Holt McDougal,

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Movement

The Big Idea

From the late 1800s through the early 1900s, the Progressive movement addressed problems in American society.

Main Ideas

• Political corruption was common during the Gilded Age.

• Progressives pushed for reforms to improve living conditions.

• Progressive reforms expanded the voting power of citizens.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 1: Political corruption was common

during the Gilded Age.

• Political machines strongly influenced city, county, and even federal politics in the late 1800s.

• Political machines used both legal and illegal means to get their candidates elected to public office.

– Stuffed ballot boxes with votes for their candidates

– Paid people to vote with bribes, or bribed vote counters

• Supporters of political machines were often rewarded with government jobs.

• The most notorious political machine was New York City’s Tammany Hall, headed by William Marcy Tweed.

Holt McDougal,

Corruption in Washington

• The administration of Ulysses S. Grant, who was elected in 1868 and reelected in 1872, was charged with corruption.

• In Grant’s second term, federal officials were jailed for taking bribes from whiskey distillers.

• The scandal caused many Americans to question the honesty of national leaders.

Holt McDougal,

• Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881) promised radical and complete changes in government and made some minor reforms.

• James B. Garfield (1881) attempted reforms, but was assassinated by a disgruntled federal-office seeker early in his term.

• Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885), Garfield’s vice president, became president. Backed the Pendleton Civil Service Act passed in 1883.

Cleaning Up Political Corruption

• Grover Cleveland (1885–1889, 1893–1897), a Democrat, worked hard to hire and fire people based on merit, not party loyalty.

• Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893) helped control inflation and passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.

• William McKinley (1897–1901) avoided scandal and helped win back public trust in the government.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 2: Progressives pushed for reforms to improve

living conditions.

• Progressives were reformers who worked to solve problems caused by rapid industrial and urban growth.

– Eliminate causes of crime, disease, and poverty– Ease overcrowding in cities– Advocate for better education– Promote better working conditions and less child labor– Fight corruption in business and government

• Muckrakers were journalists who wrote about child labor, racial discrimination, slum housing, and corruption in business.

– Influenced voters, causing them to pressure government officials

Holt McDougal,

Reforms and Reformers

• Progressives started settlement houses, such as Jane Addams’s Hull House.

• City planners

– Helped design safer building codes – Opened new public parks

• Civil and sanitation engineers

– Improved transportation– Addressed pollution and sanitation issues, including waste

disposal and clean water

• Death rates dropped in cities where city planners and civil engineers addressed urban ills.

Reform Successes

Holt McDougal,

Social Reforms

• Education reform included the enacting of school attendance laws.

• Susan Blow opened the first American public kindergarten.

• John Dewey advocated new teaching methods designed to help children learn problem-solving skills, not just memorize facts.

• Joseph McCormack led the American Medical Association in supporting public health laws.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 2:Progressive reformers expanded the voting

power of citizens.

• Progressives worked to reduce the power of the political machines by

– Ending corrupt ballot practices

– Adopting the secret ballot

– Adopting the direct primary, which allowed voters to choose party candidates rather than having it done by party bosses

• The Seventeenth Amendment allowed Americans to vote directly for U.S. senators.

Holt McDougal,

Recall

• Some states and cities adopted the recall.

• It was a special vote that gave citizens the opportunity to remove an elected official from office.

Initiative

• Some states adopted the initiative.

• It allowed voters to propose a new law and vote on it.

Recall, Initiative, and Referendum

Referendum

• Some states adopted the referendum.

• It permitted voters to directly approve or reject a proposed or enacted law.

Holt McDougal,

The Cities

• Some cities adopted a council-manager form of government, in which a professional manager runs the city.

• Other cities adopted a commission form of government, in which a group of elected officials runs the city.

Government Reforms

The States

• Governor Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin challenged the power of the political bosses.

• He began a series of reforms called the Wisconsin Idea.

• His reforms decreased the power of the political machine.

• The Wisconsin Idea influenced other states.

Holt McDougal,

Reforming the Workplace

The Big Idea

In the early 1900s, Progressives and other reformers focused on improving conditions for American workers.

Main Ideas

• Reformers attempted to improve conditions for child laborers.

• Unions and reformers took steps to improve safety in the workplace and to limit working hours.

Holt McDougal,

• Marie Van Vorst focused attention on the problem of child labor.

• Many children worked in industry—in 1900 more than 1.75 million children age 15 or younger.

• Children as young as seven years old provided cheap labor for manufacturers but brought home only small amounts of money to their families.

• Reformers wanted labor laws to protect women and children.

Main Idea 1:Reformers attempted to improve conditions

for child laborers.

Holt McDougal,

Child-Labor Reform

• Florence Kelley was a leader in the fight against child labor.

• Massachusetts passed the first minimum-wage law in 1912, and established a commission to set wage rates for children.

• Congress passed federal child-labor laws in 1916 and 1919, banning child-labor products from interstate commerce.

– The Supreme Court ruled the laws unconstitutional.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 2: Unions and reformers took steps to improve

safety in the workplace and to limit working hours.

• Workplace accidents were coming in 1800s and early 1900s.– Some 35,000 Americans were killed industrial accidents in 1900.

– About 500,000 suffered injuries in 1900.

• The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that killed 146 workers, mostly women and girls, led to laws to improve factory safety.

• Reformers fought for workers’ compensation laws, which guaranteed a portion of lost wages to workers injured on the job.

• In 1902 Maryland became the first state to pass a workers’ compensation law.

Holt McDougal,

The Courts and Labor

• Some businesses opposed workplace regulations, believing that the economy should operate without government interference. They went to court to block new labor laws.

