Today we didnt have class. I'm taking notes so that i can refer back to them when i do my Chapter 9: Progressive Era Project. My topics are muckrakers, efficiency in the workplace, women social changes, and reforming government.
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Muckrakers-
Muckrakers were journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life in huge circulating magazines in the early 20th century. This term refers to John Bunyan's "Pilgrim Process" where the character is so busy using a rake to clean up muck that he doesn't raise his head to see heaven. Ida M. Tarbell wrote about a company's cutthroat methods used to eliminate competing businesses. She bashed Rockefeller by saying he doesn't play fair.
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Efficiency in the Workplace-
Progressive leaders listened to experts and scientific principles to make the workplace more efficient. In defending a law in Oregon, lawer Louis D. Brandeis didn't care about the legal stuff. He focused on data produced by social scientists documenting the high costs of long working hours for both the individual and society. Frederick Winslow Taylor began using time and motion studies to improve efficiency by breaking manufacturing tasks into simpler parts. “Taylorism” became a management fad, as industry reformers applied these scientific management studies to see just how quickly each task could be performed. Not all workers could work at the same rate, the introduction of the assembly lines did speed up production. Caused a high worker turnover, often due to injuries suffered by fatigued workers. To keep automobile workers happy, Henry Ford reduced the workday to eight hours and paid workers five dollars a day. This incentive attracted thousands of workers, but they exhausted themselves. Improving efficiency affected government too.
Women social changes-
participation of educated women often strengthened existing reform groups and provided leadership for new ones. women were not allowed to vote or run for office, women reformers strove to improve conditions at work and home. Their “social housekeeping” targeted workplace reform, housing reform, educational improvement, and food and drug laws. African-American women founded the National Association of Colored Women, or NACW, by merging two earlier organizations. The NACW managed nurseries, reading rooms, and kindergartens.Susan B. Anthony, a leading proponent of woman suffrage, the right to vote, said “[I] would sooner cut off my right hand than ask the ballot for the black man and not for women.”liquor industry feared that women would vote in support of prohibition, while the textile industry worried that women would vote for restrictions on child labor. Many men simply feared the changing role of women in society. Dangerous conditions, low wages, and long hours led many female industrial workers to push for reforms.
Reforming government-
Natural disasters sometimes played an important role in prompting reform of city governments. mayors such as Hazen Pingree of Detroit, Michigan, and Tom Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio, introduced progressive reforms without changing how government was organized. Local reforms coincided with progressive efforts at the state level.
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