1. 1900
Expensive presidential campaigns, controversial
military involvement overseas, prosperity, fast-
moving technology, monopolies, immigration,
natural disasters. Sound familiar?
(geneaology.com)

2. 100 years…
1900 2008
US population 76 million 305,260,787
million
Median Age 23 35.3
Average weekly $9.60 $611.90
earnings
marriages 709,000 2.2 million
divorces 55,751 1,169,000 (1998)
# of farms 5.7 million 2,076,000

3. My how things have changed…
In 1900…
 - 1 in 7 homes had a bathtub
- 1 in 13 homes had a telephone
- lb.of sugar: 4 cents
- dozen eggs: 14 cents
- lb. of butter: 24 cents
- 8,000 cars and about 10 miles of paved roads
- first overseas telephone call
 In 1998…
- 2.3 TVs per household
- 20% of the U.S. is connected to the Internet (55% in 2003)
- lb. of sugar: $0.43
- dozen eggs: $1.12
- lb. of butter $2.35

4. In 1901 the average American male…
 British ancestry with a trace  Drank 7 gallons of liquor
of German and 75 gallons of beer per
 5’9” (2” taller than average year
European)  Smoked 20 lbs. of tobacco
 3 living children, 1 who died  City males earned $750/yr
in infancy  Farmers earned $550/yr
 Protestant  Paid 3% in taxes
 Republican
 Subscribed to a newspaper
 Owned a 2 story 7 room **Americans were better off
house financially than Europeans
 Estate = $5,000 (partially because of lower
taxes)

5. What did Americans spend?
 $30 on clothes ($738.41*)
 $82 on food ($2018.32*)
 $4 on doctors/dentists
($98.45*)
 $9 on religion/welfare
($221.52*)
 $6 on tobacco ($147.68*)–
MORE THAN PERSONAL
CARE/FURNITURE
COMBINED!!
*adjusted for inflation (2007)

6. “What May Happen in the Next
Hundred Years”
Ladies Home Journal, December 1900
What would the future bring?

7. In 1900, America was prosperous (for
some…)
 Domination of world markets (iron, steel,
coal)
 Falling prices + rising wages= growth of
middle class
 New technologies, more leisure time
 Industrialization created problems
 Big business took advantage of labor, consumers
 Working class (adults AND children) slaved away
 Influx of immigrants (1/3 returned home)
 Cities failed to support swelling populations

8. The
Progressive
Era
Progressive movement:
 Aimed to use the govt. as
an agency of human welfare
 End “laissez faire” policy

9. Progressives
1. Middle class; “squeezed” by big trusts
above, cheap labor done by hoards of
immigrants
2. Took aim at:
1. Monopolies
2. Political corruption
3. Inefficiency
4. Social injustices

10. DBQ
Evaluate the effectiveness of Progressive Era
reformers and the federal government in
bringing about reform at the national level. In
your answer be sure to analyze the successes and
limitations of these efforts in the period 1900-
1920.

11. "There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent
necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack
upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in
politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every
man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity
makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use
only if it is absolutely truthful." -T.R. Muckrake Speech of 1906

12. Muckrakers – journalists who wrote about
corrupt side of business and public life in
mass magazines
 Ida Tarbell – took down Rockefeller’s
“Standard Oil” monopoly
 Upton Sinclair – exposed unsanitary
conditions of the meat-packing industry
in his portrayal of working conditions
for immigrants in Chicago
 Lewis Hine – photojournalist who
showed reality of child labor
 Jacob Riis – showed how “the other
half” lived (impoverished)

13. Lewis Hine – Crusade Against Child
Labor
 Quit his teaching job in
1903
 Employed by the National
Child Labor Committee to
travel the country
documenting child labor
abuses
 ** Helped convince the
public of the need for child
labor regulations**
Boy Lost Arm Running
Saw in Box Factory

