Today I presented my information about the Progressives. Mr. Bruns said I need to work more on confidence and elaborating from the slides rather than reading word for word. Molly, Jena, and Taylor Petersen also presented their projects.
Worker Safety/Conditions
- Worked for six days a week
- Weren't given absent days if they were sick
- The number of child workers in factories rose
- Most people sent their children to work because they felt that children were a part of the family economy
- Adult wages were too low and everyone in the family had to work putting children's lives at stake
- Reformers tried to end child labor
Reforming Elections
- Only certain people were allowed to vote
- This let voters remove public officials from the elected positions by having a re-election **(Recall)**
- Instead of having machines choose candidates for the public office, voters got to choose instead
Segregation
- Roosevelt failed to support civil rights for African Americans
- Segregation was a way to separate races because differances in skin color
- Men of a different race would work for the other race as a servant or slave
- In the 1960s the government eventually passed laws against racial segregation to put a stop to it
- Many Progressives did not do much to help African Americans and even made it worse at times
Regulating Food and Drugs
- Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906
- This said that you can not sell contaminated foods and medicines
- Manufacturers were trying to say the food and medicine they were selling was perfectly safe when they really weren't
- Some caused people to die from taking their medicine because they were falsely labeled
Conservation
- U.S. Forest Bureau withdrew 45 million acres of timberlands for a national forest reserve in 1887
- Mining companies refused to save some land, ranchers grazed their cattle on their land and the logging men kept cutting down trees
- Cities dumped untreated sewage into rivers, posioning some water resources
Monopolies
- The Clayton Antitrust Act prohibited corporations from acquiring stock from another, which would create a monopoly
- Company officers would be prosecuted it they violated this
- Monopolies were made illegal in 1890 by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
- Monopolies are formed when a group of companies form a trust to fix prices
Taxation/Banking
- Larger incomes were taxed at higher rates than smaller incomes
- Known as Federal Income Tax
- This would tax families over $4,000 that ranged from 1% to 6%
- The government would receive more money
- Woodrow Wilson spent his attention on the financial crisis and banks
- Wilson passed a law so there would be a bank in every district to help the common people with money or loans
- Federal Reserve banks could distribute new paper in emergency situations, and they could also transfer funds to member banks in trouble with finances
- By 1973, 70% of the nation's banking resources was a part of the Federal Reserve System. This was Wilson's best accomplishment
Aid Organizations
- Some people set up work relief for the poor
- When there was a flood or a natural disaster, some city workers helped build new schools, parks, etc.
- There were organizations that helped build and reform cities after a hurricane or flood
- Citizens played an active role in aiding everyone that needed it, and played an important role in the city government
Muckrakers
- Muckrakers were investigative reporters/journalists
- Brought up the problems in society and let people know about them
- Investigated things like meat packing industry to try and get things changed
- Lincoln Steffens was known as a leader of the muckraker movement when he exposed business and government corruption
- Ida M. Tarbell exposed ruthlessness of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company
- Upton Sinclair told the world about the sanitation issues of the meat packing industry through his book called The Jungle
Efficiency in the Workplace
- Scientific management: studies used to see how fast things could be done
- 10 hour days were changed to 8 hours to prevent fatigued workers and strikes
- Henry Ford paid his workers $5 a day for 8 hours to keep them happy
- This attracted thousands of workers
Women's Social Changes
- Women's opportunities were becoming more common
- Nearly one in every five women had jobs
- Women wanted reform to get better conditions
Reforming Government
- Political bosses used to get voters with bribes and favors
- 1900 Galveston, Texas was devestated by a hurricane and politicians messed up the rebuilding of the town
- Five experts were called in to to fix everything
- Many cities followed this example
- Some cities changed their mayors
- Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin changed the regulation of big businesses
19th Amendment: Women's right to vote
18th Amendment: Outlawed the manufacturing, production, consumption, and selling of alcohol (Prohibition)
17th Amendment: Direct election of U.S. Senators (people of the state would choose their senators)
16th Amendment: Started income taxes
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