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early 1900s; wanted to improve conditions in America: socially, politically, economically; civil rights for African Americans/women, safety in the workplace, better labeling of food and drink, child labor, workman's compensation, conservation of natural resources

Progressives targets were?

Social, economical, political and cultural problems, corruption, monopolies and social injustice.

What are the characteristics of the progressives?

The progressive army was large,diverse, and widely deployed, but it had a single battle cry; "Strengthen the State."

How did the progressives want to use the government?

As an agency of human welfare.

Progressives wanted to change?

The conditions of the industrial life.

Progressives believed?

In progress. They believed that people were capable of recognizing problems and solving them.

Progressive change

Evangelical Protestantism, natural and social sciences to change environment to change the people.

Progressive roots

grew out of Populist; centered in urban cities. Insisted that society could no longer afford the luxury of a limit-less "let-alone" ( laissez-faire.) policy.

What are the targets of the progressive roots?

Bloated trust, corruption and wrong doing.

Progressivism was?

widespread, it touched the entire nation.

Jacob A. Riis


Social Gospel


Progressive feminists

added social justice to suffrage on their lists of needed reforms.


writer or journalist of the early 1900s who uncovered shameful conditions in business and other areas of American life. Like an investigative reporter.

Lincoln Steffen

United States journalist who exposes in 1906 started an era of muckraking journalism (1866-1936), Writing for McClure's Magazine, he criticized the trend of urbanization with a series of articles under the title Shame of the Cities.

Ida M. Tarbell

journalist who published a devastating but factual expose of the Standard Oil Company

David G Phillips

Wrote a series in Cosmopolitan titled "The Treason of the Senate" which boldly charged that 75 of the 90 senators represented the railroads and trusts, not the people. His indictment impressed President Roosevelt. He continued his writing until he was killed in 1911.

Muckracker exploitation

Some of the most effective fire of muckrakers was directed at social evils.The ugly list included the immoral "white slave" traffic in women , the rickety slums, and the appalling number of industrial accidents.

Why did muckrakers criticize patents medicines?

They contained liquor and habit forming medicines, and "doped" the press with lavish advertisement.

What did muckrakers signify with the progressive reform movement?

To right social wrongs, they relied on public out cry to expose the corruptions. They sought not to overthrow capitalism but to cleanse it.

Progressive reformers included militarists such as?

Theodore Roosevelt and Jane Addams.

Political Progressivism appealed to?

To everyone, they believe in the ability to make the world a better place.

Progressive political reforms wanted?

They wanted direct primary elections.


Procedures available in some states for citizens to put proposed laws and constitutional amendment on the ballot for voter approval or rejection



Australian ballot

A government printed ballot of uniform size and shape to be cast in secret that was adopted by many states around 1890 in order to reduce the voting fraud associated with party printed ballots cast in public.

17th Amendment

Direct election of senators

Progressivism in the cities and states

In 1901 it had appointed expert-staffed commissions to manage urban affairs.

Urban reform

movement to encourage city planning to include better housing, develop more park land and improve public transportation

Progressive urban reform

Born during the depression of the 1890's, it attacked "slumlords", juvenile delinquency and attacking prostitution. It reorganized the election.

Progressive regulation

Tax codes were updated to be more equable to not favor big businesses

Progressive civil service

The election process was brought under scrutiny and trained civil servants came in and the civil service developed to oversee these operations. The goal was efficiency and results. Reorganized the municipal governments and gave them control of the utility regulations. oversee these operations. The goal was efficiency and results. Reorganized the municipal governments and gave them control of the utility regulations.

Progressive Regulatory commision

Municipal departments to run things. They hired engineers to oversee the utilities and the water services. They hired Dr. and nurses to improve city health and health management. City planners came in to develop parks and highway development.

Progressive State Reform

State laws increasingly regulated the labor laws of women and children, state laws looked at rail roads and utilities, they looked at corporate and inheritance taxes. Mental and penal institutions. Looked at funding for state university's.

Robert La Follette and the Wisconsin Idea

Robert La Follette is governor of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Idea is the most comprehensive state reform.

Civil service, anti-corruption measures, state-income tax.

State reform from the Progressive Era.

Progressive women

Women played a large role in the progressive movement and the push for social justice. Women were middle-class and well educated . Society would not let them work. Some of them became settlement house workers., 19th century notion of "separate spheres" and notion that the women's place = the home

female progressives defended political activism; political activism was not in a separate sphere, it was just an extension of their traditional roles in the home and as wives and mothers

took up reform attempts that reinforced genders norms (ex: the caretaker)

campaigned against chid labor, liquor, sanitation, etc

Settlement Houses


Women's organizations

Numerous woman's organizations encouraged the progressive movement. An example of a woman's club broadening its scope to become part of the social justice movement is the General Federation of Womens Clubs, who met for coffee and book talk. They began to look closely at the conditions around them and started to support things like women and children workers. They became involved in the workers movements. Also pushed to improve schools, improve food safety standards and beautify the community.

