4 Progressivism Part I 1895 1915 Time period Progressive Era Includes people called the progressives Key Terms Progressives Seventeenth Amendment Keating Owen Child Labor Act 1916 I What s wrong with the U S 1 Middle Class Anxiety Poor people hate rich people When poor people go crazy and try to end it all Middle class are scared they will be the first to go These people literally want to destroy the whole entire system because nothing is being done Hate basically comes from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire The middle class think that by protecting themselves they need to fix it 2 Labor and Farmers Farmers make out 50 percent of workers Farmers have two major problems the price of transporting and selling their goods is going up In order to make money of their crops they have to actually send that crop to the people who are buying it The way to do this was by trains Trains charger farmers more to ship their crops The price goes up so a lot of farmers are not able to pay for the transportation they will end up losing money instead of profiting The farmers need to take out a mortgage The farmers and the middle class form a super group called the avengers 3 Progressives The progressives are a group comprised of middle class workers and farmer whose goal in the progressive era is to create a strong and stable united states with a firm moral character Hold specific values and characteristics They have a plan for accomplishing their plan they want to accomplish this by using the federal government s power Fix problems in three areas political participation economic freedoms protections and stronger social values Think federal government is the key to do this Appeals to both democrats and republicans both parties can be progressives One important area progressives tend to ignore is the issues and problems related to races Their idea is African Americans are people too so if they fix all these big problems then everyone is being helped In this time period African Americans have responses to this They are going to look at the issues that confront the US as a whole but also specifically the problems they face and want to sort them out Progressives are nationwide Significance SEE END OF PROGRESSIVE PART 2 II Reform the Government 1 Initiative referendum recall Progressives were aware bulk of money was coming from corporations They were looking for opportunities where the average American citizen can have more power and say directly on their government They approach at all levels Initiative referendum recall are state level and lower only Initiative where the citizens of the state petition for a law basically write law themselves and then vote on that proposed law Referendum the state legislature writes the proposed law but then they give it to the citizens to vote on Recall allows the citizens to petition for an early vote a vote specifically to remove that person from office When you recall you are voting for two things to recall the elective and part two who you want the replacement to be Very short time frame Initiate the 3 processes throughout the US 2 Seventeenth Amendment progressives are interested in giving Americans more say in their federal government as well The constitution when it was first written had the state legislature got to pick who the state senators where The senators were serving the interest of companies and corporations Progressives wanted to change this so they needed an amendment 17th amendment It allows for the direct election of senators This amendment is trying to cut out companies and corporations with their money Trying to give the people more power During this era women did not have the right to vote Prior to the civil war women began advocating for their right to vote as citizens of the United States 3 Women s Suffrage Because of Civil War and reconstruction women s right to vote got pushed back The progressives have already gotten a lot of changes and now that they aren t all on board there is really no real progress towards this issue III Reform Business 1 Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 congress passes this law in 1890 This law is designed to limit monopolies on the American Economy This law authorizes the department of justice who reports to the president of the United States to investigate and prosecute corporations that prevent competition Designed to go after monopolies break them up provide more competition and have the consumers benefit There are limitations and loopholes to who actually get prosecuted 2 Keating Owen Child Labor Act 1916 Another law passed by congress Show congress pictures of the kids in these awful conditions so they pass this law The law says that it is illegal to use child labor in the manufacture of goods that are sold between the states called interstate commerce If these goods are sold outside of the country you cannot use child labor Does not protect child from working in factories they can still manufacture the good and sell it in the state and still use child labor Protects more kids than it did before but not all kids Not all kids are protected until the 1930 s It was more of a mixed success Did not fix everything but helped some kids 3 Food and Drug Administration 1906 Prior to 1906 if there was issues with food production Upton Sinclair wrote about it in a book called The Jungle There s more and more publicity about bad food and medicine Progressives see this is a problem and think maybe they should fix it Pass this law that creates the food and drug administration Created as federal agency designed to protect the food and medicine for the entire United States They go and make sure meats are stored properly and set basic rules and regulations The FDA had to keep up with the new food being made and drugs It s pretty successful and still around today IV More Work to Do