History Notes 5
History Notes 5
4)
Muckrakers
Investigative journalists who exposed social ills, corruption, and industrial abuses in order to incite reform during the Progressive Era.
- Unlike yellow journalists, muckrakers focused on uncovering truth rather than sensationalism.
- Notable muckrakers:
- Jacob Riis: Used photojournalism to expose tenement housing conditions in How the Other Half Lives (1890).
Jacob Riis
Danish-American journalist and photographer.
- His work (How the Other Half Lives) revealed the dangerous and overcrowded living conditions of New York’s poor.
Features of Progressivism
- Goals: Expand democracy, promote social justice, increase government efficiency, and regulate big business.
- Advocated both for increasing suffrage and restricting it for "unfit" populations.
- Often paternalistic; assumed reformers knew best, ignoring voices of those they aimed to help.
Direct Primary
- Allowed party members, not just delegates, to vote for candidates.
- First adopted statewide by South Carolina (1896) and for presidential nominations by Florida (1901).
- Each commissioner was responsible for a specific aspect of city governance (e.g., water, fire, police).
Taylorism
- Developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in The Principles of Scientific Management (1911).
- Advocated for increased factory efficiency through time-motion studies and standardized tasks.
- Removed worker autonomy, but sometimes increased productivity and lowered prices.
- Provided social services, education, and healthcare to working-class women and children.
- Hull House (Chicago) and Henry Street Settlement (NYC) were notable centers.
- Prompted by campaigns from the National Child Labor Committee and Lewis Hine’s photography.
- Declared unconstitutional, but paved the way for the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938).
- Founded by William “Big Bill” Haywood; critical of mainstream unionism and capitalism.
Alice Paul
- Leader in the women’s suffrage movement.
- Headed the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and later founded the National Woman’s Party.
- Organized the 1913 suffrage parade and Silent Sentinels who picketed the White House.
- Advocated for a constitutional amendment and later the Equal Rights Amendment.
Progressive Party
- Formed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 after a split with Taft.
- Platform included direct democracy reforms, women’s suffrage, labor protections, and trust regulation.
Election of 1912
- Four major candidates: Woodrow Wilson (Democrat), Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive), William Howard Taft (Republican), Eugene V. Debs (Socialist).
- Allowed the federal government to collect taxes based on personal income, addressing tariff dependency.
- Part of Wilson’s New Freedom agenda to reduce tariffs and increase revenue.