The Progressive Era, 1876–1920

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Politics in the Gilded AgePolitics in the Gilded Age

The Gilded Age stretched from the 1870s through the 1890s. The era got its name from an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age. The book poked fun at the era’s greed and political corruption.

Political power was split between the two major parties. Neither party controlled Congress for more than a term or two, though Republicans held the White House for nearly 25 years. Congress had more power than the President.

Concerns that shaped politics

Concerns about the power of the rich

People feared that bankers, industrialists, and other weathly men were controlling politics at the expense of the public good.

Worries about corruption

People worried about bribery and voter fraud. Reformers blamed much corruption on the spoils system, the practice of rewarding political supporters with government jobs.

Reforming the Spoils SystemReforming the Spoils System

• When a new President took office, supporters would swarm into Washington demanding jobs. The practice of giving jobs to followers is called patronage.

• Patronage often led to corruption. Some jobholders simply stole money. Others were not qualified for the jobs they were given.

• President Rutherford B. Hayes first tried to reform the system. President James Garfield thought that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit, or ability, not politics. Garfield’s assassination in 1880 by a disappointed office seeker led to efforts to reform this system.

• In 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act. It created the Civil Service Commission to conduct exams for federal jobs. The civil service includes all federal jobs except elected offices and the military.

• At first, the Civil Service Commission controlled only a few federal jobs. By 1900, the commission controlled about 40 percent of all federal jobs.

Jobs you can get through Civil ServiceJobs you can get through Civil Service

Regulating Big BusinessRegulating Big Business

• The behavior of men like railroad builder Collis Huntington, who tried to bribe members of Congress, convinced many Americans that big businesses controlled the government. They demanded that something be done.

• The government began to regulate railroads and other large businesses.

• The Constitution gave the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce, or business that crossed state lines. Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, which set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to oversee the railroads. The act outlawed such practices as pools and rebates.

• In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited trusts and other businesses from limiting competition. At first, the act was not effective.

Railroads were the target of the ICC, Senator John Sherman

Railroads were the target of the ICC, Senator John Sherman

Corruption in City GovernmentsCorruption in City Governments

As cities grew, they needed to expand services. Often, politicians accepted money to give away these jobs. Bribes and corruption became a way of life.• Powerful politicians, called political bosses, gained power in many city,

county, and state governments. They were often popular with the poor because they provided jobs and loans for the needy. They handed out extra coal in winter and turkeys at Thanksgiving. In exchange, the poor voted for the boss or his chosen candidate.

• One political boss in New York City, Boss William Tweed, carried corruption to extremes. He cheated the city out of more than $100 million.

• Journalists exposed Boss Tweed’s wrongdoing. Cartoonist Thomas Nast pictured Tweed as a vulture. Faced with prison, Tweed fled to Spain, but he was returned to the United States—and to prison.

• In many cities, reformers set up good-government leagues. Their goal was to replace corrupt officials with honest leaders.

Muckrakers Contribute to ReformMuckrakers Contribute to Reform

Reformers used the press to turn public opinion against corruption. Crusading journalists became known as muckrakers. People said they raked the dirt, or muck, and exposed it to public view. When muckrakers helped people see how dishonest some politicians and businesses had become, the public began to demand change.• Jacob Riis, a photographer and writer, provided shocking images

of slum life.• Ida Tarbell targeted the unfair practices of big business—

especially Standard Oil.• Upton Sinclair wrote a novel, The Jungle, which shocked the

nation. Although the book was fiction, it was based on facts about the meatpacking industry. He described how packers used meat from sick animals, how rats got into the ground meat, and how the meat was dyed to make it seem healthy.

Boss TweedBoss Tweed

Boss TweedBoss Tweed

Goals of the ProgressivesGoals of the Progressives

By 1900, reformers were calling themselves Progressives. They meant that they were forward-thinking people who wanted to improve American life. • Progressives were not a single group with a single goal, but

they all believed that society could be improved. They wanted the government to act in the public interest, for the good of the people.

