Chapter 21 Notes: The Progressives Confront Industrial Capitalism

Introduction

 Progressives believed that environment was more important than heredity in

determining ability, prosperity, & happiness
 Criminals and college students were only different due to poor health &
deprived childhoods
 If possible to define criminal type, then possible to reduce crime by changing
the environment
 Nationwide reform movement of the modern era = progressivism
 1: commitment to promote social justice, to assure equal opportunity, and
preserve democracy
 2: search for order and efficiency in a world complicated by rapid
industrialisation, immigration, and urban growth
 Didn’t plot to overthrow government (like most reform groups) but to reform the
system for the American way of life

The Social Justice Movement

 Reformers in middle-class sought to humanise modern city

 Improve housing, schools, and provide better life for poor classes (immigrants)
 Others concerned with work conditions and rights of labour
 Others pressed for changes in political system for better response to interests
 Progressivism had roots in 1890’s, depression of 1893

The Progressive World View

 Many progressives influenced by Darwinian theories

 World was in flux, rebelled against fixed & formal in every field
 John Dewey; William James wrote that ideas could become instruments for
change; philosophy of pragmatism
 Convinced environment much more important than heredity in character
 Solution: better schools & living conditions
 Thought in racial/ethnic categories
 Blacks were not able to be reformed
 Progressivism sought to bring order & efficiency to a world transformed by growth
 Promote small-town/farm values
 Teach middle class values to immigrants and working class
 Often showed more interest in control
 Sometimes betrayed sense of paternalism towards those they were helping
 Statistic-minded, realistic generation
 Conducted surveys, gathered facts, wrote reports, and took photographs and
paintings
 Optimistic about human nature and believed that change was possible
The Muckrakers

 ‘Muckrakers’- those who exposed corruption and evils of American society

 Not all were reformers – some wanted to stir scandals
 Result of journalistic revolution
 19th century magazines were small and for the elite
 New magazines sold more widely
 Many journalists focused on tycoons and the tragedies of society

Working Women & Children

 Children working appalled social progressives the most

 Florence Kelley – most influential crusaders against child labour
 Argued the cases against child labour herself
 Recognised need for laws; businesses made larger profits using children
 Argued it was good for their character (hard work)
 Law in Illinois declared unconstitutional even though plastered with
evidence
 Judicial opposition was one major factor
 Became secretary of National Consumers League
 Edgar Gardner Murphy – Alabama clergyman, proposed formation of National
Child Labour Committee
 Believed church should reform society
 Appalled by child labourers in textile mills, condemned to ‘compulsory
ignorance’
 Committee drew up law for states and cities to follow
 Tried to pass laws in congress
 Defeated
 Many state laws found loopholes for children to work
 Many reasons that they reached only part success
 Businessmen gained too much profit from children
 Judges & politicians reluctant to pass laws as work seemed personal issue
 Parents wer often in desperate ned of revenue children brought in
 Still juvenile courts set up for young people to be tried differently from hardened
criminals
 Often deprived of all rights of due process
 Efforts to limit women’s labour hours
 Foolish to subscribe mothers of future generations to backbreaking labour
 Muller v Oregon – most famous case for women labour
 Shortened day to 10 hrs due to evidence of disease and danger in factories
 Most states copied ruling into regulations on women workdays
 Many companies found ways to circumvent laws
 Still long day
 Also campaigned for women suffrage
  Votes for all women
 Women needed to elect proper officials who could provide services for them
 Controversial new movement for birth control
 Margaret Sanger – nurse who saw women die of ill-timed babies
 Wrote of ways for women to separate sex & procreation
 Had to flee to Europe to avoid arrest
 Remained controversial and illegal in many places

Home and School

 Period of new knowledge on ‘how the other half lived’

 Documentation of tenements and alleys: slums
 Leader (Jacob Riis) advocated for replacing slums with parks in NYC
 Laws and regulations either evaded or heavily modified
 1910 – organisation of National Housing Association
 First step towards federal laws and government-subsidised housing
 Combined moral sense of what needed to be done with practical ability to organise
public opinion
 Took paternalistic view toward poor
 Disapproved of clutter and lack of privacy in immigrant tenements
 Immigrants didn’t mind such clutter
 Family ideals and values differed from those of reformers
 Women’s sphere often prevented women from reforming; otherwise, hypocritical
 Stressed better schools to produce better citizen
 Public school systems rigid and corrupt
 Seemed to reinforce conservative habits blocking change
 Favoured flexibility and change
 Schools child-centred, not subject-centred
 Teach children, not history or math
 Should learn by doing, not just watching
 Should schools help students adjust to the existing world or turn out graduates
who would change the world?

