History Reforms

Corporate Regulation

-1902 trust busting -1906 Hepburn act -1911 standard oil trust broken up -1914 Clayton antitrust act

Labor rights

-8 hour workday -3/4 of all states ban child labor -minimum wage -workers compensation -Muller vs Oregon ~ setback

Civil rights organizations

-Niagara movement - NAACP

Workplace Reforms

-curb workplace hazards -accident insurance and compensation systems -Muller vs Oregon ~ women working long hours in laundries hurt their health

Progressive Era (populist party)

-easing the suffering of the urban poor -improving unfair and dangerous working conditions and Child labor laws -reforming government at the national, state and local levels. -Women's suffrage -prohibition

Economic reforms ~ teddy Roosevelt

-hates big businessman it's impact on the government - Sherman antitrust act (legal action) -Conservation -Protection of wildlife

Social reform - social justice

-poverty and hopelessness among urban groups —> Juvenile justice system, safety regulations, & divorce laws

Political reform

-secret ballots -Direct election of senators ~ 17th amendment -Direct primaries

Ida B. Wells

African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcards or shop in white owned stores. Proved that lynchings of black men in the south were not because of the rape of white women. Wells also wrote articles in the Memphis Free Speech and Chicago Conservator, criticizing the school system, demanding that women's suffrage include African American women, and vehemently condemning lynching. Although she never achieved her goal of Federal anti-lynching legislation, she was a founding member of the NAACP and other activist organizations.

Charles Edward Russell

Charles Edward Russell was one of the pioneering muckrakers of the 20th century Progressive Era. He was also one of the co-founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). According to Donald Bragaw's dissertation, the historian Louis Filler regarded Russell as the leader of the muckrakers for contributing 'important studies in almost every field in which they ventured.' Russell's best work "The Greatest Trust in the World" exposed the shocking methods of the meat packing industry. Moreover, he documented the malpractices and inhuman conditions at Chicago stock yards. Creating a national uproar, his reports resulted in inspection reforms. It also served as an inspiration for the powerful novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

Jacob Riis

Early 1900's muckraker who exposed social and political evils in the U.S. with his novel "How The Other Half Lives"; exposed the poor conditions of the poor tenements in NYC. Brought about garbage collection and sewers.

Pure Food and Drug Act

Halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling. Allowed consumers to be educated.

Lincoln Steffens

He became a managing editor for McClure's, and in 1902 wrote a series of articles exposing political corruption in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. A book compiling his articles was published in 1904 as "The Shame of the Cities." Other Steffens targets including the Tammany boss Richard Croker and the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst: Steffens' investigations into Wall Street led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System.

Economic reform ~ socialism

Karl Marx and Frederick Engles will advance the ideas of Communism and Socialism as described in Marx's book, Communist Manifesto. Also known as Marxism, the ideologies are part of the "utopian movements" of the 19th century. Neither lived under a socialist or communist government.

Ray Stannard Baker

Perhaps his most influential article was "The Right to Work" published in McClure's in 1903, which detailed the plight of coal miners including both strikers and scabs. These non-striking workers were often untrained yet had to work in the dangerous conditions of the mines while fending off attacks from union workers. His 1907 book "Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy" was one of the first to examine the racial divide in America.

Social Reform ~laissez faire

The traditional government treatment of business, "laissez faire" meaning "hands off", resulted in the workers viewing the government as unresponsive to worker needs.

Dorthea Dix

early 19th century activist who drastically changed the medical field during her lifetime. She championed causes for both the mentally ill and indigenous populations. By doing this work, she openly challenged 19th century notions of reform and illness. Additionally, Dix helped recruit nurses for the Union army during the Civil War. As a result, she transformed the field of nursing.

Upton Sinclair

muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen. His book became an instant bestseller and, although it did not have much impact on the plight of the workers, it led to the passage of the country's first food safety legislation, the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Jane Addams

pioneered the settlement house movement and was an important Progressive Era urban reformer, the "mother" of American social work, a founder of the NAACP, a champion of women's suffrage, an antiwar crusader and winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize. She founded Hull House in Chicago's immigrant slums, inspired by similar efforts she had seen in England. Initially the women at Hull House took care of children, nursed the sick and offered kindergarten and evening classes for immigrant adults.

Florence Kelley

reformer who worked to prohibit child labor and to improve conditions for female workers. Her work helped create the 10-hour workday and establish minimum wages, but her greatest accomplishment was perhaps the 1921 "Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act," which included health care funds to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Ida Tarbell

reporter who exposed illegal actions committed by the Standard Oil Company. Her exposés documenting Rockefeller's aggressive and illegal business methods appeared first as a series of articles in McClure's, and then as a book, "The History of the Standard Oil Company" in 1904. The resulting furor led to a Supreme Court case finding that Standard Oil was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and that led to the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911.

Nellie Bly

she decided to fake mental illness to gain admission and expose how patients were treated. With this courageous and bold act Bly cemented her legacy as one of the foremost female journalists in history. After pretending to be mentally ill for 10 days, the New York World published Bly's articles about her time in the insane asylum on Blackwell's Island in a six-part series. Ten Days in a Mad-House quickly made Bly one of the most famous journalists in the United States. Furthermore, her hands-on approach to stories developed into a practice now called investigative journalism.