• The Progressives drew their inspiration from both religion and science.

• Progressives valued education. John Dewey, a Progressive educator, wanted schools to promote reform and teach democratic values by example.

Progressives and John DeweyProgressives and John Dewey

Progressive Political ReformsProgressive Political Reforms

Progressive Political ReformsProgressive Political Reforms

• Governor Robert La Follette of Wisconsin was a leading Progressive. He introduced a number of reforms that became known as the Wisconsin Idea. For example, he lowered railroad rates, which increased rail traffic.

• Progressives wanted voters to participate more directly in government. To achieve this goal, Progressives introduced the primary, the initiative, the referendum, and the recall.

• Progressives fought for other changes, such as lower tariffs on imported goods. They said if American industry had to compete against foreign imports, the result would be lower prices, which would benefit consumers.

Robert La FolletteRobert La Follette

Progressive Political ReformsProgressive Political Reforms

• Reformers backed a graduated income tax, which taxes people at different rates. The wealthy pay taxes at a higher rate than the poor or the middle class. Because the Supreme Court had said that a federal income tax was unconstitutional, Progressives campaigned for the Sixteenth Amendment. It gave congress the power to pass an income tax.

• State legislatures had elected senators. Sometimes powerful interest groups bribed state lawmakers to vote for certain candidates, so Progressives worked for the Seventeenth Amendment, which allows voters to elect their senators.

16th Amendment16th Amendment

Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt

• Theodore Roosevelt chose a life of politics because he was determined to end corruption and work for the public interest.

• When Roosevelt became President, he said that he was not against big business. In fact, he believed that business and giant corporations were beneficial. He did see a difference between good trusts and bad ones, however. He said that good trusts were efficient and fair and that bad ones took advantage of workers and cheated the public.

• Roosevelt wanted to test the power of the government to break up bad trusts. He had the Attorney General bring a lawsuit against the Northern Securities Company, a trust formed to control competition among railroads, for using unfair business practices.

• Roosevelt had the Attorney General sue other trusts, too, including Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company. The courts ordered the breakup of both trusts for blocking free trade.

Teddy Roosevelt Teddy Roosevelt

Standard Oil CartoonStandard Oil Cartoon

The American Tobacco Company also made early baseball cards like this one

The American Tobacco Company also made early baseball cards like this one

Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt

• Some business leaders called Roosevelt a trustbuster, a person who wanted to destroy all trusts. Roosevelt replied that he only wanted to regulate them, not “bust” them.

• When Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for better pay and a shorter workday, Roosevelt forced the mine owners to negotiate with the miners’ union. Roosevelt was the first President to side with labor.

TrustbusterTrustbuster

Miners like these from Hazleton, PA went on StrikeMiners like these from Hazleton, PA went on Strike

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCxf9eYWiaM

The Square DealThe Square Deal

During the 1904 election campaign, Roosevelt promised Americans a Square Deal. He meant that everyone should have the same opportunity to succeed.

Business Railroads were a main target of the Square Deal. Roosevelt urged Congress to outlaw rebates. In 1906, Congress gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to set railroad rates.

Consumers • Roosevelt wanted to protect consumers. After he read Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, he worked to get Congress to pass a law allowing more inspectors to enter meatpacking houses.

• Congress also passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which required food and drug makers to list ingredients on packages. It also tried to end false advertising and the use of impure ingredients.

Conservation • Roosevelt pressed for conservation, the protection of natural resources. He wanted some forest areas left as wilderness.

• Under Roosevelt, the government set aside many acres as national parks, federal lands set aside for the public to enjoy.

Campaign PinCampaign Pin

Upton SinclairUpton Sinclair

Roosevelt was disgusted after Reading Sinclair’s book

Roosevelt was disgusted after Reading Sinclair’s book

Taft and the ProgressivesTaft and the Progressives

• Roosevelt backed William Howard Taft for President. Taft won easily.

• Taft supported many Progressive causes. He broke up more trusts than Roosevelt had. He favored the graduated income tax, approved new safety rules for mines, and signed laws giving government workers an eight-hour day. Under Taft, the Commerce Department set up an office to deal with child labor.

