Ch 19

Upton Sinclair- The Jungle

A 1906 journalist, Upton Sinclair, exposed some of the most extreme forms of labor exploitation in his novel "The Jungle", which described appalling conditions in chicago, meat-packing plants. What caught the nation;s attention was not Sinclair's account of worker's plight, but his descriptions of rotten meat and filthy packing conditions. The impact of the Jungle showed how urban reformers could affect national politics.

Pure Food and Drug Act

A 1906 law regulation the conditions in the food and drug industries to ensure a safe supply of food and medicine. They also created federal Food and Drug Administration to oversee compliance with the new law.

Political Machines

A complex, hierarchical party organization such as New York's, Tammany Hall, whose candidates remained in office on the strength of their political organization and their personal relationship with voters, especially working-class immigrants who had littler alternative access to political power. Machines dispensed jobs and patronage, arranged for urban services, and devoted their political clout and popularity among urban voters, AKA, proved jobs for the jobless.

Muckrakers

A critical term, first applied by Theodore Roosevelt, for investigative journalists who published exposes of political scandals and industrial abuses, they were believed to have focused too much on the negative side of the American life. The term stuck, but Muckrakers' influence was profound. They inspired thousands of readers to get involved in reform movements and tackle problems caused by industrialization.

Yellow Journalism

A derogatory term for newspapers that specialize in sensationalistic reporting. Yellow journalism is associated with the inflammatory reporting by the Hearst and Pulitzer newspapers leading up to the Spanish- American war in 1898. Sunday color comics featuring the "Yellow Kid"

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

A devastating fire that quickly spread through the Triangle Shirtwaist company in NYC on March 25, 1911, killing 146 people. In the wake of the tragedy, fifty-six state laws were passed dealing with such issues as fire hazards, unsafe machines, and wages and working hours for women and children. The fire also provided a national impulse for industrial reform.

Tenements

A high-density, cheap, five- or six- story housing unit designed for working-class urban populations. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tenements became a symbol of urban immigrant poverty.

Progressivism

A loose term for political reformers- especially those from elite and middle classes who worked to improve the political system, fight poverty, conserve environmental resources, and increase government involvement in the economy. Giving their name to "Progressive Era", such reformers were often prompted to act by the fear that mass, radical protests by workers and farmers would spread, as well as by their desire to enhance social welfare and social injustice.

Margaret Sanger

A nurse who moved to NYC in 1911 and volunteered with a Lower East Side settlement. Horrified by women's suffering from constant pregnancies- and remembering her devout catholic mother, who had died young after bearing eleven children- Sanger launched a crusade for what she called birth control. Her newspaper column,"what every girl should soon", soon garnered an indictment for violating obscenity laws. the publicity that resulted helped Sanger launch a national birth control movement.

Chicago School

A school dedicated to the design of buildings whose form expressed rather than masked their structure and function.

Race riot

A term for an attack on African Americans by white mobs, triggered by political conflicts, street altercations, or rumors of crime. In some cases, such "riots" were not spontaneous but planned in advance by a group of leaders seeking to enforce white supremacy.

Mann Act

An act passed by congress that prohibited the transportation of prostitutes across state lines

Mutual Aid Societies

An urban aid society that served members of an ethnic immigrant group, usually those from a particular province or town. The societies functioned as fraternal clubs that collected dues from members in order to pay support in case of death or disability.

National Consumers' League

Begun in New York, a national progressive organization that encouraged women, through their shopping decisions, to support fair wages and working conditions for industrial laborers.

Tammany Hall

Consisted of layers of political functionaries. At the bottom were precinct captains who knew ever city neighborhood and block; above them were ward bosses and, at the top, the powerful citywide leaders, who had usually started at the bottom and worked their way up.

Jacob Riis - How the Other Lives

Danish- born journalist Jacob Riis included photographs of tenement interiors i his famous 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives. Riis had a profound influence on Theodore Roosevelt when the future president served as New York City's police commissioner. Roosevelt asked Riis to lead him on tours around the tenements, to help him better understand the problems of poverty, disease, and crime.

Florence Kelley

Florence was the head of the NCL, she was a Hull House worker and former chief factory inspector in Illinois. She believed that only government oversight could protect exploited workers. Under her crusading leadership, the NCL became one of the most progressive organizations advocating worker protection laws.

Hull House/ Jane Addams

Jane was a daughter of the middle class who create the first social settlement, The Hull House. This house was one of the first and most social settlements, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her companion Ellen Gates Starr in an impoverished, largely Italian immigrant neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. These settlements offered idealistic young people a place where they could live as neighbors and hive as much as they could of what they had.

Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst

Joseph was the owner of the St Louis Post Dispatch and New York world, he led the way in building his sales base with sensational investigations, human-interest stories, and targeted sections covering sports and high society. Together, Hearst and Pulitzer created sensational coverage in yellow journalism with Pulitzer, their papers helped whip up frenzied pressure for the United States to declare war against Spain. They also exposed scandals and injustices, they believed their papers should challenge the powerful by speaking to and for ordinary Americans.

Lincoln Steffens

One of the most famous Muckrakers and author of the Shame of the Cities (1904), first published serially in McClure's magazine, denounced the corruption of afflicting America's urban governments, Steffens used dramatic language to expose "swindling" politicians.

Louis Sullivan

The architect of the "Chicago School" whose "vertical aesthetic" of set-back windows and strong columns gave skyscrapers a "proud and soaring" presence and offered plentiful natural light for workers inside.

Social Settlement

a community welfare center that investigated the plight of the urban poor, raised funds to address urgent needs, and helped neighborhood residents advocate on their own behalf. Social settlements became a nationally recognized reform strategy during the Progressive Era.