US History - Chapter 15

The Progressive Era

Progressivism

a collection of people and ideas that favored achieving political and social reform through education, wider political participation, and direct government action.

Henry Ford

• unveiled his automobile in 1896

• established Ford Motor Company in 1903

• produced the Model T in 1908

Orville and Wilber Wright

• two men who were very interested in flight

• made the first controlled flight in history at Kitty Hawk

• the flight lasted for 12 seconds and stretched out for 120 feet

Titanic

• largest ship of its kind

• sank off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada on April 14, 1912

Booker T. Washington

• founded Tuskegee Institute, one of the most famous schools for Black Americans

• urged African Americans not to risk strife by insisting on their political rights, but to concentrate on bettering themselves economically through education and establishing themselves

• gave a speech known as the “Atlanta Compromise”

George Washington Carver

• a leader in southern agricultural education during and after the Progessive Era

• known as “the Plant Doctor” by neighbors

• taught at Tuskegee Institute

• developed many uses for peanuts

Jim Crow Laws

laws that required the forced segregation of blacks and whites in trains, restaurants, hotels, schools, restrooms, and other public facilities

Things that Southern states did to deprive black people of suffrage:

• literacy tests

• poll taxes

• grandfather clauses which typically said a person who could not pay the poll tax or pass the literacy test could still vote if he or his father or grandfather was eligible to vote before 1867 (basically if they were able to vote before or during the civil war)

Plessy v. Ferguson

• strengthened segregation

• the Supreme Court decreed that “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional

• gave state legislatures the legal justification they needed to pass additional Jim Crow laws

Eugenics

• a set of beliefs and practices whose goal was to “improve” the genetic quality of the human population

• people who were considered “inferior,” such as the disabled or criminals, were discouraged or prevented from reproducing

W. E. B. Du Bois

• the first African American tp receive a PhD from Harvard University

• argued that blacks could not truly improve themselves economically until they enjoyed equal participation in the political process as American citizens

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• a group that consisted of black and white leaders

• their goal was to seek equality for blacks and to focus on fighting legal battles to achieve that objective

Niagara Movement

• Du Bois and other African American leaders met at Niagara Falls

• demanded full rights, and especially voting rights, for African Americans

modernism

• the idea that the Bible was just a book of stories or legends to be told

• adapted Christianity to modern ideas

• rejected the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and atonement for sin through his blood

Reform Darwinism

the idea that human progress was best achieved through cooperation and not competition

Social Gospel Movement

• a movement related to Reform Darwinism

• emphasized the “regeneration” of society through social and political reform

Benjamin B. Warfield

• a professor at Princeton

• greatest defender of orthodox Christianity

Fundamentalists

people who supported and defended key doctrines such as the authority of the Bible, Christ’s deity, vicarious (substitutionary) atonement, resurrection, and the second coming

Government reforms

• fighting corruption

• increasing democracy

• improving efficiency

Progressive voting reforms

• Initiative - voters initiate legislation

• Referendum - voters decide whether passed legislation should be enacted

• Recall - voters petition to hold a special election to decide on removing an official (does not apply to the president of the US)

Social reforms

• labor issues - child labor, dangerous working conditions, unfair regulations towards women and African Americans

• quality of life - people lacked indoor plumbing or running water while some had toilet facilities that large numbers of residents shared; epidemics spread easily

• temperance - the abuse of alcohol

• women’s suffrage

Settlement houses

where reformers settled in slum areas and provided childcare, clothing, medical care, and food as well as recreational and educational opportunities for the urban poor, who were often immigrants

Progressive Amendments

• 16th Amendment

• 17th Amendment

• 18th Amendment

• 19th Amendment

16th Amendment

• established the federal income tax, which would provide the goverment with funds to initiate reforms and provide social services

• ratified in 1913

• the tax rate was graduated, meaning that the more money one made, the higher percentage of income one must pay in taxes

• money would be redistributed from the wealthy to benefit all Americans

17th Amendment

• passed by Congress in 1912, ratified in 1913

• US senators would be directly elected by the people rather than by state legislatures

• Progressives argued that there would be corrupt auctions so that state legislatures would choose a wealthy person to become senator

• opponents argued that this amendment would destroy an important part of federalism

18th Amendment

• ratified in 1919

• established Prohibition, which banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages

19th Amendment

• granted women suffrage nationwide

• ratified in 1920

Muckrakers

• writers who exposed abuse and corruption

• Roosevelt enlisted their help to persuade the public of the need for reform

• progressive journalists

• History of the Standard Oil Company

Pure Food and Drug Act

outlawed the interstate sale of impure food and drugs and required honest labeling of food and drug products

Meat Inspection Act

required the Department of Agriculture to oversee the preparation and packaging of meat and to inspect the health of animals before they were slaughtered

The Hepburn Act (1906)

• gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the ability to set “just and reasonable” maximum railroad rates and to view the railroads’ financial records

• says that ICC orders were binding and could only be overturned by federal courts

The Reclamation Act of 1902

• took funds from the sale of public land to construct dams, reservoirs, and other irrigation projects in the West

• established the US Forest Service to manage the millions of acres already set aside for national forests

• also established the National Conservation Commission, which was tasked with compiling a record of the nation’s water, timber, land, and mineral resources

William Howard Taft

• a close friend of Roosevelt’s who became the Republican President in 1908

• wanted to lower tariff rates

• believed in dollar diplomacy

• believed that all trusts were bad

Dollar diplomacy

a policy that would try to influence foreign affairs through the investment of American dollars in foreign countries

Election of 1912: what happened?

• Roosevelt tried to run for the Republican nominee candidacy, but they chose Taft

• Roosevelt left the Republicans and started his own political party: Progressive Party

• Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, would end up winning because the rest of the votes were split between Taft and Roosevelt

Underwood Tariff Act of 1913

• enacted the first genuine tariff reduction since the Civil War

• compensated for the loss of tariff revenue by adopting the first income tax

Federal Reserve Act (1913)

• established the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banks to carry out the nation’s monetary policy and oversee other banks

• divided the nation into twelve banking districts, each served by a private regional Federal Reserve Bank

Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)

created the Federal Trade Commission to define and halt unfair business practices

Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)

• expanded the Sherman Anti Trust Act’s list of practices prohibited to corporations

• exempted labor unions from antitrust legislation

• legalized practices such as strikes, picketing, and boycotts

John Dewey

• a leader of progressive education during the progressive era

• criticized American education, saying that it created passive students who memorized facts and that it trained students to submit to authoritarian social and political structures

• stated that students learn best in an environment where they are acrive learners who experience and interact with the content through hands on activities

• believes in secular humanism, which denies the existence of God and affirms the goodness and perfectibility of humanity

Labor Issues

• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also called “Wobblies,” was founded in 1905 and included socialists such as Eugene V. Debs

• there would be unsafe working conditions during the Progressive Era, and progressives would try to change that

Women’s Suffrage

• “Women suffragettes” had begun campaigning for the right to vote before the Civil War

• In 1916, Montana elected the first female member of Congress, Jeannette Rankin, to the US House of Representatives

• black leaders such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell advocated for women’s suffrage as part of their efforts to improve the lives of African Americans

• Susan B. Anthony labored for the right of women to control their own property and to receive custody of children in divorce cases