Progressive Era Test

Municipal Reforms - Robert La Follette

Before the Progressive era, city municipalities such as water, transportation, and electricity were privately owned. The companies that controlled such were often corrupt. Thus, there was a movement to have the utilities owned by the government instead.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Carrie Chapman Catt was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920.

Federal Reserve System

Central banking system of the United States

18th Amendment

Effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring the the production, transport, and sale of alcohol (though not the consumption or private possession) illegal.

17th Amendment

Established the popular election of United States Senators by the people of the states. The amendment supersedes Article I, §3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures.

Describe the events, the candidates, their political agendas and the result of the 1912 Election. Finally, based on the results of the 1912 election it is reasonable to conclude that most Americans favored some amount of progressive reform? Explain.

First up is the incumbent Republican William Howard Taft. Taft has a solid antitrust record, using ninety lawsuits against the trusts during his time as president. Taft supports high import tariffs, limitations on child and female labor and workmen's compensation laws. He is against initiative, referendum and recall. Taft has promoted the idea that judges need to be more powerful than those elected to office. Taft is determined to preserve the conservative heart of the Republican Party. He has campaigned quietly. Some say it's because he knows he has a slim chance of winning now that traditional Republican support has been split between the conservative Republican Party and the Progressive Party. Challenging Taft for the presidency is Democrat Woodrow Wilson, hailing from South Carolina. Wilson was president of Princeton University and later developed a strong reform record as the governor of New Jersey. His platform consists of his 'New Freedom.' Wilson wants to implement antitrust legislation to eliminate monopolies, viewing big business as unfair and inefficient. Wilson feels that big business reduces opportunity for many ordinary Americans. He seeks an era of small government, small businesses and free competition. Wilson is also critical of organized labor, socialism and radical farmers. Wilson supports Progressive legislation, including tariff reduction, income tax reform, currency and credit reform. Also throwing his hat into the ring is the Socialist Eugene V. Debs. Debs was a labor organizer and one of the most prominent socialists in the United States. Some members of the Socialist Party propose ending America's capitalist economic system and replacing it with a socialized economic system. Debs advocates for public ownership of the railroads and utilities, no tariffs, a shortened work day, a minimum wage, a graduated income tax and a system of social insurance against unemployment and industrial accidents and death. Socialists also advocate for the election of the president and vice president by direct vote of the people. He maintains that the other political parties are financed by the large trusts. Unfortunately for Debs, most of the labor unions are supporting Wilson. And last, but not least, the former President and Progressive 'Bull Moose' candidate, Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt. Roosevelt's platform formed around his New Nationalism principles, which include a broad range of social and political reforms, including a federal child labor law, federal workmen's compensation, regulation of labor relations and a minimum wage for women. The Progressive Party also advocates lower tariffs, initiative, referendum, recall, direct election of senators and direct primaries. Roosevelt differentiates between good and bad trusts and claimed that big business must be strictly regulated in the public interest. He believes in the protection of workers and consumers and in environmental protection. The Progressive Party is the only party to advocate women's suffrage, or the right to vote, at the national level. Wilson and the Democrats have won with 435 electoral votes, Roosevelt and the Progressive 'Bull Moose' Party came in second with 88 electoral votes, while Taft and the Republican Party came in third with 8 electoral votes. Debs did not score any electoral votes, but he did manage to earn 6% of the popular vote, the highest proportion ever for the Socialist party. It is also quite clear that the split in the Republican Party has contributed to the Democrats' victory. The 1912 election was significant for several reasons. It was the high point of the progressive movement in terms of progressive ideals and rhetoric at the national level. In this election, a third party candidate, Roosevelt of the Progressive Party, beat one of the two major party candidates, Taft of the Republican Party. Wilson's victory brought the Democrats back in power of the national government for the first time since before the Civil War. The Democrats gained both houses of Congress, as well as the presidency. The election also brought southern leadership and influence to the national government.

Direct Democracy

Most Progressives did not want a direct democracy

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination". The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering such as police misconduct, the status of black foreign refugees, and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people.

