Here are the key points from the documentary: 1. Mill owners in Massachusetts resisted the new rules about a shorter work week and lower wages. They threatened to fire any workers who joined unions or went on strike. 2. The labor strike was an appropriate response by the unions. The mill workers, including children, were being overworked and underpaid in dangerous conditions. A strike was really the only way for them to advocate for safer working conditions and fair treatment. It helped draw attention to their poor treatment and push for labor reforms to improve their lives and working conditions.

1. 1890 - 1920

2. Progressivism
Main Idea:
 Political, economic, and
social change in late 19th
century America led to broad
Progressive reforms.
Why It Matters Now:
 Progressive reforms in areas
such as labor and voting
rights reinforced democratic
principles that continue to
exist today.

3.  Identify the four goals of the progressive movement.
 Provide examples of each of the 4 goals.
 Evaluate how the reform improves the lives of ordinary
Americans.
 At the dawn of the new century, middle class
reformers addressed many of the problems that
contributed to the social upheavals of the 1890’s.
During the Progressive era, reformists sought to
improve various aspects of society. Evaluate whether or
not the progressive reforms improved the lives of
ordinary Americans.

4. Camella Teoli -A Child On Strike
 What are some societal
problems included in the
video?

5. What are problems in society today?
 On your own create a list of as
many problems as you can
possibly think of that society
faces today?
 Share your list with a partner.
 Make a class list of problems.
 Organize problems together
and create categories for each
group of problems.
 Are any of your problems
similar to problems during
the Progressive Era?

6. • Big business ruled America at this
time.
• Labor unions were just beginning
to form.
• Belief that morality was key to
improving lives of the poor.
• Women not yet having voting
rights.

7. Reform Progressivism
The process of making Political attitude favoring
changes to changes or reform through
social, moral, economic, or governmental actions.
political institutions or
practice in order to What are some examples
change/improve it. of governmental actions?
What are some examples
of reforms? Minimum wage, child labor
SADD, MADD, laws, unemployment
compensation, workmen’s
compensation, drinking age,

8. 1) Social welfare- protecting the health and well being
of individuals in society or the society itself.
2) Moral improvement-improving one’s personal
behavior for the betterment of society.
3) Economic Reform -changing the way in which the
U.S. produces, distributes, and consumes goods and
services.
4) Political Reform- making government more
responsive to voters and ending political corruption.

9. Poverty as Effect of Industrialization
Social Gospel and settlement houses – helping the
poor through community centers, churches and social
services (example: Hull House, founded by Jane
Addams)
YMCA – libraries, classes, swimming pools and
handball courts
Salvation Army – soup kitchens, took care of children
in nurseries, sent “slum brigades” to educate poor
immigrants in middle class values of hard work
and temperance

11. What do the
children appear
to be doing?
Where might
this be?
How does a
YMCA improve
the lives of
ordinary
Americans?
YMCA improves
the health and
well being of
individuals in
society.

12. What do you
see in the
photo?
What might
this be?
How do
Salvation
Armies help
improve the
lives of
Salvation Army provides free or low cost
individuals in clothing for individuals or families in
society? need.

13. Unregulated Businesses (employers felt little
responsibility toward their workers)
“Why are seals, bears, reindeer, fish
wild game in the national parks,
buffalo, and migratory birds all found
suitable for federal protection, but not
children?”
-Florence Kelly (1859 – 1932)
Helped win a passage of the Illinois
Factory Act of 1893 prohibiting child labor
and limited women’s working hours

14. Temperance Movement leads to Prohibition
The goal of the movement was to promote morality and
improve the lives of the poor.
Temperance refraining from alcohol consumption
Prohibition the prevention by law of the
manufacture and sale of alcohol, esp. in
the U.S. between 1920 and 1933

15. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Urged saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol, and by 1911,
it became the largest women’s group
“Do everything” slogan (children, prison inmates,
insane asylums, and women’s causes)
Anti- Saloon League
Battled “Demon Rum” among other evils
Worked to pass laws and force people to change
Successful alcohol ban in many states

16. Where is the woman in the cartoon located? How can you tell?
What does she have in her hand?
What does she appear to be doing?
Wh0 is she & what social reform movement is she associated with?

17. Carry Nation
Worked for prohibition
by walking into
saloons, scolding
customers, and
destroying bottles of
liquor with a hatchet.

