Progressive Era Review

muckrakers

Journalists who exposed political corruption; unsafe business practices; social injustice and life in urban America; term used by Theodore Roosevelt for those who "raked the mud of society"

Jacob Riis

Photographer and muckraker who exposed tenement and slum conditions in New York City; wrote How the Other Half Lives (1890)

How the Other Half Lives

1890 book by Jacob Riis describing the conditions of the urban poor in New York City tenements

Upton Sinclair

Muckraker who wrote The Jungle (1906) about unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants

The Jungle

1906 novel by Upton Sinclair exposing rats; rat droppings and filth in processed meat

Lincoln Steffens

Muckraking journalist who wrote The Shame of the Cities (1902) exposing corruption in city government

The Shame of the Cities

1902 book by Lincoln Steffens exposing rampant fraud and bribery in city governments across the nation

urbanization

The growth of cities; driven by industry jobs that drew rural residents and new immigrants

tenement

Crowded; cheaply built apartment building in a slum; a typical New York tenement might house 200 people with 9 or more in each small apartment

frontier closed (1890)

The Census Bureau report of 1890 announced that the American frontier was closed

urban industrial society

What the U.S. was becoming by 1900; moving beyond Jefferson's vision of a nation of small farmers

poor urban infrastructure

Reason for poor living conditions in cities like New York: inadequate fire protection and sanitation for such a large population

piece rate reduction

Employers cut the pay per piece so workers had to work harder and faster to earn the same amount

unsafe products

Problem caused by the government not regulating product quality; consumers did not know what was in the products they bought

monopoly

Control of an industry by one company; growth of big business went largely unregulated and monopolies took over many industries

extractive industries

Businesses that remove mineral resources from the earth; such as mining; they changed the American landscape irrevocably

overgrazing

Cattle and sheep grazing the same area nonstop; stripping the land of vegetation and leaving the earth vulnerable to erosion

virgin forests

Original forests; by 1900 only a fraction of the country's virgin forests were still intact

Alexis de Tocqueville

Frenchman who visited the U.S. in 1831 and noted that Americans were heedless of altering nature for the sake of progress

urban pollution (1900)

Factories belched black smoke; animal waste was left where it landed and sewage and industrial waste fouled water sources

political machine

A group that controlled city government down to wards and precincts; gave aid and jobs for support; rigged elections and profited from corruption

Tammany Hall

Powerful political machine in New York City; "A Tammany Tiger" poster mocked it

Boss Tweed

Corrupt leader of New York City's Tammany Hall political machine

patronage

Granting government jobs to friends and supporters; who were often relatively unqualified

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1883)

Set guidelines for hiring civil service employees through exams to limit patronage; most civil service jobs are now merit based

civil service

Nonmilitary government workers

campaign contributions for legislation

Corruption in Congress: politicians got contributions from big business in exchange for passing laws that favored industry

disenfranchised

Deprived of the right to vote; by 1900 most African Americans in the South had been

segregation

Separation of people by race; by 1900 it affected nearly every aspect of public life in the South

temperance movement

Reform movement calling for moderation in drinking alcohol; began in the early 1800s and grew significantly by the late 1800s

suffragists

Women who actively pursued voting rights in the early 20th century

child wage workers (1900)

By 1900; roughly one out of every five children between ages 10 and 15 was a wage worker

progressives

Social and political reformers of the early 1900s; mostly urban; white; middle class and college educated; who wanted government to solve society's problems

Jane Addams

Social worker and co-founder of Hull House; served as garbage inspector for her ward to clean up Chicago streets

Hull House

Chicago's first settlement house; co-founded by Jane Addams

settlement house

Community center in poor and immigrant neighborhoods that provided a variety of services to the poor; especially immigrants

Florence Kelley

Hull House colleague of Jane Addams; persuaded Illinois to outlaw child labor in 1893 and helped found the National Child Labor Committee in 1904

National Child Labor Committee

Organization founded in 1904 to restrict or ban child labor; Florence Kelley helped found it and Jane Addams served on its board

Robert Hunter

Social worker who wrote in 1904 about the poverty that trapped millions of city dwellers

Social Gospel

Religious movement based on the idea that social reform and Christianity go hand in hand

social Darwinism

Social theory loosely based on Darwin's natural selection; progressives rejected it; arguing that domination by the rich and powerful distorted democracy

Americanized

Progressives believed children should not only be educated but also this; meaning taught to adopt American ways

workers' compensation

Laws that ensured workers hurt on the job still received some pay; almost two-thirds of states had them by 1916