State Reforms

Secret Ballot- Privacy at the ballot box ensures that citizens can cast votes without party bosses knowing how they voted. Initiative- Allows voters to petition state legislatures in order to consider a bill desired by citizens. Referendum- Allows voters to decide if a bill or proposed amendment should be passed. Recall- Allows voters to petition to have an elected representative removed from office. Direct Primary- Ensures that voters select candidates to run for office, rather than party bosses.

Clayton Antitrust Act

Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by outlawing the creation of a monopoly through any means, and stated that unions were not subject to antitrust legislation.

Susan B. Anthony

Susan Brownell Anthony was an American social reformer and women's rights advocate who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

16th Amendment

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

NAWSA

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed on February 18, 1890 to work for women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).

Election of 1912

The United States presidential election of 1912 was fought among three major candidates. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican Party with the support of the conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created the Progressive Party (nicknamed the "Bull Moose Party"). It nominated Roosevelt and ran candidates for other offices in major states. Democrat Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious convention, thanks to the support of William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate who still had a large and loyal following in 1912.

New Freedom

The first two comprise the campaign speeches and promises of Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential campaign calling for limited government, and Wilson's 1913 book of the same name.

Describe the Woman's Suffrage Movement at the turn of the century, explain the strategies suffragists used to influence society, critique anti-suffragist theories, and indicate how suffragists, ultimately, obtained victory.

