P6 | APUSH | Wiley | Progressive Era: Note Guide, D___ Name:

The Progressive Era, [roughly] 1900-1920

  • An era of social activism and political, economic, and social ______at all levels of government
  • Aimed at curing many ills of American society that had developed during industrialization/urbanization of the ______Age (1870-1900ish)

Key Beliefs of the Progressives

  • Unrestrained capitalism is injurious and needs restructuring
  • Urban society is immoral and needs reform
  • Citizens and government should intervene to improve conditions
  • ______of social Darwinism
  • Though they often spoke with negative language, their views were rooted in optimism and, at times, ______ideas
  1. How does the image (see right) reflect the ideals of the Progressives?
  2. How could one argue that the Progressives viewed capitalism the way the founding fathers viewed democracy?

Who were the “Progressives”?

  • Mostly ______-class, urban, Protestant citizens; more women than men
  • Many varied interests whose common thread was faith in activism in both political/private realms
  • Tended to lack “progressive” ideas when it came to immigrants and blacks (Jim Crow America + ______was increasing)

Key Outcomes

  • Federal government became ______and more assertive (laissez-faire)
  • Downtrodden received attention/relief from federal government
  • ______leadership increased
  • Monopolies decreased
  • Democratic reforms became common

Where Progressivism Fits In

  1. What are the similarities and differences between Populists, Socialists, and Progressives? Revisit Gilded Age Note Guide for information on populism and socialism.

Reasons for Emergence of the Progressive Era

  • Collapse of ______movement
  • Gilded Age problems still unfixed
  • Muckrakers’ work
  • Middle-class empathy and democratic participation
  • National scope of problems required national attention
  • ______ascension to the Presidency

New Journalism: “Muckraking”

  • “raking up the mud of society” – T. Roosevelt
  • Spread awareness and mobilized the public
  • Key names: Jacob ______and Upton ______

Triangle Shirtwaist Disaster, 1911

  • Unable to open the locked doors of the sweatshop and desperate to escape from smoke and flames, many of the 146 who died had leaped eight stories to their death
  • NYC police set up this makeshift morgue to help identify victims (see right)
  • Impact: ______people protested; ______passed 36 safety laws within the next few years

Political Reform

  • An increase in direct democracy in many Western states (see next slide)
  • Limited power of railroads (state and national)
  • ______election of U.S. Senators, 1913 (17th Amendment)
  • Women’s suffrage, 1920 (started as state reform, but then became national: 19th Amendment)
  • Secret ballot (state)

Democratic Reform in the West

  • Initiative (5-15% of voters sign a petition proposing new laws, will be placed on the ballot to be approved or rejected by direct popular vote)
  • Referendum (5-15% of voters sign a petition requesting it, a recently passed law must be placed on the ballot so that voters can approve or veto it)
  • Recall (power to vote an elected official out of office before term ends)
  1. Should PA adopt any of these democratic mechanisms? Why or why not?

Economic Reform

  • Worker protections (state)
  • Antitrust legislation (national)  promotion of ______
  • The ______was created to maintain the stability of the financial system, keep the economy on a path of steady growth, help cushion the low points of the business cycle, and prevent bank failures
  • Reflects the Progressive impulse for more management, regulation, and gov. activism

Note: The Fed will be discussed more in the context of the Great Depression.

Social Reform

  • ______movement (local)provided health and education services to immigrants and the poor
  • Efforts to eradicate prostitution (national)
  • Prohibition, 18th Amendment, 1919 (national)
  • Education – every state had some form of “______” education by 1918
  • Not enforced; students were usually in school no more than 12 weeks of the year
  • Black children often excluded

Chart: State and Year of Enactment of Compulsory Education

  1. What pattern(s) do you notice in the education chart above? Is it shocking? Why or why not?

Health & Environmental Reform

  • Regulation of medicine and food (national) and environmental waste (local/state)
  • More cities/states provided health services (local/state)
  • Birth ______clinics in every large city by 1920 (local)
  • Pay for injured workers hurt on the job (state)
  • Conservation (national)
  • Child-labor laws (______); by 1920, number of child laborers cut in half from what it had been in 1910

[Some] Legislative Achievements at the National Level
Antiquities Act, 1906 / Gave the president the authority to restrict the use of public lands for conservation purposes / Roosevelt administration
Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906 / Required companies to accurately label the ingredients contained in processed foods
Direct response to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle / Roosevelt administration
Meat Inspection Act, 1906 / Required meat-processing plants to be inspected to ensure the use of good meat and sound sanitation procedures
Direct response to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle / Roosevelt administration
Hepburn Act, 1906 / Strengthened a railroad regulatory commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, allowing it to set maximum railroad rates and inspect financial records (the ICC had formed in 1887 to regulate monopolistic railroad companies but wasn’t enforced until TR’s time) / Roosevelt administration
Mann Act, 1910 / Made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes / Taft administration
Federal Reserve Act, 1913 / The Federal Reserve System (the Fed) was created to regulate the money supply and interest rates, and provide a lender of last resorts to avoid panics and runs on the banks / Wilson administration
Clayton Antitrust Act, 1914 / Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act (of 1890, which was ambiguous in its language and was often used to put down strikes/unions instead of trusts) by outlawing the creation of a monopoly through any means, and stated that unions were not subject to antitrust legislation (unions had been targeted in antitrust cases in years past since they were interpreted as conspiracies to restrict commerce) / Wilson administration
Federal Trade Act, 1914 / Established the Federal Trade Commission, charged with investigating unfair business practices including monopolistic activity and inaccurate product labeling / Wilson administration
Adamson Act, 1916 / Established 8-hr work day for railroad employees / Wilson administration
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, 1916 / Limited work hours of children engaged in interstate trade and forbade interstate sale of goods produced by children under 14; declared unconstitutional: Court said that child labor dealt with interstate production, as opposed to interstate commerce; thus, Congress had no right to intervene / Wilson administration
Workingmen’s Compensation Act, 1916 / Financial assistance to federal employees injured on job / Wilson administration
  1. Do any of the legislative reforms listed above seem unconstitutional to you? Why or why not?
  2. What ills of industrialization are not addressed by the reforms listed above? Revisit Gilded Age Note Guide.

