The Progressive Movement
Warm-up Question/Discussion: What is progressivism? What types of problems do progressives aim to solve? Why are Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson considered “progressive presidents?”
Background: Since the three progressive presidents were in power during the era, most people associate them with the successes of the Progressive Movement, but there were other American citizens who also inspired change and progress. These other citizens were activists who used investigatory tactics, the media, and protests to highlight the issues in American society. Many of these citizens directly inspired legislation and solutions to issues from the era (child labor, unsanitary conditions, lack of education, women’s rights, immigration,etc). To learn about some of these specific progressive activists, read the source excerpts below and answer the questions that follow. Be ready to discuss!
Florence Kelley was a social and political activist who worked against sweatshops, racial discrimination and child labor and advocated for the minimum wage and eight-hour work day. In 1909, Kelley helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and in 1917, filed several briefs in the Supreme Court for workers’ rights. She is still considered one of the early influences on the feminist movement.
Source #1: Excerpt from a speech given by Florence Kelley during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (July 22, 1905)
“We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine, and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania). No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years. Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy. Until the mothers in the great industrial states are enfranchised, we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil. No one in this room tonight can feel free from such participation. The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; knit our stockings; they spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills. They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of school life so that they may work for us. We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women. But we are almost powerless. Not wholly powerless, however, are citizens who enjoy the right of petition. For myself, I shall use this power in every possible way until the right to the ballot is granted, and then I shall continue to use both.”
1. According to Kelley, what are the problems with child labor?
2. Why does Kelley say citizens are “not wholly powerless?” What can they do to help solve this problem?
Ida Tarbellwas one of the most prominent “muckrakers” of the progressive era. A “muckraker” is an investigative journalist who publishes truthful reports involving social issues (crime, political corruption, monopolistic practices and working conditions in industry/agriculture).She developed investigative techniques like looking into public documents and exposing them in the media. Tarbell was personally disturbed by the amount of wealth and corruption in the oil industry; specifically, John Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company. In order to reveal the truth behind Rockefeller’s monopoly, she interviewed hundreds of past employees, published journal reports, studied records, and even went undercover in one of Rockefeller’s oil refining plants. Her book, A History of the Standard Oil Company, was published in 1902 and immediately caused public outrage. This investigative piece caused Presidents Roosevelt & Taft to pass anti-monopoly laws. As a result, Standard Oil was dissolved and broken up into 34 smaller, independent companies.
Source #2: Excerpt from A History of the Standard Oil Company
“The oil men as a class had been brought up to enormous profits, and held an entirely false standard of values. As explained once in a sensible editorial, "their business was born in a balloon going up, and spent all its early years in the sky." They had seen nothing but the extreme of fortune. One hundred per cent per annum on an investment was in their judgment only a fair profit. If their oil property had not paid for itself entirely in six months, and begun to yield a good percentage, they were inclined to think it a failure. They were notoriously extravagant in the management of their business. Rarely did an oil man write a letter if he could help it. He used the telegraph instead. Whole sets of drilling tools were sometimes sent by express. It was no uncommon thing to see near a oilrig broken tools which could easily have been mended, but which the owner had replaced by new ones. It was anything to save bother with him. Frequently wells were abandoned which might have been pumped on a small but sure profit. The simple fact was that the profits which men in trades all over the country were glad enough to get, the oil producers despised.”
3. According to Tarbell, what were the problems with the oil monopoly? Include as many as possible!
Upton Sinclairwas another famous muckraker from the Progressive Era. He fought to expose unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking and food processing industries. In 1904, Sinclair went undercover for seven weeks in a Chicago meatpacking plant and published the findings in his book, The Jungle. The content in this book caused a public uproar that contributed to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act required federal inspection of meat products, labeling of ingredients, and forbade the manufacture, sale or transportation of contaminated food products. This also led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which actively protects and promotes public health through the regulation of food safety, tobacco products, dietary supplements, prescription medicine, vaccines and cosmetics.
Source #3: Excerpt from The Jungle; 1906
“There would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms’ and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, so the packers would put poisoned bread out for them, they would die, and then rats, poisoned bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.”
4. THINKER: What food do you eat regularly? Where does this food come from? Describe the journey your food makes from source to table. What problems, addressed in the Jungle, are illegal today? Do any of these problems still exist? Explain!
America the Story of Us: Cities
This episode from the History Channel series “America the Story of Us” covers all of the problems facing Americans at the turn of the 20th century. These problems formed the foundation of the Progressive Movement. As you watch the video, describe the problem and then explain how it was solved.
Societal Problem / Description (Why? Where? How?) / How was this solved? (Include important people, laws, protests)Lack of sanitation in cities
Crime in cities
Poor living conditions in cities
Lack of fire regulations (work place dangers)