14. "I went to Kensington, Pennsylvania, where seventy-five
thousand textile workers were on strike. Of this number
at least ten thousand were little children. The workers
were striking for more pay and shorter hours. Every day
little children came into the Union Headquarters, some
with their hands off, some with the thumb missing, some
with their fingers off at the knuckle. They were stooped
little things, round shouldered and skinny.... I asked some
of the parents if they would let me have their little boys
and girls for a week or ten days, promising to bring them
back safe and sound.... a few men and women went with
me.... One little fellow had a drum and another had a
fife.... We carried banners that said: "We want time to
play.“
Mother Jones

16. What do you find
most striking?
Why do you think
Hine was a successful
photographer?
Spindle boys – climbed atop moving
machinery to replace parts

17. Jacob Riis
New York City at the turn of the
century…
 only 3 miles separated Rector’s on Broadway where
$20 ($443 today) would buy you a dinner for 5 and
Orchard St. where soup, meat and bread was 13
cents ($2.88 today)
 Rich didn’t mingle with the “the other half” who
lived in ethnic tenement homes
 Tenement homes – 10/14 rooms received NO
sunlight, ventilation (STENCH)

18.  "Bandits'
Roost" (1888) at
59 1/2 Mulberry
Street, was a
refuge for
criminals and
considered the
most dangerous
place in New
York City.

20. "Minding the Baby" (ca. 1898),

21. Jacob A. Riis, Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters, c.
1880s

22. Treatment of Immigrants
 Cultural pluralism* v. assimilation
 “Americanization” campaigns
 Advertising campaigns
 Recreation (ie. Coney Island)
 Emphasis on cleanliness
 *TR and others fear mass, pluralistic culture
(“threat to morality”)

23. The American River Ganges (Nast)

24. Dame Britannia:
"Yes; the very
same boy that
has given me
so much
trouble in my
School. Well,
Miss
Columbia,
'Now you
know how it is
yourself!'"

25. Using your notes from Monday,
complete this web in your notebook.
Social
Economic
Welfare
reform
Progressive
GOALS
Moral Efficiency
improvement (govt., industry)

26. 4. Efficiency in Industry
 Progressives – put faith
in experts
 Social scientists –
“costs” of long work
days
 Scientific management –
studies to see how
quickly tasks could be
performed
 Assembly line – high
turnover
 Ford – reduced workday
to 8 hours and paid
$5/day

27. 4. (cntd.) Cleaning Up Government
 Political machines/bosses
running cities (ie.
Tammany Hall – NY)
 Rewarded supporters with
jobs and kickbacks
 Helped immigrant groups
rise in politics
 Bought votes with favors,
bribes
 Reforms grew from
 Desire for efficiency
 Distrust of immigrants’
participation in politics

28. Local Govt.
 Galveston, TX - Botched attempt by city govt.
to provide relief from hurricane/tidal wave
 City councils replaced with commissions
 Dayton, OH – flood
 Council manager - People elect city council who
appoint manager to run city departments

29. Reform @ the State Level
 Robert M. LaFollette
-regulated RR Industry
 Nat’l Child Labor Committee
-Keating-Owen Act – prohibited transportation
of goods produced by child labor across state
lines
 Louis D. Brandeis
-limited women’s work day to 10 hrs.
 Workman’s Comp./Benefits in Death

30. Election Reform
 Initiative
 Referendum
 Recall
Image Courtesy of: http://67degrees.com

31. Election Reform
 Direct primary –
voters choose
candidates’ for general
election
 17th Amendment -
Senators elected by the
people
Image Courtesy of: www.wku.edu

33. Women and the Election of 1912
“ With a suddenness and force that have left observers gasping, women have
injected themselves into the national campaign this year in a manner never
before dreamed of in American politics.” New York Herald, Aug. 11, 1912
“Never before in the history of the United States have women taken a deeper
interest in a presidential campaign than this year.” New Orleans Picayune, Aug.
19, 1912
“Unprecedented in this country is the prominent part which women are
taking in the presidential campaign this year.” Calumet Michigan News, Aug 21,
1912
"Woman's Day in national politics seems to many an editorial observer to be
now dawning." N.Y. Literary Digest, Aug. 31, 1912


34. BACK

35. Dark Side of the Progressive Era:
The American Eugenics
Movement