18. What specific reasons did WCTU and the
Anti-Saloon League have for advocating a
ban on alcohol?

19. Do you think prohibition was effective? Why or why not?
Alcohol Prohibition, 18th Amendment Video
• Many immigrants reacted against Prohibition
• Claimed alcohol an integrated part of their culture
and customs
• Saloons provided other services like cashing
paychecks and serving food.

20. Did America need economic reform?
“Competition was natural enough at one time, but do
you think you are competing today? Many of you
think you are competing. Against whom? Against [oil
magnate John D.] Rockefeller? About as I would if I
had a wheelbarrow and competed with the Santa Fe
[railroad] from here to Kansas City.”
- Eugene Debs (His Life, Writings, and Speeches)

21.  The Panic of 1893 caused many to question their
capitalist economic system
 Many workers embraced socialism (Eugene V. Debs,
became a prominent socialist supporter)
Capitalism an economic and political system in which a country's
trade and industry are controlled by private owners for
profit, rather than by the state.
Socialism a political and economic theory in which the
government controls the means of production,
distribution, and exchange

22. Who exposed corrupt business practices?
Muckrakers:
Journalists uncovered the corrupt side of business and
public life by writing detailed and sometimes
sensationalized exposes in magazines.
Examples: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and History of
the Standard Oil Company by Ida M. Tarbell
Whom can we consider muckrakers of today?

23. Use of experts and
scientific principles to How quickly could a
make society and task be completed?
workplace more efficient
Scientific Management
Studies or “Taylorism”
Named after Frederick
Winslow Taylor
Using time and motion
studies to improve
efficiency

24. Manufacturing tasks were
broken
into smaller simpler parts
(assembly lines)
Many workers called for
reforms due to
continued fatigue and
Injury
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI
I Love Lucy Chocolate Factory

25.  Louis Brandeis, an attorney
worked on social progressive
reforms
 Focused on information
produced by social scientists
documenting the high costs of
long hours for the individual and
Louis Brandeis
society
 Successfully argued Muller v.
Oregon that women required
protection against powerful
employers (women couldn’t work
more then 10 hours a day)

26. Political Reform
Why reform local government?
1. Desire to make government more efficient and
responsive to citizens
2. Some Americans wanted to limit immigrants
influence in local governments (eliminate corrupt
political machines)

27. Natural Disasters
Played a role in prompting
reform
In 1900 - hurricane in
Galveston, TX (appointed
commission of 5 men to
take over rebuilding)
In 1913 - flood in Dayton,
OH (adoption of the
council-manager form of
government)

28. Man Made Disaster
The
Triangle
Shirtwaist
Factory
Fire
New York,
on March
25, 1911
Video clip
from New
York
Documen
tary

29. Political Reform
Robert La Follette, WI
governor (“Fighting Bob”)
Targeted railroad industry
Set up commission to
regulate rates
Forbade railroads to issue
free passes to state officials

30. Political Reform
 Secret Ballot (Australian ballot)
 Initiative – a bill originated by the people to create
laws. Citizens can petition their government to place
an initiative.
 Referendum – method of accepting or rejecting the
initiative. A vote on the initiative.
 Recall – Enabled voters to remove public officials from
office before the end of the term by forcing them to
face another election before the term if enough voters
ask for it.

31. Political Reform
Seventeenth Amendment
Amendment to the Constitution allowing for the direct
election of U.S. senators by the people
Before this, each state’s legislature chose the senators
which put even more power in the hands of wealthy
bosses and heads of corporation
American citizens had more of a voice in electing their
government officials and creating laws

32. Child labor
Businesses opted to hire
children due to their small
hands
Immigrant families saw
children as a part of the
family workforce
Harsh conditions and low
wages for child laborers
(serious health problems
and stunted growth)

33. National Child Labor Committee (1904)
Sent investigators to gather evidence of harsh
conditions
New evidence available and public support of labor
unions
Keating-Owen Act of 1916 stated that goods made
through child labor were no longer allowed across state
borders

34. Limiting Working Hours
Muller v. Oregon (1908): argued for the plight of poor
working women. Women were then limited to a 10-hr
workday
Bunting v. Oregon (1917): upheld a 10-hr workday for
men
Progressives also won workers’ compensation to aid
families who suffered and work- related injury or death

35. American Stories
A Child On Strike
A Testimony of Camella Teoli, Mill Girl
Answer the following:
1.How did mill owners in Massachusetts react to the
new rules about shorter work week?
2.Do you think the labor strike that followed was
the appropriate response by labor unions? Why or
why not?