Chapter 19 The Spirit of Reform Section Notes

Chapter 19 – The Spirit of Reform Section Notes The Gilded Age The Progressive Movement Reforming the Workplace The Rights of Women and Minorities The Progressive Presidents History Close-up Working Conditions in Factories Quick Facts Political Machines Tenement Life Expanding Democracy The Progressive Amendments, 1909 -1920 Chapter 19 Visual Summary Video Progressivism in Government and Society Maps Election of 1912 Images Angels of Mercy Women’s Suffrage Chinese Americans

The Gilded Age 8. 12. 5 The Big Idea Politics during the Gilded Age was plagued by corruption. Main Ideas • Political corruption was common during the Gilded Age. • Presidents during the Gilded Age confronted the issue of corruption. • In an effort to clean up political corruption, limits were put on the spoils system.

Main Idea 1: Political corruption was common during the Gilded Age. • Political machines strongly influenced city, county, and even federal politics in the late 1800 s. • Political machines used both legal and illegal means to get their candidates elected to public office. – Stuffed ballot boxes with votes for their candidates – Paid people to vote with bribes, or bribed vote counters • Supporters of political machines were often rewarded with government jobs. • The most notorious political machine was New York City’s Tammany Hall, headed by William Marcy Tweed.

Corruption in Washington • The administration of Ulysses S. Grant, who was elected in 1868 and reelected in 1872, was charged with corruption. • In Grant’s second term, federal officials were jailed for taking bribes from whiskey distillers. • The scandal caused many Americans to question the honesty of national leaders.

Main Idea 2: Presidents during the Gilded Age confronted the issue of corruption. • Rutherford B. Hayes (1877– 1881) promised radical and complete changes in government. • James B. Garfield (1881) was assassinated by a disgruntled federal-office seeker early in his term. • Chester A. Arthur (1881– 1885), Garfield’s vice president, became president. • Grover Cleveland (1885– 1889, 1893– 1897), a Democrat, worked hard to hire and fire people based on merit, not party loyalty. • Benjamin Harrison (1889– 1893) helped control inflation and passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. • William Mc. Kinley (1897– 1901) avoided scandal and helped win back public trust in the government.

Main Idea 3: In an effort to clean up political corruption, limits were put on the spoils system. • The American public wanted changes in the civil service, or government jobs system. • They disliked the spoils system, the practice of giving jobs to supporters after a candidate wins election. • President Hayes made minor reforms. • President Garfield attempted reforms before he was assassinated.

The Pendleton Civil Service Act • President Arthur backed the Pendleton Civil Service Act in 1883. • The act set up a merit system for awarding federal jobs. • It applied to little more than 10 percent of government job applicants, but it was a start to reforming the whole government.

The Progressive Movement 8. 12. 5 The Big Idea From the late 1800 s through the early 1900 s, the progressive movement addressed problems that faced American society. Main Ideas • Progressives pushed for urban and social reforms to improve the quality of life. • Progressive reformers expanded the voting power of citizens and introduced reforms in local and state governments.

Main Idea 1: Progressives pushed for urban and social reforms to improve the quality of life. • Progressives were reformers who worked to solve problems caused by rapid industrial and urban growth. • Muckrakers were journalists who wrote about child labor, racial discrimination, slum housing, and corruption in business. • The major goal of progressives was to help the urban poor. – Ease overcrowding in cities – Better education – Better working conditions and less child labor – Fight corruption in business

City Planning Reforms and Reformers • Lawrence Veiller was a reformer who helped get the New York State Tenement House Act passed, improving housing for the poor. • Progressives started settlement houses, such as Jane Addams’s Hull House. • Death rates dropped in cities where city planners and civil engineers addressed urban ills.

Social Reforms • Education reform included the enacting of school attendance laws and the creation of kindergartens. • John Dewey advocated new teaching methods designed to help children learn problem-solving skills, not just memorize facts. • Joseph Mc. Cormack led the American Medical Association in supporting public health laws.

