PROGRESSIVE ERA 1890 s1920 A 21 w 9

PROGRESSIVE ERA 1890 s-1920 A 21 w 9. 2. 13

Progressivism WHEN? “Progressive Reform Era” 1890 s 1917 1920 s 1901 WHO? “Progressives” urban middle-class: managers women & professionals; WHY? Address the problems arising from: industrialization (big business, labor strife) urbanization (slums, political machines, corruption) immigration (ethnic diversity) inequality & social injustice (women & racism)

Progressivism WHAT are their goals? ► Democracy – government accountable to the people ► Regulation of corporations & monopolies ► Social justice – workers, poor, minorities ► Environmental protection HOW? ► Government (laws, regulations, programs) ► Efficiency value experts, use of scientific study to determine the best solution Pragmatism – William James, John Dewey ( Darwinism) (Cf. scientific management/Taylor) HOW MUCH? ? ?

Origins of Progressivism “Muckrakers” ► Journalists that wrote articles exposing the bad in society. ► Many Americans were inspired to take action through reform. ► Ida Tarbell Lincoln Steffens

Muckrakers cont… ► “They use everything of the pig except the squeal. There would be hams found spoiled, some of them with an odor so bad that a man could hardly bear to be in the room with them. There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax, dumped into the hoppers and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his had over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy store and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into the carts and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one. ”