved in unions, picketing, voluntary organizations, and getting arrested.
8. The Opposition Mobilizes
9. Anti-suffragists made two arguments: a. women were powerful enough without voting b. giving women the vote would blur the distinction between the sexes and make women seem more masculine. 10. Anti-suffragists said that women would quickly establish prohibition.
Suffragist Strategies
1. Suffragists followed two paths toward their goals: a. pressing for a constitutional amendment b. encouraging states to approve women’s suffrage.
2. In 1878 Congress adopted the wording of suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony in the “Anthony Amendment”.
3. The Anthony Amendment didn’t resurface until 1913.
4. The movement heats up in the 1910’s
5. The suffrage movement was becoming more widely accepted in the 1900’s. 6. Carrie Chapman Catt- Systematized NAWSA techniques.
7. Alice Paul formed the Congressional Union (CU).
8. A collision over strategy
9. Different strategies caused the suffrage movement to be torn into two. 10. The CU wanted an all-out national campaign for the constitutional amendment.
11. The NAWSA felt that the CU was premature in some of their actions. 12. Catt’s “winning plan” was to work full time to get congress to propose the federal amendment.
13. By 1917 NAWSA had over 2 million members.
14. In the fall of 1917 New York finally passed the amendment.
15. Impact of the war
16. The United states entered WWI in April 1917
17. Women took over jobs that men left behind as well as volunteering for other jobs.
18. Congress adopted the 18th amendment.
The Final Victory for Suffrage
1. 1918 Congress proposed the suffrage amendment.
2. Ratification
3. Harry Burn of Tennessee was the tie breaking vote in Tennessee’s legislature.
4. Burn voted “yes” because his mother had written to them saying to vote “yes” for her.
5. The speaker tried to stall the bill by reconsidering it.
6. On August 24, Tennessee’s governor signed the suffrage bill.
7. On August 26, the 19th amendment was ratified.
8. A hard-won victory
9. Women’s suffrage wasn’t totally given to them. They fought for their right to vote.
10. The ratification of the 19th amendment marked the last major reform of the progressive era and was the turning point in American History.
