The Gilded Age leads

to the Progressive Era

After the War

• How do you think the goals of the nation will change after Reconstruction?

• What innovations or developments are created during the late 1800’s?

• What does the term, “Necessity is the mother of invention,”mean?

We Want More • Once we are able to focus past

repairing a broken nation, our attention is brought to innovation

• Developments such as the telegraph, which was used during the Civil War, revolutionized communications.

• Electricity makes advancements and a race to innovate begins…

The Rise of the American Business • Innovations, combined with increased

transportation means allows for a rapid spread of ideas

• Transcontinental Railroad opened new markets in the West, adding to the value of the industry in the North

• Bessemer Process – made the process of making steel much faster – at one point steel was more expensive than gold! Until now…

• Mass production begins and America will never be the same!

The More Capital ($) the Better

• Corporations begin to grow – stock can be bought in a company. Now everyday people can own small parts of companies. ▫ How can you make more money? Block out or buy all competition, then you can raise your prices

because there is no one else to supply the demand – MONOPOLY

▫ Conglomerates allow companies to merge so that they can own many different types of business under one name

▫ Pools look to set a cap on pricing. It is an agreement between many companies so that they could divide business. This is a way to remove other competition.

▫ Trusts brings companies under the advisement of a board of trustees who make decisions for the company. This would later become illegal

Entrepreneurs

Those Willing to take the risk • Andrew Carnegie –

▫ sought to control the steel industry ▫ Sold his company in 1901 for ¼ of a billion dollars.

• John D. Rockefeller – ▫ Created the Standard Oil Company and controlled over 90% of the oil

industry – formed a trust to limit competition • J. Pierpont Morgan –

▫ Created his business by giving loans to young, growing businesses ▫ Bought failing railroads, reorganized them and made a profit. Acted

similarly with electrical, insurance and shipping companied ▫ Bought Carnegie Steel and created the largest steel company in the

world – United States Steel Corporation • Henry Ford –

▫ Created the Assembly line, which changed the line of production ▫ Increased productivity, while there are decreasing costs.

What is wrong with all this wealth?

• What are some of the great accomplishments that come out of the Gilded Age?

• Why might an age of Progress or the Progressive Era, of the people come out of this “Gilded Age”?

Was it Justified? • Although some of our greatest innovations come out of

this time, is it justified at the human expenses it cost?

Origins of Progressivism

• As America entered the 20th century, middle class reformers at the municipal, state, and national levels addressed the problems of the Gilded Age, including:

▫ Economic inequities

▫ Environmental issues

▫ Social welfare

▫ Working conditions

▫ Rights for women and children

Four Goals of Reformers

1. Protect social welfare

2. Promote moral development

3. Secure economic reform

4. Foster efficiency

The Melting Pot –

A Nation of Immigrants • Old Immigration

▫ Potato Famine

▫ Came from Ireland, Scandinavia and Germany

▫ Helped to build railroads, factories and create new farming techniques

▫ Natives built up a strong resentment towards Jews and Catholics because they were viewed as competition

• New Immigration

▫ Came for opportunities – economic and religious

▫ Polish, Italian and Russian, as well as Chinese and Japanese

▫ Lived in ghettos - urban areas that are dominated by a single ethnic group.

▫ Frequently discriminated against

Protect Social

Welfare

• Unregulated – owners felt little responsibility towards their workers

• Settlement houses and churches became a meeting place for reform

Salvation Army Shelter

Promote Moral Development

• Societal ills could be blamed on personal behavior – change the behavior = change society • More family time

• Less disease

• Less suffering

• Temperance movement refers to removing alcohol from society • Woman’s Christian

Temperance Union (WCTU)

Secure Economic Reform

• Some people began to question capitalism

• Socialist ideas are spread by Eugene Debs – American Socialist Party (1901)

Debs encouraged workers to reject

American capitalism

Muckrakers Criticize Big Business

• Saw the flaws of Capitalism and its practices • Meatpacking, canning,

manufacturing, tenements, etc.

• Investigative journalists expose the corruption in both business and government

• Create reform through exposure • Jacob Riis - “How the Other

Half Lives” • Ida Tarbell – Expose on

Standard Oils elimination of competition

• Upton Sinclair – “The Jungle” • Frank Norris – “The Octopus”

Cleaning Up Local Government

• Reform stemmed from a need for officials to respond to the needs of the public, rather than the needs of those who could benefit them.

• When politicians advocated for the rights of new immigrants, the immigrants were expected to support the party in return. ▫ Some saw this as corruption ▫ Tried to limit the powers of

the immigrants

Is the government helping the people

or big business? • Lochner vs. New York

▫ Supreme Court ruling that limited bakers’ hours was unconstitutional because it interfered with the contract between employer and employee

• Muller vs. Oregon

▫ Courts allowed a law in Oregon which limited women to work 10 hours a day. They stated that it was better for their health.