The turning point came in the late 1880s and early 1890s, when the nation experienced a surge of volunteerism among middle-class women—activists in progressive causes, members of women's clubs and professional societies, temperance advocates, and participants in local civic and charity organizations. The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped legitimate the suffrage movement and provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA. By 1890, seeking to capitalize on their newfound "constituency," the two groups united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).6 Led initially by Stanton and then by Anthony, the NAWSA began to draw on the support of women activists in organizations as diverse as the Women's Trade Union League, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and the National Consumer's League. Women in Congress Historical Essays Women in Congress: An Introduction I'm No Lady; I'm a Member of Congress The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920 Early Congresswomen's Backgrounds The Widow and Familial Connections Media Curiosities Legislative Interests and Achievements Crafting an Identity Onto the National Stage A Changing of the Guard Assembling, Amplifying, and Ascending Member Profiles Historical Data Artifacts The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920 Related Links Meet the Women Members of the 65th-73rd Congresses (1917-1934) Education Resources on Women in Congress The beginning of the fight for women's suffrage in the United States, which predates Jeannette Rankin's entry into Congress by nearly 70 years, grew out of a larger women's rights movement. That reform effort evolved during the 19th century, initially emphasizing a broad spectrum of goals before focusing solely on securing the franchise for women. Women's suffrage leaders, moreover, often disagreed about the tactics for and the emphasis (federal versus state) of their reform efforts. Ultimately, the suffrage movement provided political training for some of the early women pioneers in Congress, but its internal divisions foreshadowed the persistent disagreements among women in Congress and among women's rights activists after the passage of the 19th Amendment. Alice Paul (second from left), chairwoman of the militant National Woman's Party, and officers of the group in front of their Washington headquarters, circa 1920s. They are holding a banner emblazoned with a quote from suffragist Susan B. Anthony: "No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex."View Larger Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Alice Paul (second from left), chairwoman of the militant National Woman's Party, and officers of the group in front of their Washington headquarters, circa 1920s. They are holding a banner emblazoned with a quote from suffragist Susan B. Anthony: "No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex." The first gathering devoted to women's rights in the United States was held July 19-20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. The principal organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a mother of four from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott.1 About 100 people attended the convention; two-thirds were women. Stanton drafted a "Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances, and Resolutions," that echoed the preamble of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal." Among the 13 resolutions set forth in Stanton's "Declaration" was the goal of achieving the "sacred right of franchise."2 The sometimes-fractious suffrage movement that grew out of the Seneca Falls meeting proceeded in successive waves. Initially, women reformers addressed social and institutional barriers that limited women's rights; including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the absence of a voice in political debates. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Massachusetts teacher, met in 1850 and forged a lifetime alliance as women's rights activists. For much of the 1850s they agitated against the denial of basic economic freedoms to women. Later, they unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to include women in the provisions of the 14th and 15th Amendments (extending citizenship rights and granting voting rights to freedmen, respectively). Suffragists parade in New York City in 1916 with a banner that reads "President Wilson favors votes for women." Woodrow Wilson, a reluctant convert to the cause, eventually supported the 19th Amendment which passed the House in 1918 and was ratified by the states in 1920.View Larger Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Suffragists parade in New York City in 1916 with a banner that reads "President Wilson favors votes for women." Woodrow Wilson, a reluctant convert to the cause, eventually supported the 19th Amendment which passed the House in 1918 and was ratified by the states in 1920. In the wake of the Civil War, however, reformers sought to avoid marginalization as "social issues" zealots by focusing their message exclusively on the right to vote.3 In 1869 two distinct factions of the suffrage movement emerged. Stanton and Anthony created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which directed its efforts toward changing federal law and opposed the 15th Amendment because it excluded women. Lucy Stone, a one time Massachusetts antislavery advocate and a prominent lobbyist for women's rights, formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).4 Leaders of the AWSA rejected the NWSA's agenda as being racially divisive and organized with the aim to continue a national reform effort at the state level. Although California Senator Aaron Sargent introduced in Congress a women's suffrage amendment in 1878, the overall campaign stalled. Eventually, the NWSA also shifted its efforts to the individual states where reformers hoped to start a ripple effect to win voting rights at the federal level. During the 1880s, the two wings of the women's rights movement struggled to maintain momentum. The AWSA was better funded and the larger of the two groups, but it had only a regional reach. The NWSA, which was based in New York, relied on its statewide network but also drew recruits from around the nation, largely on the basis of the extensive speaking circuit of Stanton and Anthony. Neither group attracted broad support from women, or persuaded male politicians or voters to adopt its cause. Susan B. Anthony and Ida H. Harper cowrote, "In the indifference, the inertia, the apathy of women, lies the greatest obstacle to their enfranchisement." Historian Nancy Woloch described early suffragists' efforts as "a crusade in political education by women and for women, and for most of its existence, a crusade in search of a constituency."5 The turning point came in the late 1880s and early 1890s, when the nation experienced a surge of volunteerism among middle-class women—activists in progressive causes, members of women's clubs and professional societies, temperance advocates, and participants in local civic and charity organizations. The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped legitimate the suffrage movement and provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA. By 1890, seeking to capitalize on their newfound "constituency," the two groups united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).6 Led initially by Stanton and then by Anthony, the NAWSA began to draw on the support of women activists in organizations as diverse as the Women's Trade Union League, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and the National Consumer's League. The official program for the March 3, 1913, National American Woman Suffrage Association's procession in Washington, D.C. The cover features a woman seated on a horse and blowing a long horn, from which is draped a "votes for women" banner. The U.S. Capitol is in background.View Larger Image courtesy of the Library of Congress The official program for the March 3, 1913, National American Woman Suffrage Association's procession in Washington, D.C. The cover features a woman seated on a horse and blowing a long horn, from which is draped a "votes for women" banner. The U.S. Capitol is in background. For the next two decades, the NAWSA worked as a nonpartisan organization focused on gaining the vote in states, though managerial problems and a lack of coordination initially limited its success. The first state to grant women complete voting rights was Wyoming in 1869. Three other western states—Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), and Idaho (1896)—followed shortly after NAWSA was founded. But prior to 1910, only these four states allowed women to vote. Between 1910 and 1914, the NAWSA intensified its lobbying efforts and additional states extended the franchise to women: Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon. In Illinois, future Congresswoman Ruth Hanna McCormick helped lead the fight for suffrage as a lobbyist in Springfield, when the state legislature granted women the right to vote in 1913; this marked the first such victory for women in a state east of the Mississippi River. A year later, Montana granted women the right to vote, thanks in part to the efforts of another future Congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin. Despite the new momentum, however, some reformers were impatient with the pace of change. In 1913, Alice Paul, a young Quaker activist who had experience in the English suffrage movement, formed the rival Congressional Union (later named the National Woman's Party).7 Paul's group freely adopted the more militant tactics of its English counterparts, picketing and conducting mass rallies and marches to raise public awareness and support. Embracing a more confrontational style, Paul drew a younger generation of women to her movement, helped resuscitate the push for a federal equal rights amendment, and relentlessly attacked the Democratic administration of President Woodrow Wilson for obstructing the extension of the vote to women.Catt's steady strategy of securing voting rights state by state and Paul's vocal and partisan protest campaign coincided with the Wilson administration's decision to intervene in the First World War—a development that provided powerful rhetoric for and a measure of expediency for granting the vote.9 The NAWSA publicly embraced the war cause, despite the fact that many women suffragists, including Rankin, were pacifists. Suffrage leaders suggested that the effort to "make the world safe for democracy" ought to begin at home, by extending the franchise. Moreover, they insisted, the failure to extend the vote to women might impede their participation in the war effort just when they were most needed to play a greater role as workers and volunteers outside the home. Responding to these overtures, the House of Representatives initially passed a voting rights amendment on January 10, 1918, but the Senate did not follow suit before the end of the 65th Congress. It was not until after the war, however, that the measure finally cleared Congress with the House again voting its approval by a wide margin on May 21, 1919, and the Senate concurring on June 14, 1919. A year later, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment, providing full voting rights for women nationally, was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.

