history chapter 20

Mugwumps

"gentlemen" reformers who had fought the patronage system and insisted that government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit supplied progressivism with important element of its thinking: "honest gov" ideal

General Federation of Women's Clubs (including Chicago Women's Club started by Caroline Brown to help women address teh "live issues of this world we live in")

founded in 1890: insisted that the nation's civic life needed the humanizing effect of female leadership sought to clean up filthy slums by educating residents about personal and household hygiene ("municipal housekeeping"), urging construction of sewer systems, and launching public awareness campaigns about the connection between unsanitary conditions and disease campaigned for child-care centers, kindergartens, gov inspects of food processing plants, stricter housing codes, laws protecting women in teh workplace, more social services for poor/sick/disabled/abused + others addressed widespread problems related to prostitution an alcohol abuse

Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874: largest women's group in the nation (300000 members: middle-class women = driving force behind efforts to stop sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages): wets (drunks) vs drys by attacking drunkenness and closing saloons (most motivated by strong religious convictions), hoped to 1. prevent domestic violence by husbands and fathers 2. reduce crime in the streets 3. remove one of the worst tools of corruption (free beer on election days) used by political bosses to "buy" votes among the working class saloon = enemy of society bc root of a evils describe itself as "the Protestant church in action against the saloon: initially focused on closing down saloons rather than abolishing alcohol -> decided to force the prohibition issue into the forefront of state and local elections

Salvation Army

founded in London 1878, came to US a year later: centers offered "soup kitchens" to feed the poor and day nurseries for the children of working mothers

effort to promote greater SOCIAL JUSTICE for the working poor and for jobless and homeless people (through campaigns for social justice by advocacy organizations and women's clubs: progressives work in settlement houses and other religiously inspired efforts + formed new advocacy organizations (ex National Consumers' League: educated consumers about harsh working conditions in factories and mills as well as companies' widespread use of child workers as a means of lowering labor costs)

fourth important focus of progressive movement

from corrupt politicians to too-powerful corporations, from economic distress on small farms and in big cities to the general feeling that "the people" had lost control of the nation to what Roosevelt called "the special interests," selfish businesses and their leaders who were solely interested in "money-getting" at the expense of public welfare.

given great diversity, progressives focused on many specific goals and used many diff methods -> assaulted a wide array of social and political evils SUCH AS WHAT

Samuel S McClure

golden age of muckraking began in 1902 when THIS guy, owner of McClure's Magazine, began paying idealistic journalists to root out the rampant corruption in politics and corporations - was determined to make his popular magazine a "power for good" - insisted that the "vitality of democracy" depended upon journalists educating the public abt "complex questions" involving the miserable conditions in which poor Americans lived and worked

people now worked "not for themselves" but "as employees of great corporations

how did the explosive growth of big business change the nature of business life

depression of the 1890s

ignited the progressive spirit of reform: worst economic downturn in American history to that point brought massive layoffs in factories, mines, railroads, mills - nearly 1/4 of the adults in the workforce lost their jobs - US contained some of the highest concentrations of poverty among the industrialized nations although it boasted the highest per capita income in the world: 1900: 10 million of 82 million americans live in desperate poverty w/ annual incomes barely adequate to provide the minimum necessities of life - devastating effects of THIS prompted many upper-middle-class urban ppl to organize efforts to reform society

Lincoln Steffens

in his monthly articles in McClure's magazine, THIS GUY, one of the leading muckrakers, regularly asked: "Will the people rule? Is democracy possible?" - he and other progressives often answered that the way to improve America's democracy was to make it even more democratic

Populism/Populist platforms of 1892 and 1896

included political reforms intended to give more power to "the people," such as the "direct" election of US senators by the voters rather than by state legislatures although defeat of William Jennings Bryan in 1896 presidential campaign ended THIS PARTY as a serious political force, many of the reforms it pushed were implemented by progressives during early 20th century

initiative and referendum citizens could sign petitions to have a proposal put on the ballot (initiative) and could then vote it up or down (referendum)

increase participation in political process: 1898: South Dakota become first state to adopt THIS: procedures that allowed voters to create laws directly rather than having to wait for legislative action

"efficiency bureaus"

many cities set THIS up to identify ways their governments were wasting money and to apply more cost-effective "best practices" from other cities