Women's trade union league


Children's bureau

investigated and publicized problems with child labor

Muller v. Oregon

The national consumers league brought pressure for laws of safeguarding women and children in the work place. In the landmark Supreme Court case Muller v Oregon, the supreme court accepted the constitutionality of laws protecting women workers. These special protection of women were challenged in Muller v. Oregon. The supreme court did find in favor of the laws protecting women.

Florence Kelley

An advocate for improving the lives of women and children. (Social Welfare). She was appointed the first chief inspector of factories in Illinois. She helped win passage of the Illinois factory act in 1893 which prohibited child labor and limited women's working hours.

Triangle shirtwaist company fire


Worker's compensation

In 1917 30 states had put worker's comp. laws on the books , providing insurance to workers injured in industrial accidents.

WCTU prohibition

Women's Christian Temperance Union.Frances E Willard founded, believe in temperance which was no alcohol.

18th Amendment

Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages

Mann Act

1910, gave the interstate commerce commission the power to suspend new railroad rates, along with oversee telephone and cable companies; included communications

Theodore Roosevelt's square deal for labor

He feared that the " public interest " was being submerged in the drifting seas of indifference,

United Mine Workers strike

Strike in PA that TR realized would make people run out of coal resulting in a loss of heat. So, he threatened to send troops to work the mines unless the owners agreed to negotiate. This is called collective bargaining.

White House Conference

Roosevelt summoned representatives of the striking miners and mine owners to the white house.

Department of commerce and labor

TR est. this dept armed with the Bureau of Corporations meant to probe businesses engaged in interstate commerce and clearing the road for trust-busting era

Elkins Act of 1903

law that prohibited railroad rebates and punished those who accepted them

Hepburn act of 1906

this act stated that free passes, with a hint of bribery were severely restricted, this expanded the ICC which was extended to include express companies, sleeping car companies, and pipelines

Threat of an anti-trust action

Roosevelt as a trust buster first burst into the headlines in 1902 with an attack on the northern securities company, a railroad holding company organized by the financial titan JP Morgan and empire builder James Hill.They sought to achieve a virtual monopoly of the railroads in the north west.

Upton Sinclair


Meat inspection act of 1906

Passed in 1906 largely in reaction to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the law set strict standards of cleanliness in the meatpacking industry

Pure food and drug act


Desert land act of 1877

earth conservation act: government sold arid land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser irrigate the soil within three years

Roosevelt's conservation

He believed in conserving the environment as well as protecting it by "providing a barrier of federal regulation and protection."

Newlands act of 1902

authorized Washington to collect money from the sale of public lands in the Western states, using funds for the development of irrigation projects

hetch hetchy valley

The federal government allowed the city of San Francisco to build a dam here in 1913. This was a blow to preservationists, who wished to protect the Yosemite National Park, where the dam was located. (720)

Economic setback in 1907 "Roosevelt's panic"

Roosevelt suffered a sharp set back in 1907 when a short but punishing panic descended on Wall Street . The financial flurry featured frightened "runs" on banks, suicides and criminal indictments against specualtors.

Fiscal Reforms

The panice of 1907 paved the way for long-overdue ____ (financial) ____.

Aldrich-Vreeland Act

it authorized national banks to issue emergency currency, was the precursor of the Federal Reserve Act

Roosevelt's Legacy

regulated business and industry, conserved resources, favored vigorous foreign policy, conservation, panama canal

Election of 1908



Teddy Roosevelt/republican vs. Alton V. Parker/democrat vs. Eugene V. Debs/socialist= Roosevelt wins

William Howard Taft


Dollar diplomacy

President Taft's policy of linking American business interests to diplomatic interests abroad

American money in the Caribbean

Washington urged Wall Street bankers to pump dollars into the financial vacuums in Honduras and Haiti to keep out foreign funds.

American military following American $$

Sporadic disorders in palm-fronded Cuba, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic brought American forces to these countries to restore order and protect American investments.

Taft the trustbuster

Taft brought 90 lawsuits against the trusts during his 4 years in office as opposed to Roosevelt who brought just 44 suits in 7 years.In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company, stating that it violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. Also in 1911, the Courts handed down its "rule of reason"; a doctrine that stated that only those trusts that unreasonably restrained trade were illegal.

Standard oil in 1911


US steel in 1911

Taft decided to press an anti-trust suit against the the U.S, Corporation.

Payne-Aldrich Bill

bill placed on high tariffs on many imports (Taft betrayed the promise of his campaign to lower tariffs)

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