The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era

1. Immigrant living conditions : Most immigrants came from non-speaking English countries : Italy, Poland and Russia.Most immigrants come to America for a better life, but he paces were they stayed was overcrowded, unsanitary and housing was unsafe. At least 18 people lived in to same housing. The progressive movement was a positive step for the immigrants, this allowed them to work in factories and the working conditions in the factories started to get better over time.

   • Working Conditions: The working conditions were unsafe and unhealthy but also wages were terrible. A lot of people died and got sick be cause of the unhelthy condisions while working. Most unions have to use strike to help increase wages and make working conditions better.

2. Environmentalism: concern about and action aimed at protecting the environment. Land speculators and developers took over large tracts of forests and grazing land. Acreage important to waterpower was seized by private concerns. Mining companies practiced improper and wasteful mining practices.

   • Big Business: Big business monopolies were suppressing the potentials for completion. Also companies controlled entire industries and could exploit labors and consumers. The federal government failed to combat the issues. There were many goals set in play, regulate large corporations to prevent monopolies, ensure competition and free enterprise, also to establish and enforce antitrust laws.
     • Meat Inspection Act: is an American law that makes it a crime to adulterate or misbrand meat and meat products being sold as food, and ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions.
     • Pure Food and Drug Act: For preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes.
     • Theodore Roosevelt: Known for his anti-monopoly policies and ecological conservationism, Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in ending the Russo-Japanese War.
       • National Wildlife Refuge: Founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903. It was created to protect egrets and other birds from extinction through plume hunting.
         • John Muir: known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America
         • Gifford Pinchot: Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until his firing in 1910, and was the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania. Reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal.

3. Racial Discrimination

   • NAACP: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Moorfield Storey.
   • Women's rights: During the late 1800's and early 1900's, women organizations not only worked but gained the right to vote, they also worked for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms. Between 1880 and 1910, the number of women employed in the United States increased from 2.6 million to 7.8 million. It took around 70 years for women to have rights.
     • National American Suffrage Association: organization formed on February 18, 1890 to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association.
     • Alice Paul: vocal leader of the twentieth century women’s suffrage movement, Alice Paul advocated for and helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote.
       • 19th amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

4. Clayton Antitrust Act:was a part of United States antitrust law with the goal of adding further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime; the Clayton Act sought to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. It expanded and strengthened the provisions of the earlier Sherman Act, allowing the government to more effectively restrict harmful business practices.

   • Sherman Antitrust Act:a federal statute which prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace. The Sherman Act was amended by the Clayton Act in 1914.

5. Hull House: offered healthcare, education, recreation, and childcare services to recent European immigrants that were living in extreme poverty. The Hull House was a community house located in the United States and was founded in 1889.

   • Jane Addams: known as the "mother" of social work, was a pioneer American settlement activist. Known prominently for her work as a social reformer, pacifist and feminist during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
   • Woodrow Wilson: Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. ... The Federal Reserve Act still provides the framework for regulating the nation's banks, credit, and money supply even today.
   • Booker T. Washington: American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. African-American leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founding the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Tuskegee University.
     • Tuskegee Institute: a charter from the Alabama legislature for the purpose of training teachers in Alabama. Tuskegee's program provided students with both academic and vocational training.
   • President
     • William Howard Taft: fulfilled a lifelong dream when he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, becoming the only person to have served as both a U.S. chief justice and president.

6. Muckrakers

   • Upton Sinclair: involvement with socialism led to a writing assignment about the plight of workers in the meatpacking industry, eventually resulting in the best-selling novel The Jungle.
   • Jacob Riis: He educated people on issues that immigrants faced when they came to this country. It is hard to say that Riis in particular had any social impact. However, Riis and others like him certainly had an impact on their time.