Main Idea 2: Progressive reformers expanded the voting power of citizens and introduced reforms in local and state governments. • Progressives worked to reduce the power of the political machines by – Ending corrupt ballot practices – Adopting the secret ballot – Adopting the direct primary, which allowed voters to choose party candidates rather than having it done by party bosses • The Seventeenth Amendment allowed Americans to vote directly for U. S. senators.

Recall, Initiative, and Referendum Recall Initiative Referendum • Some states and cities adopted the recall. • Some states adopted the initiative. • Some states adopted the referendum. • It was a special vote that gave citizens the opportunity to remove an elected official from office. • It allowed voters to propose a new law and vote on it. • It permitted voters to directly approve or reject a proposed or enacted law.

Making Government More Professional The Cities • Some cities adopted a council-manager form of government, in which a professional manager runs the city. • Other cities adopted a commission form of government, in which a group of elected officials runs the city. The States • Governor Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin challenged the power of the political bosses. • He began a series of reforms called the Wisconsin Idea. • His reforms decreased the power of the political machine. • The Wisconsin Idea influenced other states.

Reforming the Workplace 8. 12. 6 The Big Idea In the early 1900 s progressives and reformers focused on improving conditions for American workers. Main Ideas • Reformers attempted to improve conditions for child laborers. • Unions and reformers took steps to improve safety in the workplace and working hours.

Main Idea 1: Reformers attempted to improve conditions for child laborers. • Many children worked in industry—more than 1. 75 million of them age 15 or younger. • Children as young as seven years old provided cheap labor for manufacturers but brought home only small amounts of money to their families. • Reformers wanted labor laws to protect women and children.

Child-Labor Reform • Florence Kelley led the progressive fight against child labor. • Massachusetts passed the first minimum-wage law in 1917, and established a commission to set wage rates for children. • Congress passed federal child-labor laws in 1916 and 1917, barring child-labor products from interstate commerce. • The Supreme Court ruled the laws unconstitutional.

Main Idea 2: Unions and reformers took steps to improve safety in the workplace and working hours. • Some 35, 000 Americans were killed, and another 500, 000 injured, in industrial accidents in 1900. • The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which killed 146 women and girls, led to laws to improve factory safety. • Reformers fought for workers’ compensation laws, which guaranteed a portion of lost wages to workers injured on the job. • In 1902 Maryland became the first state to pass a workers’ compensation law.

The Courts and Labor • Some businesses opposed workplace regulations, believing that the economy should operate without government interference. • State and federal courts began using the Fourteenth Amendment to support these views. – Argued that the amendment protected businesses against laws that took property without due process

Supreme Court Cases • New York passed a law in 1897 limiting bakers to a 10 hour workday. – Baker Joseph Lochner sued. – In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court ruled the unconstitutional. – The court ruled that the state could not restrict employers from entering into any kind of agreement with employees. • In 1908, however, the Supreme Court upheld a law restricting women’s work hours in Muller v. Oregon, ruling that it was a public health issue.

Labor Organizations • American Federation of Labor led by Samuel Gompers • Labor unions tried to improve working conditions. • Supported capitalism, an economic system in which private firms run industry • Union membership rose from 800, 000 in 1900 to about 5 million in 1920. • Focused on achieving better working conditions • Some unions supported socialism, a system in which the government owns most industry. • Leading socialist union was Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) • IWW led by William “Big Bill” Haywood

The Rights of Women and Minorities 8. 12. 5 The Big Idea The progressive movement made advances for the rights of women and some other minorities. Main Ideas • Female progressives fought for temperance and the right to vote. • African American reformers challenged discrimination and called for equality. • Progressive reform did not benefit all minorities.

