The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era The Agrarian Movement (1870-1900) Problems of the farmers:  New farm machinery and the opening of the Great Plains led to overproduction  Increased farm production led to more crops per acre but falling food prices  Farmers had to ship goods to market and were at the mercy of railroad rates  Farmers were constantly in debt, and a poor harvest could throw them into chaos Grange Movement (1876)  Original goal was to reduce rural isolation  Turned into a group that demanded economic and political reforms for farmers  Helped to get Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 passed to regulate railroads Populist party 1891-1896  A national third party representing laborers, farmers, and industrial workers  Wanted to fix problems of falling prices and currency shortages Populist Platform  Supported William Jennings Bryan for President (Lost both elections)  Unlimited coinage of silver  Direct election of Senators  Term limits for President & Secret Ballots  Immigration restrictions  A graduated Income tax Third parties in American Politics  Help to educate voters on special issues  Provide an outlet for minority grievances  Pressure major parties to adopt their ideas

The Progressive Movement (1900-1920) Goals of Progressives  Sought to correct political and economic injustices from Industrialization (abuses of big business and exploiting of workers)  Like the Populists wanted to reform society Roots of Progressives  Found in Social Gospel Movement  Spearheaded by Protestant Clergyman, educated clergymen class  Called on Christians to rise to challenge of helping their fellow man Impact of Progressives  Brought many social reforms at the city, and state level to make govt more accountable to the people  Initiative (voters could directly introduce bills in the state legislature and could vote on whether they wanted a bill passed)  Referendum (voters could compel legislators to place a bill on the ballot for approval)  Recall (elected officials could be removed from office by voting in a special election)  Reforms at the federal level with the Pendleton Act, which reduced political appointments and had job candidates pass an examination The Social Reformers  Jane Addams, Leader in the Settlement House movement; created the Hull House Muckrakers  Group of Investigative reporters, writers, and social scientists  They worked to expose the abuses of industrial society and expose corruption that existed in all levels of government.  Upton Sinclair- The Jungle revealed many abuses of the meat packing industry  Jacob Riis - How the other Half Lives showed the poverty of urban areas in US

The Progressive Presidents The Progressive Presidents  Progressive reforms were introduced at the national level by Presidents o Theodore Roosevelt o William Howard Taft o Woodrow Wilson

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)  Believed in a stron Presidency and used his powers to safeguard the public interest  Helped to break up “bad trusts” who used unfair business practices using the Sherman Anti-trust act

 Square Deal-- Passed laws to regulate business and protect consumers and workers o Meat Inspection Act (1906) o Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)  Increased the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to help regulate certain industries  Worked to conserve the nations natural resources by drawing attention to need to conserve forests, parks, and wildlife.  Withheld federal lands from public sale and added millions of acres to national forests and parks. The Taft Presidency (1909-1912)  Continued most of Roosevelt’s policies, but angered Progressives with increased tariff bill  This caused TR to run as Bull Moose candidate in 1912, splitting the Republican party Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)  New Freedom - program that sought to control business practices, promote greater competition and lower tariff rates  National Park Service - Protected public parks and monuments that Roosevelt set aside  Department of Labor - cabinet position to study problems of labor and enforce federal labor laws  16th amendment—gave congress the power to tax income  Federal Reserve Act—Created to regulate the amount of money in circulation (Federal Reserve System)  Clayton Anti Trust Act- increased the federal government’s power to prevent unfair business practices with Federal Trade Commission. . Gave more guidelines than the previous Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Woman’s Sufferage Movement Segregation Reformers  Begins with 13th (Freedom) 14th (Citizenship) 15th (voting) amendments  Plessy vs Ferguson—allowed “separate but equal” facilities  W.E.B. DuBois - African American leader who helped found the NAACP  Ida B. Wells - African American leader who worked to end lynching Women’s Suffrage Movement  Traditional Role of Women  Women were treated as subservient  Patriarchal society in which men were superior Seneca Falls Convention (1848)  Begins the women’s rights movement  Susan B. Antony - begins Women’s sufferage movement  Voted in 1872 election but was arrested  Supreme Court (1874) ruled that citizenship does not include the “privilege of voting” 19th Amendment (1920)  After WWI, amendment passes  No state could deny a citizen’s right to vote on the basis of their gender Literature and Art in America o Art & Literature in the late 19th century was based on realism (depicting things as they really are) o This allowed writers and artists a way to depict hardships and abuse of the industrial worekrs  Literature o Horatio Alger: Wrote rags to riches stories o Mark Twain: Wrote adventure stories o Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady o Jack London: The Call of the Wild o Kate Chopin: The Awakening  Art o James McNeil Whistler - Whistler’s mother o Thomas Eakins—The Gross Clinic o Henry Ossawa Tanner—painted everyday life o Winslow Homer - painted seas, boats, and coasts