• In 1909, Taft lost Progressive support. He had signed a bill that raised most tariffs. Progressives were against high tariffs. Also, he fired a Forest Service official during a dispute over wilderness lands in Alaska. Progressives accused Taft of blocking conservation efforts.

William Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft

The Election of 1912The Election of 1912

• In 1912, Roosevelt decided to run against Taft for the Republican nomination for President.

• Taft had the backing of Republican party leadership. The party nominated Taft.

• Progressive Republicans stormed out of the convention and set up a new party with Roosevelt as their candidate. Roosevelt said, “I feel as strong as a bull moose.” The party became known as the Bull Moose Party.

• Democrats chose Woodrow Wilson, a Progressive, as their candidate.

• Together, Taft and Roosevelt won more votes than Wilson, but they split the Republican vote. Wilson won the election.

Election of 1912Election of 1912

Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson

• Wilson tried to restore competition in American business by breaking up trusts into smaller companies. He called this program the New Freedom.

• To spur competition, Wilson asked Congress to lower tariffs.• To regulate banking, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act.

The act set up a system of federal banks. It also gave the government the power to raise or lower interests rates and control the money supply.

• To insure fair competition, Wilson persuaded Congress to create the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1914. It had the power to investigate companies and order them to stop using unfair practices to destroy competitors.

• Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914. It banned some business practices that limited free enterprise. It also stopped antitrust laws from being used against unions.

Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson

The Woman’s Suffrage Movement and the Nineteenth Amendment

The Woman’s Suffrage Movement and the Nineteenth Amendment

1869 • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony set up the National Woman Suffrage Association, a group that worked for a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote.

Late 1800s

• Women won the right to vote in four western states: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho.

Early 1900s

• The women’s suffrage movement gained strength. New leaders took up the cause. Carrie Chapman Catt became the new leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association. She created a detailed plan to fight for suffrage.

• Across the nation, suffragists, or people who worked for women’s right to vote, carried out her plan. One by one, states in the West and Midwest gave women the right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. AnthonyElizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Carrie Chapman CattCarrie Chapman Catt

The Woman’s Suffrage Movement and the Nineteenth Amendment

The Woman’s Suffrage Movement and the Nineteenth Amendment

1912 – 1917

• Suffragist Alice Paul met with President Wilson. She told him that suffragists wanted a Constitutional amendment to give women the vote. Delegations of suffragists continued to visit the President.

• Early in 1917, Paul, Rose Winslow, and other women began to picket the White House.

1918 • President Wilson finally agreed to support the suffrage amendment.

1919 • Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote.

1920 • By August, three fourths of the states ratified the amendment, and it went into effect.

Alice PaulAlice Paul

Rose WinslowRose Winslow

19th Amendment Celebration19th Amendment Celebration

Women’s Right to VoteWomen’s Right to Vote

New Opportunities for WomenNew Opportunities for Women

Higher education• In 1877, Boston University granted the first Ph.D. to a woman.• Slowly, more women entered graduate schools.Women’s clubs• During the late 1800s, many middle-class women joined women’s

clubs. At first clubwomen read and discussed books. In time, they became more active, supporting reforms that would improve society.

• African American women formed their own clubs, such as the National Association of Colored Women. They were also concerned with social issues, such as lynching, and worked for reforms.

Women reformers• Some women entered the new profession of social work.• Others campaigned to end social evils. For example, Florence Kelley

investigated conditions in sweatshops.

Florence KelleyFlorence Kelley

The Crusade Against AlcoholThe Crusade Against Alcohol

The temperance movement sought to end the sale of alcoholic beverages. • Women often led the temperance drive. Many wives and

mothers recognized alcohol as a threat to their families.• Women also opposed saloons for political reasons.

Saloons didn’t admit women, and male political bosses made important political decisions there.

• In 1874, a group of women organized the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, or WCTU. Frances Willard became its president. She spoke tirelessly about the evils of alcohol.

