Progressive America

1
Progressive America

• Unit 2 Notes 6
• Mr. Welch
• 10/26/12

2
Reforming the Workplace

• Progressives took up the cause of working women
  children
• In 1893 Florence Kelley helped persuade Illinois
  to prohibit child labor and to limit the number
  of hours women were forced to work
• Yet many employers continued hiring children, and
  states did not enforce child labor laws

3
Muller v. Oregon (1908)

• Louis Brandeis along with Florence Kelley argued
  that working women needed the protection of the
  state against powerful employers
• Brandeis was able to convince the court to uphold
  an Oregon law that limiting the workday for women
  to 10 hours
• Other states responded by enacting similar laws
• Progressive were also successful in winning
  workers compensation to aid the families of
  workers who were hurt or killed on the job

4
Dangerous Conditions

• In 1911 a fire broke out in the Triangle
  Shirtwaist Factory in New York City
• The fire spread quickly throughout the oil-soaked
  machines and piles of cloth
• Locked doors kept the workers trapped inside
• The factory had no sprinkler system, and the fire
  escape collapsed immediately
• 146 women died
• The state of New York started an investigation to
  study factory working conditions

5
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6
Reforming the Government

• Progressives wanted to eliminate corruption and
  make the govt more efficient
• They also wanted to reform elections to make them
  fairer and make politicians more accountable to
  voters
• Progressives pushed for a direct primary
• An election in which voters choose candidates to
  run in a general election
• The 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave voters
  rather than the state legislature the power to
  directly elect senators

7
Election Reforms

• A secret ballot was introduced
• Progressives urged states to adopt three
  additional election reform measures
• Initiative allowed citizens to propose new laws
• Referendum allowed citizens to vote on proposed
  or existing law
• Recall allowed voters to remove an elected
  official from office

8
Reforming Big Business

• In 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust
  Act which made it illegal to form trusts that
  interfered with free trade
• The govt prosecuted so few companies
• Companies found loopholes which made this act
  ineffective
• Two presidents are remembered for their efforts
  to regulate big business Theodore Roosevelt
  William Howard Taft

9
Womens Suffrage

• The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)
  was formed in 1869 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
  Susan B. Anthony
• Their goal pass a constitutional amendment to
  give women the right to vote
• The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
  was also formed in 1869
• Their goal was to win the right to vote on a
  state-by-state basis
• Anti-suffragists believed that voting would
  interfere with a womans duties at home or would
  destroy families

10
Women Temperance

• Some Progressive reform minded women believed
  that alcohol was often responsible for crime,
  poverty, and violence toward women children
• The Womans Christian Temperance Union led an
  organized movement against alcohol
• The anti-alcohol message was spread in Protestant
  churches