The Progressive Era Flashcards
Muckrakers
Writers who exposed unethical tactics in both government and business during the progressive era
Newspaper editors realized these stories increased circulation
Social Gospel movement
Originated in the Protestant church
Aimed to help the urban poor
Influenced progressives
Ex. Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives
17th Amendment
Allowed voters of state legislatures to elect US senators
Championed by progressives
Initiative process
Supported by progressives
Allowed any citizen to propose a law, which could appear on the next ballot if it received enough signatures
Referendum process
Allowed CITIZENS (rather than legislature) to vote on proposed laws
Recall process
Allowed voters to remove an elected faucial from office before his term expired
Direct primary
Allowed part members to vote for prospective candidates
Previously they had been chosen by party bosses
Hull House
Settlement house in Chicago
Est. by Jane Addams
Became a model for settlement houses around the nation
Showed crucial role of women in the progressive era
Offered social, educational, and health aid
National American Woman Suffrage Assoc.
Est. in 1890
Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Triangle Shirtwaist fire
In NYC
Killed 150 fee mail factory workers because thy were looked in
*initiated the beginning of factory reforms
The Jungle
By Upton Sinclair
Revealed horrors of meat packaging co.s
Inspired the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act
Goals of progressives
(Mostly made up of middle class)
1. Improve life of lower class (with reforms dictated by the lower class)
2. Est. reforms (that opposed socialism)
Not universally popular because they called for increased government control
Knocked out political machines
Wanted lower tariffs
FELL SHORT OF AIDING FARMERS AND MINORITIES
National Consumers League
Wanted protection for women and children at home and in the workplace
Mostly made up of women
National Woman’s Party
Radical
Est. by Alice Paul
Pushed for suffrage
Muller vs. OR
Limited the hours women could work
Based on ideal of the women’s sphere and necessity for women to spend time accomplishing their roles as mothers at home
Square Deal
Est. by Teddy after his rise to presidency after Mckinley’s assassination
Emphasized how government intervention could help the plight of ordinary Americans
Used to break the United Mine Workers strike (on behalf of the workers)
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Finally enforced by Teddy because it seemed like Wall St. controlled the entire economy
Targeted trusts and holding co.s
DISCLAIMER: Teddy ONLY opposed trusts that HURT the economy, not all trusts (ex. He liked the Standard Oil Co.)
Continued by Wilson with the Clayton Anti-Trust Act
United States Forest Service Act
Est. by Teddy
His greatest accomplishment was environment conservation
16th Amendment
Authorized the collection of federal income tax which were previously collected from tariffs
Ex. Of Sq. Deal leveling the playing field
New Nationalism
Teddy’s campaign for a 3rd term vs. Taft
Called for expanded role of the government
Called for mostly workplace reforms
Under Bull Moose progressive party
Lost to Woodrow Wilson and New Freedom
New Freedom
Platform for democrat, Woodrow Wilson Did NOT want to simply regulate monopolies he wanted to try to break them up Pleased reformers (ex. Underwood Tariff cut high tariff on imported goods)
Birth of a Nation
Film by D. W. Griffith
Glorified the KKK
Supported by Woodrow Wilson
Eugene Debs
Ran for presidency in 1912 under the Socialist Party
Did fairly well
Socialism did not coincide with progressivism except in the fact that both believed capitalism created massive inequality in the US