Main Idea 1: Female progressives fought for temperance and the right to vote. • New educational opportunities drew more women into the progressive movement. • Denied entrance into such professions as law and medicine, women entered fields such as social work and education. • Women’s clubs campaigned for many causes, including temperance, women’s suffrage, child welfare, and political reform.

Temperance • Women reformers took up the cause of temperance: avoidance of alcohol consumption. • The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union campaigned to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages. • Radical temperance fighter Carry Nation stormed saloons and smashed bottles with an axe in the 1890 s. • Temperance efforts led to the Eighteenth Amendment (1919), banning the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

Women’s Suffrage • Women reformers fought for suffrage, or the right to vote. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1890). • Alice Paul founded the more radical National Woman’s Party (1913). – Used parades and public demonstrations, picketing, and hunger strikes to spread their message • Suffragists won the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment (1920).

Main Idea 2: African American reformers challenged discrimination and called for equality. Booker T. Washington encouraged African Americans to improve their educational and economic well-being. Ida B. Wells spoke out against discrimination and drew attention to the lynching of African American men. W. E. B. Du Bois attacked discrimination and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. They called for economic and educational equality for African Americans. The National Urban League, founded in 1911, helped African Americans moving from the South to find jobs and housing.

Main Idea 3: Progressive reform did not benefit all minorities. • The Society of American Indians wanted Native Americans to adopt the ways of white society, but many of them resisted. • Chinese Americans faced much discrimination, and their immigration was restricted by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. • Immigration by Mexicans increased during this period, and most moved to areas that were once part of Mexico.

The Progressive Presidents 8. 12. 5 The Big Idea American presidents in the early 1900 s did a great deal to promote progressive reform. Main Ideas • Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reforms tried to balance the interests of business, consumers, and laborers. • William Howard Taft angered progressives with his cautious reforms. • Woodrow Wilson enacted banking and antitrust reforms.

Main Idea 1: Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reforms tried to balance the interests of business, consumers, and laborers. • Theodore Roosevelt called his reform policy the Square Deal. • Used his policy to help settle the 1902 coal miners’ strike • Threatened to take over the mines unless managers agreed to arbitration, a formal process for settling disputes, with the strikers

Regulating Big Business • Influenced by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Roosevelt urged Congress to enact meat inspection laws. • Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1901. • Roosevelt persuaded Congress to regulate railroad shipping rates. • Roosevelt's actions to break up trusts earned him a reputation as a "trust-buster. "

Conservation • Roosevelt strongly supported conservation to protect nature and its resources. • Some preservationists wanted to protect nature to save its beauty. • Other preservationists wanted to protect nature from being exploited by business. • Roosevelt responded by – Adding 150 million acres of public land to the Forest Service to prevent their use by business – Doubling the number of national parks to save them for their scenic beauty

Main Idea 2: William Howard Taft angered progressives with his cautious reforms. • William Howard Taft moved more cautiously than Roosevelt had toward reform and regulation. • Progressives were disappointed that Taft did not destroy trusts entirely. • Taft’s signing of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, which raised prices for consumers, was opposed by many progressives. • Progressives, including Theodore Roosevelt, were angry at Taft for firing Gifford Pinchot, who had opposed leasing public lands to private firms.

Election of 1912 • All four candidates were reformers. • Taft ran for reelection on the Republican ticket. • Roosevelt, angry at Taft, formed the Progressive Party to run for president. • Woodrow Wilson ran on the Democratic ticket and was elected president by a wide margin. • Eugene V. Debs ran on the Socialist Party ticket.

Main Idea 3: Woodrow Wilson enacted banking and antitrust reforms. • Introduced the modern income tax, made possible by ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 • Addressed banking reform with the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, creating a national banking system • Pushed for laws to regulate big business – The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 strengthened laws against monopolies. – The Federal Trade Commission, created in 1914, had the power to investigate and punish unfair trade practices. • Helped pass the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act in 1916 – Limited the hours of child workers and prevented the sale across state lines of goods made with child labor

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