The Progressive Movement

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The Progressive Movement
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 What were the backgrounds of reformers? 

• The progressives were (for the most part) native
  born, middle or upper class. They concerned
  themselves with urban problems such as
• the plight of workers
• poor sanitation
• political machines. 

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• Earlier reformers included the POPULISTS who
  wanted social reform were mainly concerned with
  rural problems
• the plight of the farmers
• wanted more government control of the railroad
  and telegraph monopolies,
• the coinage of silver (which helped the farmers
  and small wage earners because it was mildly
  inflationary)
• The major issues included the exploitation of
  female and child laborers. 

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What issues did the Muckrakers address?

• Muckrakers was the name given to those writers
  who (as Pres. Teddy Roosevelt put it) fixes
  his eyes . . . only on that which is vile and
  debasing (harmful and corrupt).Issues that
  Muckrakers addressed?
• Ida B. Tarbell exposed the oil refinery trust
  of John D. Rockefeller (her father had an oil
  refinery which he lost as a result of JD
  Rockefellers cutthroat business practices)
• Lincoln Steffens exposed the corrupt political
  machine in St. Louis which mirrored the corrupt
  Democratic headquarters Tammany Hall in New
  York City. Steffens also exposed the poverty and
  overcrowding in the cities.
• Ray Stannard Baker exposed the racial
  discrimination of black Americans in Following
  the Color Line.
• Upton Sinclair exposed unsanitary meat
  packaging in The Jungle.

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How did progressive writers and thinkers view
American society?

• They saw a need for Americans to be made aware
  of the brutal treatment workers suffered from
  business owners. Elite society was very closed
  minded and progressives saw the need to expose
  them for their callousness.
• They saw the need for the government to step in
  and regulate the business world. The affluent
  should be taxed and their tax money used to help
  those less fortunate.
• They saw a government that all too often
  supported the interests of business over the
  welfare of the common people.

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What workplace problems did progressives target?

• The problems included the exploitation of female
  and child laborers

What were the results of the Triangle Shirtwaist
Fire?
We will be watching a video that details this
horrible fire and a separate handout will be
covered.  
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(No Transcript)
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What rulings did the Supreme Court make on labor
laws?

• Muller v. Oregon established that an Oregon
  decision which made a 10 hour workday the maximum
  for women be upheld. Working longer than that
  could be very harmful to the health of women.

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What success and failures did Unions see in the
early 1900s?

• Some labor unions wanted a closed shop (where
  everyone who worked there had to join a union)
  while others favored socialism which called for
  public ownership of the factories. The A F of L
  still denied membership to unskilled workers and
  this left most immigrants and black Americans out
  of the union.
•  
• The International Ladies Garment Workers Union
  (ILGWU) was started in NYC to unionize garment
  workers (primarily immigrant women). This union
  was trying to get concessions from garment
  industry workers when the Triangle Fire took
  place.  

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The IWW

• The IWW (The Wobblies) was formed in 1905.
  They opposed capitalism and their leader,
  one-eyed William Big Bill Haywood called for
  one big union, the same thing that Joe Kenahan
  called for at Stone Mountain, with the coal
  miners in the film Matewan.
• In 1912, they led textile workers in
  Massachusetts on a successful strike for better
  wages.
• After that victory, several IWW strikes failed
  and the people became fearful that the
  organization was promoting anarchy.
• The government cracked down on the Union and it
  collapsed a few years later.

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Finis
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Election Reforms

• Progressives wanted fairer elections and to make
  politicians more accountable to voters.
• Proposed a direct primary, or an election in
  which voters choose candidates to run in a
  general election, which most states adopted.
• Backed the Seventeenth Amendment, which gave
  voters, not state legislatures, the power to
  elect their U.S. senators.
• Some measures Progressives fought for include
• Direct primary voters select a partys candidate
  for public office
• 17th Amendment voters elect their senators
  directly
• secret ballot people vote privately without fear
  of coercion
• initiative allows citizens to propose new laws
• referendum allows citizens to vote on a proposed
  or existing law
• recall allows voters to remove an elected
  official from office

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Reforming Government

• City Government
• Reforming government meant winning control of it
• Tom Johnson of Cleveland was a successful reform
  mayor who set new rules for police, released
  debtors from prison, and supported a fairer tax
  system.
• Progressives promoted new government structures
• Texas set up a five-member committee to govern
  Galveston after a hurricane, and by 1918, 500
  cities adopted this plan.
• The city manager model had a professional
  administrator, not a politician, manage the
  government.
• State Government
• Progressive governor Robert La Follette created
  the Wisconsin Ideas, which wanted
• Direct primary elections limited campaign
  spending
• Commissions to regulate railroads and oversee
  transportation, civil service, and taxation
• Other governors pushed for reform, but some were
  corrupt
• New Yorks Charles Evan Hughes regulated
  insurance companies.
• Mississippis James Vardaman exploited prejudice
  to gain power.