• New York passed a law in 1897 limiting bakers to a 10-hour workday.

– Bakery owner Joseph Lochner sued.– In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court ruled the

law unconstitutional.– The court ruled that the state could not restrict employers

from entering into any kind of agreement with employees.

• In 1908, however, the Supreme Court upheld a law restricting women’s work hours in Muller v. Oregon, ruling that it was a public health issue.

Holt McDougal,

• American Federation of Labor led by Samuel Gompers

• Supported capitalism, an economic system in which private firms run industry

• Labor unions tried to improve working conditions and pay.

• Union membership rose from 800,000 in 1900 to about 5 million in 1920.

Labor Organizations

• Some unions supported socialism, a system in which the government owns most industry.

• Leading socialist union was Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

• IWW led by William “Big Bill” Haywood

Holt McDougal,

The Rights of Women and Minorities

The Big Idea

The Progressive movement made advances for the rights of women and some minorities.

Main Ideas

• Women fought for temperance and the right to vote.

• African American reformers challenged discrimination and called for equality.

• Progressive reforms failed to benefit all minorities.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 1: Women fought for temperance and

the right to vote.

• New educational opportunities drew more women into the Progressive movement.

• Denied access to such professions as law and medicine, women entered fields such as social work and education.

• Women’s clubs campaigned for many causes, including temperance, women’s suffrage, child welfare, and political reform.

Holt McDougal,

Temperance

• Women reformers took up the cause of temperance: avoidance of alcohol consumption.

• The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union campaigned to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages.

• Radical temperance fighter Carry Nation stormed saloons and smashed bottles with an axe in the 1890s.

• Temperance efforts led to the Eighteenth Amendment (1919), banning the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

Holt McDougal,

• Women reformers fought for suffrage, or the right to vote.

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1890).

• Alice Paul founded the more radical National Woman’s Party (1913).

– Used parades and public demonstrations, picketing, and hunger strikes to spread their message

• Suffragists won the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment (1919).

Women’s Suffrage

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 2:African American reformers challenged discrimination and called for equality.

Booker T. Washington encouraged African Americans to improve their educational and economic well-being.

Ida B. Wells spoke out against discrimination and drew attention to the lynching of African Americans.

W. E. B. Du Bois attacked discrimination and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. They called for economic and educational equality for African Americans.

The National Urban League, founded in 1911, helped African Americans moving from the South to find jobs and housing.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 3: Progressive reforms failed to benefit

all minorities.

• The Society of American Indians wanted Native Americans to adopt the ways of white society, but many of them resisted.

• Chinese Americans formed their own groups to help support their members, including neighborhood and district associations, cultural groups, churches, and temples.

– Built San Francisco’s Chinese hospital in 1925

• Immigration by Mexicans increased during this period, and many worked in farming.

• Progressive reforms did little to improve working conditions for farm workers.

Holt McDougal,

The Progressive Presidents

The Big Idea

American presidents in the early 1900s did a great deal to promote progressive reforms.

Main Ideas

• Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reforms tried to balance the interests of business, consumers, and laborers.

• William Howard Taft angered Progressives with his cautious reforms, while Woodrow Wilson enacted far-reaching banking and antitrust reforms.

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 1: Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reforms tried to balance the interests of business,

consumers, and laborers.

• Theodore Roosevelt called his reform policy the Square Deal.

• Used his policy to help settle the 1902 coal miners’ strike

• Threatened to take over the mines unless managers agreed to arbitration, a formal process for settling disputes, with the strikers

Holt McDougal,

Regulating Big Business

• Influenced by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Roosevelt urged Congress to enact meat inspection laws.

• Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. – Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of mislabeled

or contaminated food and drugs

• Roosevelt persuaded Congress to regulate railroad shipping rates.

• Was the first president to successfully use the 1890 Sherman Trust Act to break up a monopoly

• The public largely supported this expansion of federal regulatory powers.

Holt McDougal,

Conservation

• Roosevelt strongly supported conservation, the protection of nature and its resources.

– Considered it an important national priority

• Some preservationists wanted to protect nature to save its beauty.

• Other preservationists wanted to make sure the nation used its natural resources efficiently.

• Roosevelt responded by

– Adding 150 million acres of public land to the Forest Service to regulate use of forest resources by business

– Doubling the number of national parks to preserve natural beauty

– Created 18 national monuments

– Started 51 bird sanctuaries

Holt McDougal,

Main Idea 2:William Howard Taft angered Progressives with his cautious reforms, while Woodrow Wilson enacted far-reaching banking and

antitrust reforms.

• William Howard Taft moved more cautiously than Roosevelt had toward reform and regulation.

• Progressives were disappointed in Taft’s approach to reform.

• Taft’s signing of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, which raised prices for consumers, was opposed by many Progressives.

Holt McDougal,

• Taft ran for reelection on the Republican ticket.

• Roosevelt, angry at Taft, formed the Progressive Party to run for president.

• Woodrow Wilson ran on the Democratic ticket and was elected president by a wide margin.

• Eugene V. Debs ran on the Socialist Party ticket.

Election of 1912

• Woodrow Wilson won by a wide margin as the Republican voters split between Taft and Roosevelt.

• All four candidates were reformers.

Holt McDougal,

Wilson’s Reforms

• Introduced the modern income tax, made possible by ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913

• Addressed banking reform with the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, creating a national banking system

• Pushed for laws to regulate big business

– The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 strengthened laws against monopolies.

– The Federal Trade Commission, created in 1914, had the power to investigate and punish unfair trade practices.