Chapter 13 Sec.1Progressive Era

What does the word “reform” mean?

To make better

What does the word “progress” mean?

To move forward

A series of reform efforts transformed the American society

between 1890-1920

This period is known as the Progressive Era. Why?Because of the social problems that had resulted

during this time- the poverty of the working class and the filth and crime of the urban society.

A Cry for Reform

Who were the Progressives?

• They were journalists, social workers, educators, politicians, and members of the clergy.

Muckrakers

• Among the first people to articulate Progressive ideas was a group of crusading journalists who investigated social conditions and political corruption-they were called muckrakers. Newspapers started to complete- who could expose the most corruption and scandal.

How were the muckrakers different from Yellow journalist?

Famous Muckrakers

• Ida Tarbell- Standard Oil• “they never played fair”

Muckrakers

• Jacob Riis

• http://youtu.be/EACoIbokOcc

Lincoln Steffens- The Shame of the Cities

• Wrote on corrupt practices of urban political machines

Upton Sinclair

• He wrote a famous book called The Jungle—about the horrors of the meat packing plants in Chicago. Became a best seller and changed the industry.

Progressives worked on Making Government Efficient

• One group of progressives focused on making government more efficient. They believed many problems could be solved by the government if the government worked properly.

To force state legislators to respond to voters, three new reforms were introduced in many states.

• Initiative—allowed citizens to introduce legislation

• Referendum—allowed proposed legislation to to be submitted to the voters for approval

• Recall—allowed voters to demand a special election or remove an elected official from office.

• Direct Election of Senators• 17th amendment –people in the states elected

their own senators.

The Suffrage Movement

• Suffrage—the right to vote• Women suffrage was an important issue for

progressives• Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

and Lucretia Mott worked hard for the right to vote. Finally in 1920, the 19th amendment was added to the constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Anthony and Stanton

• Some focused on the social problems such as crime, literacy, alcohol abuse, health and safety and child labor.

• John Spargo- The Bitter Cry of the Children presented details evidence on child labor conditions.

• http://youtu.be/rDN3X-WORI4

• Work in the coal breakers is exceedingly hard and dangerous. Crouched over the chutes, the boys sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past to the washers. From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men. When a boy has been working for some time and begins to get round-shouldered, his fellows say that “He’s got his boy to carry round wherever he goes.”

• I once stood in a breaker for half an hour and tried to do the work a twelve-year-old boy was doing day after day, for ten hours at a stretch, for sixty cents a day. The gloom of the breaker appalled me. Outside the sun shone brightly, the air was pellucid [clear], and the birds sang in chorus with the trees and the rivers. Within the breaker there was blackness, clouds of deadly dust enfolded everything, the harsh, grinding roar of the machinery and the ceaseless rushing of coal through the chutes filled the ears. I tried to pick out the pieces of slate from the hurrying stream of coal, often missing them; my hands were bruised and cut in a few minutes; I was covered from head to foot with coal dust, and for many hours afterwards I was expectorating some of the small particles of anthracite I had swallowed.

• Many adult workers also worked in dangerous and difficult conditions as well.

• Triangle shirtwaist factory fire• http://youtu.be/UdNYqBP_5q4• http://youtu.be/Pi7XD2AasxY

•

The Ballad of the Dead Girls

• SCARCE had they brought the bodies down • Across the withered floor,• Than Max Rogosky thundered at The District Leader’s door. • Scarce had the white-lipped mothers come • To search the fearful noon,• Than little Max stood shivering • In Tom McTodd’s saloon! • In Tom McTodd’s saloon he stood, • Beside the silver bar, • Where any honest lad may stand, And sell his vote at par. • “Ten years I’ve paid the System’s tax,” The words fell, quivering, raw;• “And now I want the thing I bought— Protection from the law!” • The Leader smiled a twisted smile: “Your doors were locked,” he said.• “You’ve overstepped the limit, Max— A hundred women.… dead!”• Then Max Rogosky gripped the bar And shivered where he stood.• “You listen now to me,” he cried, “Like business fellers should!• • •

• “I’ve paid for all my hundred dead, I’ve paid, I’ve paid, I’ve paid.• ”His ragged laughter rang, and died— For he was sore afraid.• “I’ve paid for wooden hall and stair, I’ve paid to strain my floors, • I’ve paid for rotten fire-escapes, For all my bolted doors. • “Your fat inspectors came and came— I crossed their hands with gold.• And now I want the thing I bought, The thing the System sold.• ” The District Leader filled a glass With whiskey from the bar,• (The little silver counter where He bought men’s souls at par.) • And well he knew that he must give The thing that he had sold,• Else men should doubt the System’s word, Keep back the System’s gold. • The whiskey burned beneath his tongue: “A hundred women dead!• I guess the Boss can fix it up, Go home—and hide,” he said.. . . . . . . .• All day they brought the bodies down From Max Rogosky’s place— • And oh, the fearful touch of flame On hand and breast and face! • All day the white-lipped mothers came To search the sheeted dead;• And Horror strode the blackened walls, Where Death had walked in red. • But Max Rogosky did not weep. (He knew that tears were vain.)• He paid the System’s price, and lived • To lock his doors again.

Prohibition Movement

• Many believed that alcohol was responsible for many of the problems in American society.

• Amendment 18—Prohibition-anning the manufacturing, sale and consumption of alcohol.