Constitutional Amendments

  1. Review: Before the 17th Amendment was passed, how were Senators elected?
  1. Review: When and where did women first advocate for the vote?

Black Activism

  • None of the “progressives” turned their energies to the realm of civil rights for blacks
  • Two key black activists emerged:

Washington / DuBois
  • Surest way for blacks to gain equal rights was to demonstrate “industry, thrift, intelligence, and property”
  • ______, not confrontation, would help blacks overcome injustice
  • Founded Tuskegee Institute for black students: industrial education as means of escape from web of sharecropping and debt
  • Cultivated local ______approval with his conservative, accomodationist policies
  • Faced growing black and white liberal opposition (he accepted ______)
/
  • Criticized Washington’s passive approach that seemed to accept the myth of black inferiority
  • Believed blacks must actively fight for their rights earned after the Civil War (______Amendments)
  • Helped to form the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1909, which would chip away at the legal foundations of ______for the next 60+ years
  • Primary editor for NAACP’s monthly magazine, The Crisis

  1. Which approach is more in line with President Lincoln’s approach to racial issues? Stevens’?
  2. Who would you have supported, had you been a black citizen of the South, circa 1900?

Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency, 1901-1909

  • Viewed presidency as “bully pulpit,” a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda (bully’s meaning has changed over time)
  • Believed that modern America required a powerful federal government that would promote national ______
  • Motto: Unless Constitution explicitly forbids us . . . then we can do it
  • Promoted the “______”: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection

Business and Labor under TR

  • Worried about growing business consolidation
  • Supported labor in the 1902 ______strike (1st time gov. had done so)
  • “trust-buster”
  • Increased railroad regulation
  • 1902 – used Justice Dept. to attack Northern Securities Company (railroad company owned by J.P. Morgan); SC ruled that company restrained interstate commerce

This 1909 cartoon (see right) depicts President Theodore Roosevelt slaying those trusts he considered “bad” for the public interest while restraining those whose business practices he considered “good” for the economy. The image also plays on TR’s well-publicized fondness for big game hunting.

TR and Protection of Consumers

  • After meeting with Sinclair and investigating his claims, endorsed the ______Act
  • Supported Pure Food and Drug Act

TR and Conservation

  • Used the ______Act to create 5 national parks and 18 national monuments (including the Grand Canyon) and millions of acres worth of national forests through the National Forest Reserve

TR and Civil Rights

  • Invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House in 1901
  • Failed to use federal authority to enforce the ______Amendment guaranteeing voting rights to African Americans
  • Appointed many blacks to lower-level federal offices
  • Believed in white superiority but felt every race was capable of unlimited improvement

William H. Taft’s Presidency, 1909-1913

  • Did not believe in the stretching of Presidential powers; Roosevelt "ought more often to have admitted the legal way of reaching the same ends."
  • Busted ______the trusts of TR
  • Supported safety codes for mines/railroads
  • “______” progressive conservationists, most notably, TR, and progressives who wanted lower tariffs
  • Sent amendments 16 and 17 to the states for ratification (would take until Wilson’s administration for required states to support)
  • To Taft, his later appointment as Chief Justice was his greatest honor: "I don't remember that I ever was President."

Election of 1912 (See Sources on the Progressive Era)

  1. Though Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson only received 41% of the popular vote, he won the election of 1912. How?
  1. Two different third parties ran in this election and did quite well, particularly the one led by TR. What were those parties and what were a few of their unique ideas?

Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency, 1913-1921

  • Key belief: gov. shouldn’t get bigger; business should get smaller
  • Decreased tariffs
  • ______Amendments passed (work on some had begun prior to Wilson)
  • See legislation chart for Wilson administration reforms
  • Appeased conservative Democrats on racial matters; placed segregationists in charge of federal agencies and opposed federal ______legislation

Note; Wilson’s presidency will be covered more specifically in the context of World War 1.

Sample Essay Prompt: The Progressive Era is sometimes said to have marked a critical juncture in the evolution of government intervention, which ended up dramaticallytransforming the role of the government, particularly as it relates to the economy. To what extent was this “transformation” a betrayal of the nation’s founding ideals? Revisit Period 3 for founding documents materials.

  1. Context:
  1. Thesis:
  2. Body Paragraphs: Generate ideas for paragraph topics and list out specific evidence that would be used.
  1. Synthesis:

1