"Wisconsin idea"

more efficient government run by experts + was widely publicized and copied by other progressive governors. Robert La Follette: used the bureau's reports to enact reforms: direct primary, stronger railroad regulation, the conservation of natural resources, and workmen's compensation programs to support people injured on the job

the regulation of giant corporations (threat of corporate monopolies increased during te depression of 1890s as struggling companies were gobbled up by larger ones)

of all problems facing American society at the turn of the century, which one towered above all? (3rd focus of progressive movement)

Ida Tarbell

one of most dedicated muckrakers: - loved "the sense of vitality, of adventure, of excitement" at McClure's - spent years doggedly investigating the unethical and illegal means by which John D. Rockefeller had built his gigantic Standard Oil trust - At the end of her series of nineteen McClure's articles, she asked readers: "And what are we going to do about it?" - campaign against monopolies made her "the most famous woman in America"

Anti-Saloon League

organization based in local churches that pioneered the strategy of the single-issue political pressure group

legislation to improve working conditions in mills, mines, and factories (and on railroads): legislation to ensure better working conditions and limit child labor was perhaps most significant reform to emerge from the drive for progressive social justice -> efforts to regulate children's and women's work

other progressive reformers pushed what

good-government movement

over the years, THIS expanded to include efforts ot only to end political corruption but also to address persistent urban issues such as rising crime; access to electricity, clean water, and sewers; mass transit; and garbage collection. (promote working-class reforms)

commission system

place ultimate authority in a board composed of a small group of commissioners who combined both legislative and executive powers in heading up city departments first adopted in 1901 by Galveston, TX, after the local gov collapsed following a devastating hurricane and tidal wave that killed 8000 ppl (greatest natural disaster in American history)

prohibition or temperance movement

popular in Midwest and South (protestants): battle against alcoholic beverages that took a new strength in 1893 with formation of Anti-Saloon League

"investigate, educate, legislate"

progressive approach to social problems

"progressive" federal income tax

progressives address America's growing economic inequality (old idea): one way to redistribute wealth was thru the creation of THIS (called this no bc of the idea's association with the progressive movement, but bc the tax rates are based on a sliding scale: rates "progress" or rise as income levels rise -> force rich to pay more) such a "graduated" or "progressive" tax system = climax of the progressive movement's commitment to a more equitable distribution of wealth

"graduated" federal income tax

progressives believed that THIS would help slow the concentration of wealth in teh hands of teh richest Americans, who between 1890-1910 had nearly doubled their share of the national income, chiefly at the expense of the middle class Pres Theodore Roosevelt announced his support for the tax: 1907 -> William Howard Taft endorsed constitutional amendment allowing such a tax + Congress agree 1909

Nineteenth Amendment

prohibited the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages (Congress finally approved the Prohibition amendment in 1917)

Progressive activists

though mostly white, urban, middle-class professionals, so numerous that they came in all stripes: men and women + Democrats, Republicans, Populists, Socialists + labor unionists and business executives + teachers and professors + social workers and journalists + farmers and homemakers + whites and blacks + clergymen, atheists, agnostics whatever their motives and methods, their combined efforts led to significant improvements at all levels of gov and across all levels of society

adoption of the direct primary, initiative, referendum, and recall

to empower citizens to clean up a corrupt political system driven by backroom deals and rigged party conventions, Steffens and other progressives pushed for several reforms intended to make the political process more open and transparent SUCH AS (reforms in the political process)

National Consumers' League exhibit

to raise awareness about labor reform, everyday objects were displayed at a NY exhibition in 1908 alongside descriptions of the poor working conditions and exploitation that went into their manufacture

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

took a tragic disaster to spur meaningful gov regulation of dangerous workplaces: March 25, 1911 = fire broke out at Triangle Shirtwaist factory (called a "sweatshop" bc of its cramped and unventilated work area) in NYC - escape routes limited bc owner kept stairway door locked to prevent theft + 146 workers trapped on upper floors of 10 story building died in te fire or leaped to their deaths - victims = mostly young, foreign-born women in their teens (Jewish, Italian, Russian immigrants) - aftermath: dozens of new city and state regulations dealing w fire hazards, dangerous working conditions, child labor enacted across the nation

