PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT (PROGRESSIVISM)

A reform movement born in the last decade of the 1800 and will affect almost every area of American life.  Born out of the discontent due to industrialization and its effects.

A.  Quote:  "Believed in direct control of the government by the people."  Believed more
                   democracy was necessary for this to happen.

B. Some accomplishments of the Progressives:

     IN GOVERNMENT AND DIRECT DEMOCRACY:  Australian (secret) Ballot, Direct Primary,
     Initiative, Referendum, Recall, Popular Election of U.S. Senators, Woman Suffrage, Sixteenth
     Amendment (1913)

     IN GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS:  Hepburn Act-1906, Mann-Elkins Act-1910, Meat
     Inspection Act-1906, Pure Food and Drug Act, Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Act, Keating-Owen
     Law, Prohibition

C.  WHO WERE THE PROGRESSIVES?
      1. Urban movement
      2. Wanted social and political reform in the nation's cities

D. AREAS OF REFORM:  working conditions, discrimination, direct government, better living      
     conditions, weaken power of special interest groups, end to corruption in government, better
     housing, equal rights for women

E.  TYPICAL PROGRESSIVES:  Middle class, White, Protestant, Near middle age, democrats and 
      republicans

F.  MUCKRAKERS:   group of journalists and novelists who aided the progressive movement by
     exposing corruption in politics and in the business world and who helped to energize public
     demands for reform. 

G.  SOME MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, ARTICLES,  AND INDIVIDUALS WHO WOULD
      HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED AS  
      MUCKRAKERS
      1. "McClure's Magazine", "Cosmopolitan", "New York World"
      2. Lincoln Steffens:  The Shame of the Cities--dealt with corruption in city governments
      3. Ida Tarbell:  "History of the Standard Oil Company"
      The next 3 deal with social injustices:
      4. John Spargo:  The Bitter Cry of the Children--dealt with abuses in child labor
      5. Bessie and Marie Van Vorst:  The Woman Who Toils--life of poor working women
      6. Ray Stannard Baker:  Following the Color Line--attacked lynching and mob violence
          against blacks in the North and South
      7. Upton Sinclair:  The Jungle--deals with the plight of the immigrant worker in the meat-packing
          industry.
      8. Frank Norris:  The Octopus--railroad abuses
      9. Jack London:  The Iron Heel, The War of the Classes--abuses of industrial capitalism
     10.Theodore Dreiser:  The Financier

H.  NEW TYPES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT RESULTING FROM THE PROGESSIVE MOVEMENT

• Commission System:  elected officials, each in charge of a single department of city government
• City-manager system:  a city hires a professional administrator to head its government

I.  STATE GOVERNMENT REFORMS

• Initiative:  voters in a state can initiate or propose bills that the state legislature will have to consider
• Referendum:  required state legislatures to refer certain bills to the voters for approval when a certain number of people signed a petition in favor or a specific pied of legislation.
• Recall;  the people could remove public officials who abused the public trust.  After a petition was signed by a percentage of the voters then an election was held.

I.  VOTING REFORMS RESULTING FROM PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT

• Direct Primary Elections: elections held prior to a general election in which voters from each party choose the people who will run as their party's candidates in the general election
• Direct Election of Senators:  the people themselves elect their senators  rather than the state legislatures electing the U.S. senators. (17th Amendment)
• Secret Ballot:  voting secretly

J.   ROBERT LaFOLLETTE:  Strong progressive governor of Wisconsin;  responsible for many 
      reforms known as the WISCONSIN IDEA.  He led the progressive movement at the STATE LEVEL.

• Wisconsin known as the "laboratory of reform."
• OTHER reform governors and reform efforts
• Hiram Johnson, governor or California; took on the Southern Pacific Railroad and its influence in California politics.
• Charles Evans Hughes:  reform governor of New York.
• In other states, secured the enactment of safety and sanitation codes for industry and stopped youth from working in certain jobs;  responsible for laws that set maximum hours and minimum wages.

K.  WOMEN'S MOVEMENT results in the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in state and national elections;  ratified in 1920. 

• Carrie Chapman Catt founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900.
• By 1910,  nine states in the West had granted women the right to vote in state elections.
• The Progressive Party, founded in 1912, made women's suffrage a part of its platform.
• Emma Goldman:  Russian Jewish immigrant; worked for sexual liberation for women;  deported in 1919.
• Margaret Sanger:  advocated birth control
• Charlotte Gilman:  fought for a woman's right to work outside the home.

L.  NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP):  created in 1909

• When progressives spoke of equality, it was not speaking of equality for African-Americans. 
• Some progressive did work for and end to discrimination as some white progressives did join the NIAGARA MOVEMENT in 1910 and helped to form the NAACP.  Its purpose was to end SEGREGATION, GUARANTEEING EQUAL EDUCATION, AND GIVING THE RIGHT TO VOTE TO ALL AFRICAN-AMERCANS. 
• Many African Americans moved to the north to escape southern discrimination during this period.
• BOOKER T. WASHINGTON and W.E.B. DuBOIS were the leading voices to end discrimination.  The two men did not agree on the approach that should be taken to achieve equality.
• Washington's approach was known as the ATLANTA COMPROMISE.  He emphasized that African Americans should  focus on developing vocational skill rather than push for political power and social equality.  He believed these areas would be achieved once African Americans became strong economically.  DuBois disagreed with this approach.

M. RADICAL GROUPS OF THE PERIOD

• SOCIALIST PARTY:  Socialists did not like capitalism and wanted public ownership of industry.  Divisions within the socialist movement prevented them from becoming powerful.
• IWW (International Workers of the World) also called "Wobblies.": 
• Most radical of the radical groups
• Founded in Chicago when radical unionists and political leaders joined forces
• Led by William Haygood, also known as "Big Bill" Haygood. 
• Wanted a utopian state
• Advocated class warfare, revolution, worker control of industry
• Membership at its height was 100,000
• Had little influence