The Progressive Era was a period of social activism and political reform in the United States that spanned from the 1890s to the 1920s. Caused by cultural decline, muckrakers exposing issues, and economic changes from industrialization, progressives fought for reforms addressing issues like corruption, child labor, women's suffrage, and prohibition. Key leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Robert LaFollette. Roosevelt proposed a New Nationalism with trust busting and consumer protections. Wilson advocated a New Freedom through antitrust acts and the Federal Reserve. Women and African Americans also led important reform movements during this era of social change.

1. The Progressive Era
A time of Change

2. Causes of the Progressive Era
• Cultural Decline
– Robber Barrons
– Aristocracy
– Political Corruption
– Moral Devolution
• Muckrakers
– Origin of Term
– Causes of

3. Fathers of Progressivism
• Teddy
Roosevelt
• Woodrow
Wilson
• “Fighting” Bob
LaFollete

4. TR’s New Nationalism
• “I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for
the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair
play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand
for having those rules changed so as to work for a more
substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for
equally good service.”
• “I do not mean that I want a square deal for the man who
remains poor because he has not got the energy to work
for himself.”
• TR now proposed a New Nationalism of dynamic
democracy that would recognize the inevitability of
economic concentration; to counter the power of the giant
corporations, Roosevelt proposed bringing them under
complete federal control, so as to protect the interests of
the laboring man and the consumer.

5. TR’s New Nationalism reforms
• Square Deal for Labor-Coal Strike of 1901
– Doesn’t represent Unions or Owners but the
other group involved (US citizen’s interests)
• Trust Busting (Good v. Bad)
– Sherman Anti-trust
– Northern Securities
• Railroad Regulation (Populism?)
– Elkins Act-ICC can stop RR’s from offering
rebates
– Hepburn Act- ICC can set “fair” rates for RR’s

6. TR’s New Nationalism reforms
• Consumer Protection
– Pure food and drug act, Manufacture,sale and
transportation of adulterated food and drugs
– Meat inspection Act- independent federal inspectors
maintain levels of sanitation
• Conservation
– 150 Million acres of national reserves
– Irrigation projects in west
– Creation of US Forest Service (Gifford Pinchot) and
National Conservation Commission

8. Woodrow Wilson-New freedom
• “The great Government we loved has too often
been made use of for private and selfish
purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the
people.”
• “The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by
solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of
wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often
debauched and made an instrument of evil.”
• “I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all
forward-looking men, to my side. God helping
me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel
and sustain me!”

9. Wilson New Freedom Reforms
• Underwood Tariff-First lowering of
Tariffs since the civil war- Free trade
benefits the people not businesses
• Federal Trade Act-Set up FTC or Federal
Trade Commission to investigate and halt
unfair and illegal business practices. The
FTC could put a halt to these illegal
business practices by issuing what is
known as a "cease and desist order.“

10. 1. Clayton Anti-Trust Act-
1. Declared certain businesses illegal (interlocking
directorates, trusts, horizontal mergers)
2. Unions and the Grange were not subject to antitrust
laws. This made unions legal! Strikes, boycotts,
picketing and the collection of strike benefit funds
ruled legal
2. Federal Reserve System-
1. Federal Reserve Banks in 12 districts would print
and coin money as well as set interest rates. In this
way the "Fed," as it was called, could control the
money supply and effect the value of currency
3. Federal Farm Loan Act set up Farm Loan
Banks to support farmers.

11. Robert M. LaFollette
• Wisconsin, Governor and US Senator
• Wisconsin was the first state to adopt the primary
for nominations for state offices.
• A new law taxed railroads on the value of their
property, ending an inequity
• A railroad commission was created to regulate
rates
• Funding for education was increased.
• A civil-service law was adopted
• This legislation was drafted by political and
social scientists and economists, a feature of the
"Wisconsin Idea."

12. Goals of Progressivism
• Economic Reform
• Moral Reform
• Social
Improvement
• Increased
Production

13. Characteristics of Progressives
• Moralists
• Politically Active
• Protection of the weak
in society
• Never Challenged
Capitalism
• Paternalistic

14. Economic Reform
• Trust Busting
• Working Conditions
– Ages, Wages, and Hours.
• Rise of Socialism
• Laissez Faire theory in decline

15. Child Labor
• In 1910, 2 million
children under the age
of 15 are working for
daily wages.
• Why?

16. National Child Labor Committee
• Used Graphic photos
of Children to sway
popular opinion
• Used teams of
undercover
investigators into
factories
• Supported by Labor
Unions
• Keating Owen Act(3)

17. Hours
• Haymarket Square
Riots (3)
• Muller Vs. Oregon
– Florence Kelley
– Louis Brandeis
– Protection from
industry
– 10 hour work day
• Worker Compensation

