**The Progressive Era** Flashcards
Progressivism
-Aimed to restore economic opportunities and correct injustices in American life during the early 1900s
Muckrakers
-Journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life in mass circulation magazines during the early 20th century
Women’s Christian Temperance Movement
- Founded in Cleveland in 1874, anti-alchohol movement
- Women didn’t want their husbands to drink, abuse, fear for family, economics, if successful then it proves they can handle politics
- Abused by husbands who were drinking -Goal: put an end to manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol
18th Amendment
-Banned the sale and drinking of alcohol
Women’s Suffrage Movement
-Goal: to gain women the right to vote
19th Amendment
-Gave women the right to vote
Theodore Roosevelt
- Believed in a strong federal government which (more involved than previous presidents)
- Wanted to regulate business, ensure the rights of labor, women, children and others
- Did not support laissez-faire
- Coal mine strike
- willingness to get involved in strikes and mediate between business and workers
- National Conservation Commission in 1908 to take an inventory of natural resources in all of the U.S.
- Meat Inspection Act
Meat Inspection Act
- Dictated strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers and created the program of federal meat inspection that was in use until it was replaced by more sophisticated techniques in the 1990s
- Pushed to pass by Roosevelt
Upton Sinclair
- Muckraking journalist of The Jungle (1906)
- His focus was the human condition in the stockyards of Chicago -Intended his novel to reveal “the breaking of human hearts by a system [that] exploits the labor of men and women for profits.”
- What most shocked readers in the book was the sickening conditions of the meatpacking industry
The Jungle (focus on meat) (#5)
- Book about the meat packing plants Chicago and the life of an immigrant family
- Government response: Congress passed, and Roosevelt signed, the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
Pure Food and Drug Act
- Enforced some federal inspection and mandated sanitary conditions in all companies selling meat across state lines
- Helped to restore public confidence in the meat industry
- Significance: proved that Progressives could bring about a public outcry that could eventually lead to reform/legislation
- Leads to the modern FDA – Food and Drug Administration
William Taft
- Previous Secretary of War before he was handpicked as president by TR
- Lawyer, federal judge
- Promised to carry on TR’s progressive agenda (more progressive than TR)
- Broke up more monopolies and trusts in 4 years than TR did in 7 years
- Supported 8 hour work day and legislation to make mining safer
- Authorized the first tax on corporate profits
- Encouraged process led to creation of the federal income tax
- Served on Supreme Court
Woodrow Wilson
- Former governor of NJ – reputation as a reformer
- Ran in 1912 on a reform platform
- Unlike Roosevelt, he criticized BOTH big business and big government
- Felt the govt had to be more involved
- Passed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 which spelled out specific activities businesses could not do = strengthened the nation’s anti-trust laws
- Appointed Louis Brandeis to Supreme Court in 1916 - controversial, very radical and Jewish
- Allowed for slight graduated income tax (make more money = pay at a slightly higher rate for their taxes)
Tenement House
-Crowded, fire hazard, multiple families
Labor Union (goals, tactics, reputation) (#3)
- Group of workers banding together (in a job / industry)
- Goals:
- To improve the pay, conditions, and power of the workers
- Fight for $, health care, time off, other benefits -
Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy (bring changes) (#4)
- Brought rules to businesses to ensure safety of workers
- Proof that many factories were unsafe and the government needed to make some changes to keep workers from being hurt
What were some social, economic and political problems that the Progressive Movement aimed to solve? (create a small chart to list problems)
- Child labor, work conditions, hours, pay
- Prohibition of alcohol
- Women’s suffrage
- Equal opportunity
What were some problems with working conditions that workers wanted to change?
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At first, did the government support the business owners or the workers? Why?
- Business owners
- The rich business owners were more like the people in the government and gave lots of money to the political campaign
- Gov. worried that workers going on strike would bring the economy down
- Gov. was still laissez-faire in terms of its involvement with the economy and thought that the workers and business owners should work out their own problems
How did the passage of the 18th amendment help get the 19th Amendment passed as well?
- Women were able to prove their worth with the success of the Temperance Movement
- Gave few reasons to ban voting rights for women
What were some other arguments both for and against giving women the right to vote?
- Against - if women get the right to vote, men will have to take care of the house (they will do a bad job)
During their presidencies, whom did the government begin to help more: the large businesses or the workers? Why?
- Workers
- Progressive
- Want social reform
- Started to become less laissez-faire and got more involved in how big business worked
What were some groups that didn’t have the benefit of progressive reforms or support?
- Rural areas
- African Americans
- Reforms to protect women, but it made them look weak - didn’t work as many hours, minimum wage
Legacy of progressive reform
- Legislative legacy – LAWS/AGENCIES THAT ARE STILL AROUND:
- Beginnings of minimum wage, maximum hours
- Conservation of our nation’s resources
- Increased public awareness of problems in the cities
- Greater governmental responsibility for public welfare
- Bigger government (less laissez-faire) – more govt. regulation than in the past
