Progressive Era

Progressive Era

1. The Progressive movement was a political and social-reform movement that brought major changes to the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

   • Causes of the Progressive Era
     • The Progressive movement began with a domestic agenda. Progressives were interested in establishing a more transparent and accountable government which would work to improve U.S. society. The major goals of the progressives were to promote the ides of morality, economic reform , efficiency and social welfare. The Progressives had many different methods and ideas on how to solve social problems.
       • Working Conditions
         • Factory workers, many of them recent immigrants, were frequently subjected to brutal and perilous working and living conditions. Political corruption enriched politicians at the expense of the lower and working classes, who struggled to make ends meet. The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” was widening. 1progressive reformers sought to regulate private industry, strengthen protections for workers and consumers, expose corruption in both government and big business, and generally improve society. Purification to eliminate waste and corruption was a powerful element, as was the Progressives' support of worker compensation, improved child labor laws, minimum wage legislation, limited work hours, graduated income tax, and women's suffrage.
           • Big Buisness
             • The major growth industry was automobile manufacturing. Americans fell in love with the automobile, which radically changed their way of life. On the other hand, the 1920s saw the decline of many reform activities that had been so widespread after 1900.
               • Racial Discrimination
                 • During the Progressive Era, racism affected many aspects of American society. Particularly in the South, Jim Crow (racial segregation laws) were a way of life, thanks to the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 'separate but equal' ruling, which allowed segregation to flourish. Racial tension was not limited to the South. In an attempt to seek economic opportunity and escape the poverty of sharecropping and tenant farming, some Blacks began moving north. As a result, the North experienced growing racial tensions as African Americans competed for jobs, leading to increased social instability. African Americans were paid low wages and were often not allowed to join labor unions.
                   • Theodore Roosevelt Sherman Antitrust
                     • Politicians and government officials. President Theodore Roosevelt was a leader of the Progressive movement, and he championed his "Square Deal" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. These legislative successes improved life for Americans, and the process by which Roosevelt campaigned stretched the powers of the presidency, re-writing the role of the goverment in everyday life.
                       • Reformers, called Progressives, demanded that states pass antitrust laws to make cartels and monopolistic practices illegal and to regulate railroad rates. In 1890, Congress passed the first federal antitrust law, the Sherman Act. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is a federal statute which prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace.
                         • Hull House
                           • Hull House became a central gathering place and allowed reformer Jane Addams to help many immigrants in its Chicago neighborhood. Founded in 1889, Hull House soon became internationally famous as a pioneering venture in social reform and a model of how familiarity might moderate the rampant social divisions of the era.
                             • NAACP
                               • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), interracial American organization created to work for the abolition of segregation and discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and transportation; to oppose racism; and to ensure African Americans their constitutional rights.
                                 • Jane Addams and Jacob Riis
                                   • With what they've done during the Progressive Era, Jane Addams and Jacob Riis made a key point in empathizing the needs for more jobs for immigrants and shelters for the less fortunate. Jane was instrumental in successfully lobbying for the establishment of a juvenile court system, better urban sanitation and factory laws, protective labor legislation for women, and more playgrounds and kindergartens throughout Chicago. Jacob Riis helped launch the Progressive Era. ... Riis thought that if given the chance, people could overcome poverty, as he had. Riis called for proper lighting and sanitation in the city's lower-class housing. He asked citizens from the upper and middle classes help the poor.
   • Goals of the Progressice Era
     • 1. Protecting social welfare - Reducing the impact of the harsh conditions brought about by industrialization 2. Valuing and protecting human life and well being.
       • 2. Economic Reform- Changing the uneven balance of wealth between big business, government and ordinary people under capitalism
         • 3. Economic efficiency - Use scientific principles to make society and the workplace more efficient
           • 4. Promoting Moral Improvement- . Improving the lives of the poor by improving their personal behavior
             • Evironmentalisim
               • Conservation of the nation's resources, putting an end to wasteful uses of raw materials, and the reclamation of large areas of neglected land have been identified as some of the major achievements of the Roosevelt era. The Progressives’ commitment to the provision of public services at the municipal level meant more coordination and oversight in matters of public health, waste management, even playgrounds and city parks. Their work focused on the intersection of communities and their material environments, highlighting the urgency of urban environmental concerns.
                 • Women's Rights
                   • In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women joined national organizations in great numbers. The rise of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, and National Association of Colored Women grew as part of this trend. Women became leaders in a range of social and political movements from 1890 through 1920. This period is known as the Progressive Era. Progressive reformers wanted to end political corruption, improve the lives of individuals, and increase government intervention to protect citizens.
                     • Clayton Antitrust Act
                       • The Clayton Antitrust Act was a federal law passed during the era of the Progressive Movement to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies. ... the Act was an "antitrust law" described as "An Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies".
                         • Meat Inspection Act
                           • The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was a piece of U.S. legislation, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906, that prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured sanitary slaughtering and processing of livestock.
                             • Pure Food and Drug Act
                               • The original Food and Drugs Act is passed by Congress on June 30 and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. It prohibits interstate commerce in misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks and drugs. Although Congress began investigating drug purity in the 1840s, it was during the Progressive Era that it approved the first federal regulations protecting consumers’ health and safety
                                 • 19th Admendment
                                   • The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote, is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The women's suffrage movement was founded in the mid-19th century by women who had become politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements. The 19th Amendment was the last amendment passed during the Progressive Era and gave women the right to vote. The women's suffrage movement got its start in the 1840s with the Seneca Falls Convention led by suffragists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
                                     • Woodrow Wilson Act
                                       • Woodrow Wilson claimed his place within the Progressive movement with his economic reform package, "the New Freedom." This agenda, which passed congress at the end of 1913, included tariff, banking, and labor reforms and introduced the income tax.
   • The early 20th century was an era of business expansion and progressive reform in the United States. The progressives, as they called themselves, worked to make American society a better and safer place in which to live. They tried to make big business more responsible through regulations of various kinds.
     • The leaders of the Progressive Era worked on a range of overlapping issues that characterized the time, including labor rights, women's suffrage, economic reform, environmental protections, and the welfare of the poor, including poor immigrants.