18. Increased Production
• Ergonomics
• Fredrick Taylor
– Study of Scientific
Management
– Definition
– Results

19. Henry Ford
• Assembly line, 1913
– Simple Tasks
– Constant speed
– Results
• Increased Production
• High Worker Turn
over
• Ford changes
employee policies

20. Moral Reform
• Prohibition
• Women’s Christian
Temperance
Movement (WCTM)
– Temperance not
Prohibition
– Francis Willard
– Prayer Protest Peace
– Not Just about
Alcohol

21. Moral Reform-Prohibition
• Carrie Nation
– 1st Marriage
– Remarries
– Epiphany to destroy
saloons (3)
– “Hatchetations”
– Results
• Arrests
• Souvenirs
• Newsletters
• Anti-Saloon League

23. Moral Reform-Salvation Army
• Founded by William
Booth in 1865
London , modified in
1880
• Soup Kitchens,
Nurseries
• Encourage Hard work
and Religion
• Missionary goals
• Today?

24. Moral Reform- YMCA
• Young Men’s Christian
Association
– Founded 1844 London to
Fight unhealthy moral
and physical conditions
of I.R.
• Libraries
• Cheap Rooms
• Athletics
– Pools, weights,basketball
• Religious Study Groups

25. Political Reform
• State/Local • Election Reform
– Councils vs. – Australian Ballot
Commissioners
– Reform Politicians – Initiative
• Fightin’ Bob – Referendum
• Toledo’s Samuel – Recall
“Golden Rule”
Jones – Direct Primary
• Charles Evans – 17th Amendment
Hughes

26. Progressive Amendments
• 16th Amend- Income tax
• 17th Amendment-Direct election of Senators “The
Senate of the United States shall be composed of
two Senators from each State, elected by the
people thereof”
• 18th Amendment-Prohibition-”the manufacture,
sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors is
hereby prohibited.”
• 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. “

27. The Progressive Woman
• Women Traditional Role?
– Home?
– Work?
– Political?
• Women’s Modern Role?
– Home?
– Work?
– Political?

28. WOMEN LEAD REFORM
• Many of the leading
progressive reformers
were women
• Middle and upper class
women also entered the
public sphere as
reformers
• Many of these women
had graduated from
new women’s colleges
Colleges like Vassar and Smith
allowed women to excel

29. Women’s
Education
• Traditional education
(3)
• Reforms
• Elizabeth Blackwell
• Maria Mitchell
• Vassar

30. WOMEN AND REFORM
• Women reformers strove to
improve conditions at work
and home
• NAWSA was created to join
women together to fight for
equal rights (voting).. It
excluded black women
• In 1896, black women formed
the National Association of
Colored Women (NACW)
• Suffrage was another
important issue for women

31. Suffrage Reform
• Suffragettes
– Susan B. Anthony
– Eliz. Cady Stanton
– Lucy Stone
– Carrie Catt

32. Suffragettes Stratagies
• Convince State
Legislatures
• Test the 14th
Amendment
• Create a New
National
Amendment

33. Militant Women :(
• Alice Paul, New Jersey
– Mass Picketing, closing
down business districts and
streets
– Hunger strikes
– Parades
– Breaks from Nawsa in
1916 to form National
Women’s Party
– Goal was an ERA

38. Emmeline Pankhurst

39. Blacks in the Progressive era
the challenges
faced by
minorities
during this
period.

40. George Washington Carver – African American who
discovered hundreds of uses for the peanut (including
cosmetics—lipstick). In his traveling classroom, he taught
Alabama farmers about crop rotation.

41. Booker T. Washington – founder of Tuskegee
Institute and whose autobiography Up From
Slavery inspired thousands.
-with his sons

42. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois agreed that
African Americans needed “thrift, patience, and
industrial training.” They disagreed about
segregation—Washington accepted it and Du
Bois rejected it.
Tuskegee
students
building 
their own
classrooms

43. ROOSEVELT AND CIVIL
RIGHTS
• Roosevelt failed to
support Civil Rights for
African Americans
• He did, however,
support a few
individuals such as
Booker T. Washington

44. NAACP FORMED TO PROMOTE
RIGHTS
• In 1908, on Lincoln’s birthday a
number of African Americans
and prominent white reformers
formed the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People
• The NAACP had 6,000 members
by 1914
• The goal of the organization was
full equality among the races
• The means to achieve this was
the court system
• Based on discussions of Niagara
Movement 3 years earlier
1964 Application

45. Great Migration
• To be discussed with WWI

46. WEB DuBois
• in 1903 when DuBois
published his now famous
book, The Souls of Black
Folks. The chapter entitled "Of
Booker T. Washington and
Others" contains an analytical
discourse on the general
philosophy of Washington. • William Edward
DuBois edited the chapter
himself to keep the most Burghardt DuBois
controversial and bitter • By any means
remarks out of it. Nevertheless,
it still was more than enough necessary
to incur Washington's • The Philadelphia
continued contempt for him.
Negro