Many times this limited their opportunities instead of the hours worked.

The Rights of Child Workers

• Children were working long hours, in dangerous conditions for very low wages

• They were more prone to accidents due to exhaustion

• People such as Jacob Riis showed what the real working conditions were like.

• Almost every state had limited or completely banned child labor by 1918

Election Reform

• Much corruption existed in the voting process ▫ People were coerced to

vote a certain way

• Citizens fought for and secured such measures as secret ballots, referendums, and recalls. Citizens could petition and get initiatives on the ballot.

• In 1899, Minnesota passed the first statewide primary system.

Direct Election Of Senators

• Passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913

• State legislatures had chosen the senators

• Progressives hoped to create a Congress that would be more responsive to the public

• Amendment made it a popular vote

Women in Public Life • Before the Civil War,

American women were expected to devote their time to home and family.

• By the late 19th and early 20th century, women were visible in the workforce.

Domestic Workers

• Before the turn-of-the-century women without formal education contributed to the economic welfare of their families by doing domestic work.

• Altogether, 70% of women employed in 1870 were servants.

Women in the Work Force

• Opportunities for women increased especially in the cities. By 1900, one out of five women worked.

• The garment industry was popular as were office work, retail, and education.

Women Lead Reform

• Many of the leading Progressive reformers were women. Middle and upper class women entered the public sphere after graduating from the new women’s colleges.

Colleges like Vassar and Smith

allowed women to excel

Women and Reform

• Women reformers strove to improve conditions at work and home.

• In 1896, black women formed the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).

• Suffrage was another important issue for women.

Three-Part Strategy for

Winning Suffrage • Suffragettes tried

three approaches to winning the vote: 1. Convincing state

legislatures to adopt the vote.

2. Pursuing court cases to test 14th Amendment.

3. Pushing for national Constitutional amendment.

Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal • When President

William McKinley was assassinated six months into his second term, Theodore Roosevelt became the nation’s 26th president

McKinley was assassinated by an

anarchist in Buffalo in September of 1901

Roosevelt and the Rough Riders • Roosevelt captured national

attention by advocating war with Spain in 1898. His volunteer cavalry brigade, the Rough Riders, won public acclaim for its role in the battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba.

• Roosevelt returned a hero and was soon elected governor of NY and later McKinley’s vice-president.

Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders

The Modern President

• When Roosevelt was thrust into the presidency in 1901, he became the youngest president ever at age 42.

• He quickly established himself as a modern president who could influence the media and shape legislation.

Trust-Busting

• By 1900, trusts – legal bodies created to hold stock in many companies – controlled 80% of U.S. industries.

• Roosevelt filed 44 antitrust suits under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Pure Food and Drug Act • Reports of food that

was not pure plagued society

• Needing reform Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906

• Asked for truth in labeling

Roosevelt’s Environmental Accomplishments

• Roosevelt made nature a priority for the nation

▫ set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves

▫ 1.5 million acres of water-power sites

▫ 50 wildlife sanctuaries, and several national parks.

Roosevelt and Civil Rights

• Civil Rights was not a priority for Roosevelt

• Did show support for Booker T. Washington

▫ Former slave that wanted African Americans to become trained in vocations

▫ Would increase confidence and place in society

• W.E.B. DuBois wanted a vocational and liberal arts education and protests from African Americans

▫ Formed the NAACP – the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

• Marcus Garvey wanted African Americans to go back to their roots by creating their own economy and hoped they would emigrate back to Africa

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Supreme Court upheld separate, but equal – the Jim Crow laws.

• Largely maintained in the South

Progressivism under President Taft • Republican William

Howard Taft easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential election.

• Among his accomplishments, Taft “busted” 90 trusts during his four years in office – more than Theodore Roosevelt during his eight years in office.

Taft, right, was Roosevelt’s War Secretary

Wilson’s New Freedom

• With much support of the American people, Wilson worked to enact his program, the “New Freedom.”

• He planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of privilege: trusts, tariffs, and high finance.

Federal Trade Commission Formed

• The FTC was formed in 1914 to serve as a “watchdog” agency to end unfair business practices. The FTC protects consumers from business fraud.

Women Win Suffrage

• Native-born, educated, middle-class women grew more and more impatient.

• Previously formed activist groups continued to rally around these ideas

• Strong protest brought the vote to women in 1920

Limits of Progressivism

• While the Progressive era was responsible for many important reforms, it failed to make gains for African Americans. Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on Civil Rights when he entered office.

The KKK reached a membership

of 4.5 million in the 1920s