7.

- Political and corporate corruption, increasing disparities between the rich and poor, and
Jim Crow laws concerned many Americans

- The Progressive movement was propelled by Theodore Roosevelt and continued with
William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson’s first term

- Most Progressives were members of the urban middle class who worked in white-collar
and middle management positions

- These middle-class members were part of associations that fought against government
and business corruption and addressed social and economic issues

- Protestant Christians believed that they should be honest and care for those in poverty,
and churches preached about social responsibility

- Leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, Woodrow Wilson, and William
Jennings Bryan pushed for the reform that people called for

- The Progressive movement was like reform movements in the past, with the belief that a
transparent government and fair laws would improve society

- Some people applied Charles Darwin’s concept of natural selection to society by saying
that the wealthy were the “fittest” and should handle most of the money

- Others supported pragmatism, in which the society should try out a variety ideas and
laws until they find the ones that produce the best results for the society

- Pragmatism allowed reformers to get rid of unsuitable ideas, like the laissez-faire theory

- Frederick W. Taylor spread the idea of implementing the scientific management system
into the government, which was the most efficient method of organizing employees

- One of the first muckrakers, Henry Demarest Lloyd, wrote articles about the corruption
behind the Standard Oil Company in 1881

- The McClure’s Magazine became very popular by featuring many muckraking articles by
Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell, setting the tone for other similar magazines

- Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives, which exposed the unsanitary and
dangerous conditions in tenements

- Theodore Dreiser’s muckraking novels, such as The Financier and The Titan, depicted
corrupt industrialists, and Frank Norris’s The Octopus and The Pit raised demands for
government regulation regarding railroads and grain
- Muckraking declined in popularity after 1910 because it was getting harder to increase
the sensationalism for every story

- Corporations were developing the public relations field and asking publishers to decrease
harsh comments to protect their image

- Some Progressives supported immigration restrictions because of corrupt political

- Others opposed immigration restrictions because they trusted the general population to
select honest officials

- To prevent political machines from influencing a voter, states adopted the secret ballot

- Direct primaries were introduced to let voters nominate candidates, not party bosses

- The 17 th amendment required senators to be elected directly instead of state legislatures

- Voters can force the legislature to consider a bill with an initiative, and they can also vote
on proposed laws and policies with a referendum

- Progressives pushed for cities to own their water systems, gas lines, electric power
plants, and transportation systems

- Cities adopted the manager-council plan, in which a city council hired an expert manager
to oversee the city government’s departments

- States started to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages because temperance improved
moral values and political views

- Settlement house workers like Jane Addams and Florence Kelly lobbied for better
schools, juvenile courts, and regulations for tenements and factories for immigrants

- Child labor laws and compulsory school attendance laws kept children out of working in
mines and factories

- The Triangle Shirtwaist fire killed many women, sparking many efforts to shorten women’s
working hours and improve labor conditions

- These efforts kept women out of the mining and industry fields, but later women wanted
to get the same opportunities as men

- In the past, presidents have sided with businesses in conflicts between workers and
owners, but Roosevelt stayed neutral when mediating the conflicts
- He brought the union leader representing Pennsylvania coal miners and mine owners and
came to the agreement of a 10% wage increase and a nine-hour workday

- This Square Deal was approved by the public, and Roosevelt was elected in 1904

- Theodore Roosevelt enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act, breaking up more than 40 large
trusts and regulating good trusts by ensuring low prices and efficiency

- The Elkins Act allowed the Interstate Commerce Commission to prevent railroads from
giving out rebates, and the Hepburn Act let the commission regulate railroad rates

- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair created an outcry against the meatpacking industry’s
conditions, causing the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act to be passed

- Theodore Roosevelt used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside land as national
reserves, passed the Newlands Reclamation Act, providing money from the sale of public
land for irrigation projects, and hosted a conference to coordinate conservation planning

- William Howard Taft ordered twice the number of antitrust cases as Roosevelt, but he
broke up the U.S. Steel merger that Roosevelt approved, making Roosevelt mad

- The Mann-Elkins Act gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the ability to suspend
railroad rates and to oversee telephone and telegraph companies, and the 16 th
amendment allowed the government to collect an income tax for the wealthy

- William Howard Taft established the Bureau of Mines, added large regions of the
Appalachians to national forest reserves, set aside federal oil lands, and fired Roosevelt
ally Gifford Pinchot for criticizing one of Taft’s cabinet members

- Breaking his promise to lower the tariff and supporting conservative candidates led to
Progressives believing that Taft betrayed them and joined the conservative Republicans

- The Socialist party started to rise with its founder Eugene V. Debs, advocating for public
ownership of railroads, utilities, and major industries

- The Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, won the 1912 election with his New
Freedom plan which would end government and business corruption and support small
businesses

-The Bull Moose candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, had the New Nationalism plan- which
would regulate businesses and unions, establish more social welfare programs, and fight
for women’s suffrage- but lost because of the split in the Republican Party

- Woodrow Wilson was the second Democrat elected president since the Civil War and
believed that the president should lead Congress and play an active role
- Woodrow Wilson pledged to fight tariffs, banking, and trusts and to bring back free and
fair competition

- Woodrow Wilson broke tradition by directly speaking to Congress about lowering tariffs
instead of writing a letter, so Underwood Tariff was passed, significantly reducing the rate

- Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, establishing a national banking system with 12
district banks and a Federal Reserve Board to regulate interest rates and capital reserves

- Woodrow Wilson supported the Federal Trade Commission that acted against unfair
trading practices by industries, the Clayton Antitrust Act which broke up more monopolies,
the Federal Farm Loan Act that gave out farm loans at low interest rates, and the Child
Labor Act to protect children from working

- Some Progressives, including Woodrow Wilson, supported segregation

- Lynching of African Americans by white mobs continued to occur in the South and North

- Booker T. Washington emphasized building industrial and agricultural skills for African
Americans to advance into society

- W.E.B. Du Bois stressed that African Americans must call for political and social rights

- These two perspectives represented a major conflict in the African American community,
but Booker T. Washington helped pay legal fees for court cases on segregation

- W.E.B. Du Bois and other leaders formed the Niagara Movement to fight for equal rights

- W.E.B. Du Bois and members of the Niagara Movement founded the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, aiming to eradicate segregation and provide
education opportunities for African Americans

- The National Urban League was also created to help people who moved to the North from
the South settle into their new homes, focusing on industrial skills to integrate into society

- The National Woman’s Party was founded by Alice Paul after breaking away from the
National American Woman Suffrage Association, and garnered votes through pickets,
parades, and strikes in support of an amendment granting women’s suffrage

- After the 19 th Amendment was ratified, Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the
NAWSA, formed the League of Women Voters to educate voters on issues and candidates

- Margaret Sanger’s efforts to establish birth control education grew into the Planned
Parenthood organization, and women helped reduce discrimination and secured women’s
rights to own property