The Progressive Era 1898-1920

What were the major goals, struggles and achievements of the Progressive Era, including attacking racial discrimination, child labor, big business, conservation and alcohol use?

• corruption
• political boss
• commission
• progressive
• merit system
• capitalism
• monopoly
• conservation
• civil rights

• Robert M. La Follette
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Booker T. Washington
• Ida B. Wells
• W.E.B. Du Bois

This new industrialization brought more factory made goods to Tennessee and the nation. People were able to buy items that they needed instead of making everything themselves. Cities and industries grew but crime and dishonesty also grew.

Factories were very dangerous places to work. Workers were often injured on the job and even killed. There was no compensation for injury or payment to the family if a worker died on the job. For the employees, there were long hours, low wages and no sick days.

There were no laws that prevented children from working and young children, even 10 year olds, worked in dangerous conditions using machines that may have had knives or saws that they had to operate.

There were several progressive causes in the early 20th century. Progressive leaders hoped to fix some of the worst problems of industrialization.

The Progressives turned their attention to public education fits. Schools in some states were inadequate. In Tennessee, Progressives worked fast to improve our schools. The governor of Tennessee told the General Assembly that Tennessee was "third in ignorance" compared to the rest of the states. In 1870, the US Census reported that illiteracy, the inability to read, was increasing. Tennessee made more money available for public schools by creating property taxes and poll taxes. More money didn't change the fact that many parents were not concerned about the condition of Tennessee education. At that time, the state did not require Tennesseans to send children to school. Instead, many children stayed at home and helped the family with their work. For many years, Tennessee stayed at the bottom of the education standards.

In 1909 and for a few years after, the Tennessee General Assembly passed several laws to help public education. The state gave more funds to schools, made it a law that students had to attend school, every county in Tennessee had at least one high school and teachers had a certification process in order to be qualified to teach.

The first Progressive in the White House was Theodore Roosevelt. In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated and his vice-president, Teddy Roosevelt became president. President Roosevelt was only 42 when he became president, making him the youngest president at that time.

President Theodore Roosevelt had a loud booming voice that caught his audiences' attention immediately! He was full of energy and excitement and he encouraged America to grow and improve. He wanted America to lead the world into the new century.

Being a Progressive thinker, Roosevelt had made many reforms in New York City when he was mayor and police commissioner. He told Americans about his plan called the "Square Deal." He believed that these reforms were fair and good for everyone. He outlined the 3C's with his plan:

1. Control (large) Corporations- In the early 1900's, a few large corporations were in control of our nation's biggest industries. Smaller companies were put out of business by the large corporations. These large corporations controlled the buying and selling within the industry. This was called a monopoly or trust. Standard Oil, owned by John D. Rockefeller and Carnegie Steel, owned by Andrew Carnegie, were tow of the largest monopolies in the United States. These two companies had no competition from other companies so they could charge consumers whatever they wanted for their products. President Roosevelt was the first president to stop these monopolies. The Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890, helped Roosevelt go after these large corporations. The president also signed into law several laws that protected workers. These laws increased wages, shortened work hours and improved the safety and working conditions of factories.

2. Protect Consumers - Stopping these monopolies, or trusts, helped the consumers of the US. A consumer is someone who buys items. Today, we have laws that protect us from spoiled or out of date food when we are buying groceries. In the early 1900's, there weren't laws that protected Americans from foods that were unsafe or infected with germs. Butchers and grocers often left meat out in the open. The meat wasn't refrigerated to reduce bacteria. Flies crawled over the beat and even mice and other rodents gnawed at meat in the open air markets. President Roosevelt convinced Congress to pass laws that kept food safe for consumers. This law the "Meat Inspection Act" forced meatpacking plants to be clean and the meat safe for sale and consumption.

3. Conserve our National Resources- The country was growing and the Progressives were concerned about the natural beauty of our country. There was concern that the growth in our country would affect the natural landscape. President Roosevelt and other Progressives wanted to preserve and restore natural resources. National Parks were created and the land within these parks were protected. No one could build, mine or cut down trees on national park land.

Watch the video on Teddy Roosevelt. You may watch it more than once, if needed. Complete the graded quiz. You can only take the quiz one time. Make sure you are ready before you take it. When finished, snip and email me your score.

Life in cities was a concern for the Progressives. There was not affordable housing. The apartments for the poor, known as tenements, were overcrowded and had issues with poor heating, plumbing and sewage. Diseases spread quickly among the tenants and fires were always a danger. The Progressives wanted people to have safe and adequate housing and available health care.

Many Progressives tried to make city life better for the poor and for the nation's immigrants. Jane Addams, from Illinois, organized Hull House in a poor area of Chicago. The settlement house was a place to assist immigrants with their adjustment to life in the United States. Hull House offered assistance with health care, child cared, provided kindergarten for the young children and offered classes to learn the English language. Women were also taught to sew and cook.

Before long there were settlement houses in many cities. Jane Addams came to Tennessee in 1908 to share with others about her work with the poor in large cities. People across Tennessee soon established settlement houses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis. One of the first settlement houses in Memphis was built in Market Square and designed to help the Jewish immigrants who had moved to the city.

Progressives took up the cause of prohibition and used their pressure to convince officials to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Prohibition caused lots of division and disagreement in Tennessee. The Democratic Party was divided into two groups, the "wets" and the "drys." The wets wanted the local people, in their own towns and communities, to make the decision whether alcohol could be sold. This would mean that each town could make the decision whether alcohol was sold by a vote of the citizens. The drys believed that alcohol should be outlawed across the entire state.

The disagreement turned deadly when Senator Edward Ward Carmack, who worked as the editor of the Nashville Tennessean, wrote several articles that were critical of the "wet" Tennessee governor, and a friend of the governor's, Duncan Cooper and his son Robin. One day Senator Carmack met Duncan Cooper on a Nashville street. After some angry words, gunshots were fired. Senator Carmack was dead and Robin Cooper was wounded. The coopers were arrested and the jury found them both guilty of murder, but they were never sent to prison. The governor, who was their good friend, pardoned them both. If a person is pardoned, that means they were declared free or didn't have to pay the penalty for the crime.

Many People in Tennessee were outraged. The General Assembly did pass a prohibition law. In 1917, the state was completely "dry."

During the Progressive era, one out of every five workers in Tennessee was a woman. Many were housekeepers or workers in the textile mills. for those who worked in the mills, the hours were long and the wages were low. Women received from one-half to one-third of the wages that a man would receive. Employers justified the lower pay because they believed that the women's salaries were just "extra income." Women would work 10-12 hours a day in the factories and then go home to work many more hours at home taking care of their families.

Many groups, even women's groups, formed to improve the conditions for working women during the Progressive Era. Progressives worked to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote.

Watch the video on Women's Suffrage. You may watch it more than once, if needed. Complete the graded quiz. You can only take the quiz one time. Make sure you are ready before you take it. When finished, snip and email me your score.