• Carrie Nation dedicated her life to fighting against alcohol. She often stormed into saloons, swinging a hatchet.

WTCUWTCU

Carrie NationCarrie Nation

The Crusade Against AlcoholThe Crusade Against Alcohol

• Public support for an amendment banning the sale of liquor grew after 1917.

• Temperance leaders finally persuaded Congress to pass the Eighteenth Amendment in 1917. By 1919, three fourths of the states had ratified it. The amendment made it illegal to sell alcoholic drinks anywhere in the United States.

Prohibition hit some harder than othersProhibition hit some harder than others

African Americans During the Progressive EraAfrican Americans During the Progressive Era

Progressives did little to help minority groups. Instead, minority groups struggled alone to gain basic rights. In the South, African Americans lost many hard-won rights, as Jim Crow laws led to segregation. In the North, African Americans faced prejudice and discrimination.

Ida B. Wells • Hard times in the 1890s left many whites jobless. They took out their anger on blacks. In the 1890s, more than 1,000 African Americans were lynched—murdered by mobs.

• The murders outraged Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist. She urged African American protests and a boycott of streetcars and white-owned stores.

Ida B. WellsIda B. Wells

African Americans During the Progressive EraAfrican Americans During the Progressive Era

Booker T. Washington

• Washington called on blacks and whites to live in harmony. He had worked hard to gain an education. He helped found the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to offer higher education to other blacks.

• He urged African Americans to learn trades and earn money so that they would have the power to demand equality.

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Du Bois agreed with Washington’s view on “thrift, patience, and industrial training.” However, he urged blacks to fight against discrimination.

• In 1909, Du Bois joined Jane Addams, Lincoln Steffens, and other reformers in organizing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. Blacks and whites in the NAACP worked together for equal rights for African Americans.

Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. Washington

W.E.B. DuboisW.E.B. Dubois

Mexican Americans in the Progressive EraMexican Americans in the Progressive Era

• Thousands of Mexican Americans lived in the United States. Many were the ancestors of people living in the Southwest and West when the United States acquired those areas under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase.

• When revolution and famine swept Mexico in 1910, thousands of Mexicanos, or native-born Mexicans, fled to the United States.

• Many Mexican immigrants worked as field hands or on the railroads. Like other immigrants, Mexicans created their own neighborhoods, or barrios.

• Within the barrio, Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans took many steps to help each other. Some formed mutualistas, or mutual aid groups.

Asian Americans in the Progressive EraAsian Americans in the Progressive Era

• In the 1870s, whites on the West Coast pressed Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese from settling in the United States.

• White employers on the West Coast and in Hawaii got around the act by hiring workers from other Asian countries—the Philippines, Korea, and Japan.

• Many newcomers from Japan were farmers. Soon, they were producing a large percentage of California’s fruits and vegetables.

• Prejudice against Asian immigrants remained high. Many white workers resented their success. Unions and other groups put pressure on President Roosevelt to limit immigration from Japan.

• In 1907, Roosevelt reached a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with Japan. Japan would stop workers from going to the United States. The United States would allow Japanese women to join husbands who were already in this country.

• In 1913, California passed a law that banned Asians who were not American citizens from owning land.

Chinese Exclusion Act CartoonChinese Exclusion Act Cartoon

Native Americans in the Progressive EraNative Americans in the Progressive Era

What the Dawes Act of 1887 was supposed to do• Divide reservation lands into family plots.• Indians were to become farmers and enter mainstream American life.Reasons for the failure of the Dawes Act• Much of the land was unsuited to farming.• Many Indians had no farming tradition.• Many Indians believed the plains were an open place where everyone

could ride and hunt—not something to divide into small plots.• Thus, many Native Americans sold lands to speculators at low prices. In the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders emerged.• One group set up the Society of American Indians. The Society worked for

social justice and tried to educate white Americans about Indian life.• It supported policies to force Indians into the American mainstream by

abolishing reservations. This policy created so much opposition among other Native Americans that the Society went out of existence in 1925.