Galveston city commission

Successful form of city government; by 1913 more than 350 American cities had adopted a city commission

city manager government

Form of city government in which an elected city council hires a professional city manager

secret ballot

Progressive election reform that lets voters cast votes privately

direct primary

Election in which voters choose each party's candidates for office

recall

Process by which voters can remove an elected official before his or her term expires

direct initiative

Lawmaking reform that lets citizens propose and pass a law directly without the state legislature

referendum

Lawmaking reform that lets a law passed by the state legislature be placed on the ballot for voters to approve or reject

trustbusting

Progressive effort to break up or regulate monopolies; began under Theodore Roosevelt

Northern Securities Company

J. P. Morgan's company that Roosevelt broke up as part of trustbusting

Roosevelt vs. Taft on trusts

Roosevelt tried to break up only trusts meant to squash competition; Taft prosecuted any trust that limited trade; regardless of intent

Clayton Act (1914)

Made it harder for trusts to form and squeeze out competition and protected labor unions from antitrust regulation

Meat Inspection Act

Required the Department of Agriculture to inspect packaged meat

Pure Food and Drug Act

Established the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test and approve drugs before they reached the market

eight-hour workday

Reform supported by Taft and Wilson; at least for some workers

preservation

Protecting wilderness lands from all forms of development

conservation

The limited use of natural resources

U.S. Forest Service

Agency created in 1905 with Roosevelt's backing

National Wildlife Refuge System

System to which Taft added 2.7 million acres

National Park Service (NPS)

Agency created in 1916 with Wilson's support

Federal Reserve Act (1913)

Created the Federal Reserve System; the central bank; with 12 regional banks; to stabilize the banking system

Federal Reserve System

Central bank of the U.S. made of 12 Federal Reserve Banks overseen by a seven-member Board of Governors

Sixteenth Amendment

Allows Congress to levy an income tax

Underwood Tariff Act (1913)

Signed by Wilson; combined a graduated income tax with reduced tariffs

Seventeenth Amendment

Ratified in 1913; requires direct election of U.S. senators by popular vote

prohibition

A ban on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages

Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Largest temperance organization; founded in 1874; with more than 150;000 members by 1890

Eighteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1919; prohibited the manufacture; sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors

Nineteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1920; guaranteed women's right to vote

Statue of Liberty

Gift from France unveiled in 1886 in New York Harbor; made a lasting impression on immigrants passing by

emigrate

To leave one's homeland

push factors

Reasons people leave a place; such as population growth; hunger; scarce farmland and religious persecution

pull factors

Attractions that draw people to another place; such as freedom; farmland; jobs and letters from relatives

pogroms

Organized anti-Jewish attacks that forced many Jews to leave Russia

steamships

How most European immigrants crossed the Atlantic after the Civil War

new immigrants

Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe; whose numbers grew steadily in the late 1800s

Ellis Island

Immigration station built in 1892 in New York Harbor; port of entry for most European immigrants

Great Hall

Room at Ellis Island where immigrants had a physical exam; an eye test and a legal interview

deportation

A forced return to one's home country

Ellis Island statistics

About 20% of immigrants failed the medical exam or legal interview; but only about 2% were ultimately deported

immigrant neighborhoods

Newly arrived immigrants lived in the cheapest; least desirable districts (slums); usually among others from their home country

immigrant aid society

Organization that helped needy immigrants after relatives and friends

political bosses

Powerful leaders who ran local politics in many cities; providing jobs and services to immigrants in exchange for political support

Americanization

The assimilation of immigrants into American society; a goal of patriotic groups who feared immigration threatened American values

nativism

The policy of favoring the interests of native-born Americans over those of immigrants

nativists

People who disliked immigrants because of religious and cultural differences and saw them as an economic threat

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Prohibited Chinese laborers from immigrating for 10 years and kept Chinese in the U.S. from becoming citizens; first restriction based solely on race or nationality

Angel Island Immigration Station

Port of entry for most Asian immigrants in San Francisco Bay after 1910; designed to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act through isolation and detention

Ellis Island of the West

Nickname for the Angel Island Immigration Station

Gentlemen's Agreement

1907-1908 understanding in which Japan stopped issuing passports to most laborers emigrating to the U.S. and Roosevelt urged San Francisco to end school segregation of Japanese children

picture bride system

Families arranged marriages between a son in the U.S. and a daughter in Japan; the couple exchanged photographs and information instead of meeting

San Francisco school segregation (1906)

Anti-Asian sentiment led the city to segregate Asian children into separate schools; President Roosevelt intervened after Japan protested

Mexican Revolution

Began in 1910 and prompted even more Mexicans to cross the border into the U.S.

Mexican immigrant labor

Western commercial farmers relied on Mexican workers; who were welcomed as cheap labor but scorned as inferior

French Canadians

Largely French-speaking Catholics who settled in New England and the Great Lakes region; attacked by nativists for apparent unwillingness to assimilate