1. commission system 2. city-manager plan

two Taylorist ideas for reconstructing city and county governments that emerged in the first decade of new century

pressing problem created by: - unregulated industrialization - unplanned urbanization - increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power insisted something must be done to control the very large and powerful corporations that dominated economic activity and corrupted its political life Amos Pinchot: "We have permitted an uncontrolled industrial oligarchy to assume... tremendous and arrogant power"

what did progressive reformers attack between 1890 and 1920

expand the role of government "as an agency of human welfare"

what was the "real heart of the progressive movement"

YMCA and YWCA (known as "the Y")

young men's christian association and one for women enter US from England in 1850s and grew rapidly after 1870: - combined nondenominational religious evangelism w/ social services and fitness training in centers, segregated race as well as gender, that were built in cities across the country - intended to provide low-cost housing and healthful exercise in a "safe Christian environment" for young men and women from rural areas or foreign countries - THESE centers often included libraries, classrooms, kitchens

muckrakers

- Writers who exposed corruption and abuses in politics, business, consumer safety, working conditions, and more, spurring public interest in progressive reforms (progressivism depended on newspapers and magazines to inform the public about political corruption and social problems) - investigative journalists whose aggressive reporting educated the upper and middle classes about political and corporate wrongdoing and revealed "how the other half lives" - saw it as the responsibility of reporters to show people in comfortable circumstances the ugly realities of everyday poverty ("rich are farther from the poor than every before") - got nickname from Theodore Roosevelt, who said that crusading journalists were "often indispensable to society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck" - changed the face of journalism and gave it a new political role by uncovering political corruption and writing about social ills in newspapers and popular monthly magazines such as McClure's, Munsey's, and Cosmopolitan - challenged readers to take action against political corruption and corporate wrongdoing Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, William Allen White without them, progressivism would never have achieved widespread popular support

"progressives"

- believed America was experiencing a "crisis of democracy" (period of unrest: corruption was destroying respect for gov, uprooting faith in political parties, and causing every precedent and convention of the old order to strain at its moorings) that required bold action by churches, charitable organizations, experts, individuals + expanded role for governments - argued that the US had been changing so rapidly since the end of the Civil War that the nation was at risk of imploding - liberals, not revolutionaries - wanted to reform and regulate capitalism, not destroy it - most were civic-minded Christian moralists who felt that politics had become a contest between good and evil, honesty and corruption - all shared the assumption that governments (local, state, national) must take a more active role in addressing the huge problems created by rapid urban and industrial growth drew upon the new "social sciences" being developed at new research universities to make governments more responsive and "efficient" and businesses more honest and safer for workers and consumers

progressivism

- by the beginning of the 20th century, THIS had become the most dynamic social and political force in the nation - generated an extraordinary awakening in civic consciousness over the previous 20 years - more a widespread impulse supported by elements of both major political parties than it was a single movement with a common agenda - unlike Populism, was a wide-ranging national movement, centered in large cities but also popular in rural areas among what came to be called Populist progressives

Frederick Winslow Taylor

- champion of second major theme of progressivism = "gospel of efficacy" - Philadelphia-born engineer who during the 1890s became a celebrated business consultant, helping mills and factories operate more efficiently by practicing "scientific management (industrial management: one of most important contributions to capitalist economies in 20th century) - self-described progressive + nation's first "efficiency expert": show employers how to cut waste and increase productivity By breaking down work activities (filling a wheelbarrow, driving a nail, shoveling coal) into a sequence of mechanical steps and using stopwatches to measure the time it took each worker to perform each step in a task, HE established detailed performance standards (and cash rewards) for each job classification, specifying how fast people doing each job should work and when they should rest.

Jane Addams

- leading progressive reformer: reported that charities and churches were "totally inadequate to deal with the vast numbers of the city's disinherited" - settlement house movement (Hull House) and political reform - to her, the social gospel driving progressive reformers reflected their "yearning sense of justice and compassion" -> soon realized her work in the rapidly spreading immigrant slums was like bailing out the ocean w/ a teaspoon -> added political reform to their already lengthy agenda and began lobbying for new laws and regulations to improve the living conditions in poor neighborhoods - as her influence in Chicago grew: appointer to prominent governmental and community boards, where she focused on improving public health and good safety, pushing for better street lighting and police protection, and reducing the use of narcotics - ardent pacifist and outspoken advocate for suffrage (voting rights) for women, she would become the first American women to win the Nobel Peace Prize