19th Amendment

U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote—a right known as woman suffrage. At the time the U.S. was founded, its female citizens did not share all of the same rights as men, including the right to vote.

Muckraker

Upton Sinclair

Progressive Groups

Who are the progressives? Urban middle class Americans who are challenging the status quo. Socialist Movement Municipal Reformers Women's Movement Environmental Movement Anti-trust Movement Labor Movements (child labor) Muckrakers Civil Rights Movement: NAACP- no progression Prohibition Movement Educational Movement

WWI effects on Women's Movement

World War I led to several important advances for women. Women's war work increased support for woman suffrage and contributed to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. In addition, during the war, the Department of Labor created the Women in Industry Service. After the war, the Women in Industry Service became the Women's Bureau, headed by Mary van Kleeck.

Alice Paul

Alice Paul was an American suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and the main leader and strategist of the 1910s campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote.

Federal Reforms

Newlands Reclamation act- Encouraged conservation by allowing the building of dams and irrigations systems using money from the sale of public lands. Elkins Act- Outlawed the use of rebates by railroad officials or shippers. Pure Food and Drug Act- Required that companies accurately label the ingredients contained in processed food items. Meat Inspection Act- In direct response to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, this law required that meat processing plants be inspected to ensure the use of good meat and health-minded procedures. Hepburn Act- Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, allowing it to set maximum railroad rates. Federal Reserve Act- Created 12 district Federal Reserve Banks, each able to issue new currency and loan member banks funds at the prime interest rate, as established by the Federal Reserve Board. Clayton Antitrust Act- Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by outlawing the creation of a monopoly through any means, and stated that unions were not subject to antitrust legislation. Federal Trade Act- Established the Federal Trade Commission, charged with investigating unfair business practices including monopolistic activity and inaccurate product labeling.

New Nationalism

Roosevelt made the case for what he called the New Nationalism in a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, on September 1, 1910. The central issue he argued was government protection of human welfare and property rights, but he also argued that human welfare was more important than property rights. He insisted that only a powerful federal government could regulate the economy and guarantee social justice, and that a President can only succeed in making his economic agenda successful if he makes the protection of human welfare his highest priority. Roosevelt believed that the concentration in industry was a natural part of the economy. He wanted executive agencies (not the courts) to regulate business. The federal government should be used to protect the laboring men, women and children from exploitation. In terms of policy, Roosevelt's platform included a broad range of social and political reforms advocated by progressives.