American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)

formed by Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone in 1869 bc insisted that pursuing multiple issues hurt suffrage activists' case: based in boston + focused single-mindedly on voting rights and included men among its leaders

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

1890: two rival groups united as THIS

statewide primary

1896: South Carolina became the first state to adopt THIS -> within 20 yrs every state done so special election that is used to choose candidates from among a political party for a more major election

Taylorism

= Labor system based on detailed study of work tasks, championed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, intended to maximize efficiency and profits for employers. - goals of THIS was to improve both productivity and profits for employers and also raise pay for workers -> no need for strikes - controversial: many workers resent bc see them as a tool to make ppl work faster - brought concrete improvements in productivity

industrial economy

America had quickly become the world's fastest-growing WHAT even thought the prosperity was not being evenly shared (widening gap between rich and poor during the Gilded Age = major concern)

Sixteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that authorized the federal income tax. (1913)

Seventeenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that provided for the (direct) public election of senators rather than the traditional practice allowing state legislatures to name them: under the Constitution, state legislatures lad elected senators, a process that was frequently corrupted by lobbyists and vote buying 1894: House of Rep passed THIS to allow voters to elect senators directly, only to see it defeated in teh Senate 1913: efforts of progressives helped this to get ratified

Bunting v Oregon (1917)

Court accepted a state law allowing no more than 10hr workday for both men and women (for 20 more years, nation's highest court held out against state laws requiring minimum age)

Lochner v New York (1905)

Court ruled that a law limiting the workday to no more than 10 hours was unconstitutional bc it violated workers' right to accept any jobs they wanted, no matter how bad the working conditions or how low the pay (Supreme Court inconsistent in its ruling on state labor laws)

Muller v Oregon (1908)

Court upheld a 10hr workday law for women, largely on the basis of research showing the ill effects of long working hours on women's health

"Government by Magazine"

During the early twentieth century, investigative journalism became such a powerful force for change that one editor said that Americans were benefiting from WHAT

Walter Rauschenbusch

German-born Baptist minister serving immigrant tenement dwellers in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of NYC: - became the greatest champion of the social gospel - published a pioneering book in 1907: Christianity and the Social Crisis: argued that "whoever uncouples the religious and social life has not understood Jesus" + hristian emphasis on personal salvation must be lined with an equally passionate commitment to social justice + stressed churches must embrace "the social aims of Jesus" for Christianity was intended to be a "revolutionary" faith - in his view: religious life needed the social gospel to revitalize it and make it socially relevant: seek perfect social life with faith - sought to expose the realities of poverty in America and convince statesmen to deal with the crisis (resonated w/ many ppl)

social gospel

Mostly Protestant movement that stressed the Christian obligation to address the mounting social problems caused by urbanization and industrialization. belief that religious institutions and individual Christians had an obligation to bring about the "Kingdom of God" on earth major forces behind THIS were Christian activists who feared that churches had become too closely associated with the upper and middle classes and were losing their appeal to the working poor

woman suffrage

Movement to give women the right to vote through a constitutional amendment, spearheaded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in NYC: - as women became more involved in the public world of work and wages, the women's rights movement also grew as it tirelessly pursued the right to vote - this movement had hoped that the 15th Amendment (guaranteed voting rights for African American men) would wait their own efforts but majority of men still want women out of politics

YMCA/YWCAs and Salvation Army

during last quarter of 19th century, a growing number of churches and synagogues began emphasizing community service and the care of the unfortunate -> new organizations also made key contributions to teh movement SUCH AS

- in the territories and states west of the Mississippi River that the suffrage movement had its earliest successes: Populism founds its greatest support + women were more engaged in grassroots political activities than they were in the East - early settlers in the western territories were mostly men, so they hoped that providing suffrage would encourage more women to settle in the new territories - suffrage activists in the West emphasized getting working women engaged in the effort + adopted many of the tactics used by labor unions in the West West more supportive of women's rights: 1890-1896: suffrage cause won 3 more victories in wester states: Utah, Colorado, Idaho -> 1910: Washington -> 1911: California -> 1912: Arizona, Kansas, Oregon -> 1913: Illinois (granted voting rights in presidential and municipal elections) not until NY acted in 1917 did a state east of Mississippi River allow women to vote in all elections

Western states' leadership on the suffrage issue

political progressives (at the local and state levels)

during the last quarter of the 19th century, THESE began to attack corrupt political bosses and irresponsible corporate barons goals = more honest and efficient gov, more effective regulation of big business ("trusts"), better living conditions for the majority of Americans who worked with their hands for wages believed goals could be attained only by expanding the scope of local, state, and federal govs

Frances Willard

dynamic president (and founder) of WCTU from 1879-1898: - greatly expanded the goals and scope of the organization - under her leadership: WCTU moved beyond moral persuasion of saloonkeepers and drinkers -> promote legislation to ban alcohol ("prohibition") at the local, state, and federal levels - pushed the group to lobby for other progressive reforms important to women: nationwide 8hr workday, regulation of child labor, gov-funded kindergartens, right to vote for women, federal inspections of teh food industry (while still staying true to og mission)

recall

first adopted in Oregon in 1910, whereby corrupt or incompetent elected officials could be removed by a public petition and vote

Florence Kelley

first president of National Consumers' League

Wyoming

admitted as a state: the first that gave full voting rights for women

"fierce discontent with evil" that animated many Americans at the turn of the nineteenth century

all the impulses and groups comprising the progressive movement grew out of what Theodore Roosevelt called WHAT

direct primary

allowing all members of a political party to vote on the party's nominees for office rather than the traditional practice in which an inner circle of party leaders chose the candidates

Settlement Houses

among the most visible champions of the "social gospel" were those who volunteered in innovative community centers called THIS: Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr (hull House) by early 20th century: hundreds of THESE in cities across the US, most of them in Northeast and Midwest -> teach women how to fit into america: assimilate women to life in america = First attempt at social work

city-manager plan

an appointed professional administrator ran a city or county government in accordance with policies set by the elected council and mayor first adopted in Staunton, Virginia in 1908 -> inadequate response of municipal officials to a flood led Dayton, Ohio, to become the first large city in the nation to adopt in 1913

Progressive Era (1890-1920)

an extraordinary period of intense social activism and dramatic political innovation widespread belief that once people knew "the truth" about social ills, "they would act upon it"

political progressives

applied Taylorism to the operations of government by calling for the reorganization of state and federal agencies to eliminate overlap (the establishment of clear lines of authority) and the replacement of political appointees with trained specialists many complex functions of government had come to require specialists with technical expertise by 20th century: progressive ideals could be achieved only if gov at all levels (local, state, national) was "informed and administered by experts"

- progressives often armed themselves with Christian moralism, but their "do-good" perspective was limited by the racial and ethnic prejudices of the day as well as social and intellectual snobbery - goals of white progressives rarely included racial equality: many otherwise "progressive" people, including Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, believed in the supremacy of the "Anglo-Saxon race." - many well-educated progressives felt and acted superior to the working poor they wanted to help + assumed that modern society was too complicated for the uninformed masses to understand, much less improve, without direction by those who knew better (aka the progressives)

flaws and limitations + inconsistencies and hypocrisies with progressivism

- the right to vote and hold office was a matter of simple justice: women were just as capable as men of exercising the rights and responsibilities of citizenship - women were morally superior to men and therefore their participation would raise the quality of the political process and reduce the likelihood of future wars, corruption, scandals - women voters and politicians would promote the welfare of society as a whole rather than partisan or selfish goals -> allowing women to participate in politics would create a great engine for progressive social change - link women's suffrage with social gospel: declare women followed the teachings of Christ more faithfully than men -> if they were elected to public office, they would "far more effectively guard the morals of society and the sanitary conditions of cities" woman suffrage movement not free from social, ethnic, racial prejudices of the time

arguments made by advocates of women's suffrage for their position

(republic governor) Robert M. La Follette (of Wisconsin)

at statewide level, idea of efficient gov run my nonpartisan experts pursued by THIS progressive between 1901 and 1906: - "Fighting Bob" - declared war on "vast corporate combinations" and political corruption by creating a nonpartisan state gov that would become a "laboratory for democracy" -> worked closely with professors from University of Wisconsin to establish a Legislative Reference Bureau

Theodore Roosevelt

called progressivism the "forward movement" because it generated positive changes led by people "who stand for the cause of progress, for the cause of uplift of humanity and the betterment of mankind" stressed that progressives "fight to make this country a better place to live in for those who have been harshly treated by fate" frequently used muckrakers to drum up support for his policies: corresponded with them, invited them to the White House, asked their advice, and used their popularity with readers to help shape public opinion.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

concerns over the concentration of economic power in "trusts" and other forms of monopolies led congress to pass this -> its language about what constituted a monopoly was so vague that it proved inactive (little success in regulating business: in addition, gov agencies responsible for regulating businesses often came under the influence of those they were supposed to regulate ex Interstate Commerce Commission -> regulate regulators fail)

- shifting control from elected officials representing individual neighborhoods to at-large commissioners and nonpartisan specialists separated local government from party politics, which more many working-class voters had been the main way they would have a voice in how they wre governed locally - running a city like a business led commissioners and managers to focus on reducing expenses rather than expanding services, even when such expansion was clearly needed

downsides of efforts to make local governments more "businesslike" and professional

Washington Gladden

prominent pastor in Springfield Massachusetts who wrote a pathbreaking boo in 1875: Working People and Their Employers (1876): argued that true Christianity was based on the principle that "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" - rejected the view of the social Darwinists that the poor deserved their fate and shouldn't be helped-> argued tht helping the poor was an essential element of the Christian faith - became first prominent religious leader to support the rights of workers to form unions - spoke out against racial segregation and efforts to discriminate against immigrants - his efforts helped launch a new era in religious life in which churches addressed the urgent problems created by a rapidly urbanizing and industrializing society - He and other "social gospelers" reached out to the working poor who labored long hours for low wages, lived in miserable slum housing, and lacked the legal right to form unions as well as insurance coverage for on-the-job accidents

National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)

promote woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution: - condemned both the 14th and 15th Amendments for limiting "citizenship" and voting rights to males only - considered the right to vote only one among many urgent feminist causes: also campaigned for new laws requiring higher pay for working women and making it easier for abused wives to get divorces

Legislative Reference Bureau

provided elected officials across the state with nonpartisan research, advice, and help in drafting legislation

capitalist reformers

rejected the extremes of both socialism and laissez-faire individualism, preferring instead a regulated capitalism "softened" by humanitarianism

Hull House

settlement on Halsted Street in a working-class Chicago neighborhood: 2 women from privileged backgrounds (Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr) addressed the everyday needs of the working poor, especially newly arrived European immigrants -> staff of 24 women served thousands of ppl each week: nursery for the infant children of working mothers + sponsored health clinics, lectures, music lessons and art studios, men's clubs, employment bureau, job training, gymnasium, coffeehouse, savings bank Addams and Starr driven by what Addams called an "impulse to share the lives of the poor" and to make social service "express the spirit of Christ"

social sciences

sociology, political science, psychology, public health, economics

"social gospelers"

sought to expand the "Kingdom of God" by following Christ's example and serving the poor and powerless argued rugged individualism may have been the path to wealth, but "Christian socialism" offered hope for unity among all classes solution to economic tensions was social solidarity + America could only truly thrive when it recognized that "our true welfare is not an individual matter purely, but likewise a social affair"

National Child Labor Committee (1904)

sought to prohibit the employment of young children: argue that children had rights in a democracy too within 10 yrs: THIS convinced most state legislatures to ban the hiring of children below a certain age (12-16) and limiting the hours children might work progressives who focused on improving the lives of children also demanded that cities build more parks and playgrounds + reformers make concerted effort to regulate the length of the workday for women (partially bc some working mothers were pregnant and others had children at home with inadequate supervision): spearheaded by Florence Kelley, progressives convinced many state govs to ban the hiring of children below a certain age and to limit the hours that women and children could work

Socialist Party of America

supported mostly by militant farmers and immigrant German and Jews + served as the radical wing of progressivism no follow economic doctrines of Karl Marx like in Europe -> didn't call for the gov to take ownership of large corporations: focused instead on improving working conditions in factories and mills and on closing the widening income gap between rich and poor through "progressive" taxation (most progressives were capitalist reformers, not socialist radicals)

religious activism (directed at achieving social justice)

the idea that society had an ethical obligation to help its poorest and most vulnerable members In many respects, in fact, the progressive movement as a whole formed a new phase of Christian spiritual revival, an energetic form of public outreach focused not so much on individual conversion and salvation as on social reform: age of social responsibility arrived (no more individualism)