Crusades Against Saloons, Brothels, and Movie Houses

 Opposed liquor mainly for same reasons they opposed child labour and housing
reforms: part of process of reforming city and conserving human resources
 Alcohol sales rapidly increasing in US after 1900
 Progressive era saw considerable success in legislation
 Reformers were appalled by stories with alcohol and domestic abuse
 Focused more on saloon and social life
 Saw it as centre of drug trafficking, prostitution, and political corruption
 Many tried to replace with coffeehouses, parks, playgrounds, municipal
theatres, & temperance bars
 As these didn’t substitute, looked towards legislative action for temperance
  Joined forces with other groups for maximum support
 Congress passed constitutional amendment prohibiting alcohol sales
 Claimed for ‘spirit of sacrifice for war effort’
 Also focused on urban dance halls and movie theatres as threats to morality
 Especially so to young women
 1889: invention of motion picture
 Developed into ‘nickelodeons,’ short films that attracted lower classes and
ethnic groups
 Theatres started showing short-films
 After WWI long feature films shown
 Imported from Europe; silent; didn’t need to know language
 Plots often included premarital sex, adultery, & violence; often attacked
authority & had tragic endings
 Reformers took offence w/ plot and content, as well as location (near
saloons & burlesques) and dark interiors
 Young immigrant women saw it as rare exciting moments in their lives
 Progressives saw saloons, theatres, & dance halls as directly linked to prostitution
 Many cities made elaborate studies on prostitution
 Filled with stats and moral outrage
 Many groups attracted to these studies
 Racists & immigration restrictionistsstated that inferior races (blacks
and recent immigrants from S & E Europe) became prostitutes and
pimps
 Hygiene progressives published accounts on prostitution to fight
ignorance and prudery over sex
 Spreading of venereal diseases
 Women reformers argued for single sexual standard for men & women
 Prostitution was a social evil that, like child labour & poor housing, could be
beat with reform & better education
 Economic reasons for prostitution
 Could earn 5 times in one night what one week in a factory would
 Failed to end prostitution
 Did manage to wipe out a few red-light districts, close brothels, and pass
several legislation acts
 Prohibit interstate transport of women for immoral reasons
 Raise the age of Consent
 Wassermann test mandatory to check for syphilis before marriage license

Recovering the Past: Documentary Photographs

 Photographers take pictures from point of view and to prove that point
 ‘Photographs don’t lie, but liars take photographs’
 Reformers found that photos were the most effective for making point
  Jacob Riis took photos for sole purpose of reforms; used them during lectures
 Lewis Hine used camera during lectures at Ethical Culture School
 Hired as full-time investigator for Nat Child labour Committee
 Photos meant to stir Americans into outlawing child labour
 Avoided Riis’ pathos shots, but focused more on day-to-day actions
 Ever-popular before-and-after shots
 Illustrate to American immigrants on how to clean up apartments for better
health & conditions

The Worker in the Progressive Era

 Progressive reformers sympathised w/industrial workers who struggled for survival

 Pushed for legislation protection esp. women & children: unemployment
insurance, workers’ compensation
 Often had no understanding of daily grind

Adjusting to Industrial Labour

 Many immigrants were farmers; had no knowledge of spinning and factory work
 Hard time adjusting from Europe
 New world of order and routine, dominated by bell tower, clock, & boss
 Resisted subtly
 Stayed home on holidays
 Took many breaks
 Informal personalised productivity schedules
 Fired or quite often
 1/3 stayed at jobs less than a year
 Many immigrants thought to return to homeland after making some money
 Usually men came alone
 Could save more pay that way
 Many left during years of economic downturn
 For most, American dream never materialised
 Made up mass of unskilled workers that American industry exploited
 Immigrants = profits
 Machines started to replace highly skilled workers
 Machines could be operated by unskilled immigrants fior fraction of original
cost
 Power-driven machines, better-organised operations, & moving assembly
line by Ford
 Scientific management principles set out new rules of organising work
 Frederick Taylor adopted new system of organisation for max efficiency of
planning out jobs in advance
 Workers, however, resented drive for efficiency

Union Organising
  AFL reached prosperity throughout the progressive era by only helping the skilled
workers & ignored growing numbers of unskilled labourers
 Worked as several industries negotiated to avoid disruptive strikes
 Failed long-term after disastrous strikes during which management brought in
strike-breakers, industrial spies, & black-listed union members from other jobs
 Supreme Court often sided with management
 Danbury Hatters – stated that trade unions were subject to Sherman
Anti-Trust Act, meaning union members could be personally liable for
lost business during a strike
 Progressives focused on protective legislation, not strengthening organised
labour
 Mediators for groups; didn’t know what was like to work 6 days/week
 Women’s plights raised more sympathy than men’s
 Few belonged to unions (3%)
 Women working were considered ‘knife of assassin, aimed at the family circle’
 Many worked out of necessity to support themselves and families
 Reformers tried to help them w/ settlement houses, daycares, clubs, classes
 Tried to pass protective legislation
 Often tension between working women & reformers
 Women’s Trade Union League =genuine cooperation between two groups

Garment Workers & the Triangle Fire

 Garment industry in NYC employed thousands of young women (Italian & Jewish)
 Employed in great loft buildings that were overcrowded, w/ few fire escapes &
safety features
 Management applied scientific method theory, made life miserable for women
 International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union League supported strikers
 Strikers arrested and beaten by unsympathetic policemen & strike-breakers
 March 25, 1911: fire breaks out on 8th floor of 10-story loft building
 Many fires in past few weeks had been rather small; no one thought
anything of it
 Exit doors were locked, elevator didn’t work, no fire escapes
 Many jumped to death; even more perished in flames
 State legislature started investigation
 Investigators led politicians through dark lofts, filthy tenements, factories
 To show conditions
 After Ludlow, CO – John D. Rockefeller was charged with murders of workers
 Commission decided in report the only way to end violent class conflict:
 Limiting use of armed guards and detectives
 Restricting monopolies
 Protecting universally rights of workers to organise
 Redistribute wealth through taxation
 Nothing was changed; wealthy reformers believed class conflict was inevitable
Radical Labour

 Industrial Workers of the World established in 1905

 To form more radical union than AFL
 Accepted all members not biasing race, gender, or skill level
 Leaders were Daniel De Leon, Eugene Debs (ex-Railroad), & Mary Harris
‘Mother’ Jones
 Remained small, troubled by internal squabbles and disagreements
 Many American workers didn’t feel as they were engaged in a perpetual class
struggle w/ capitalist employers as Europeans did
 Many immigrants avoided labour unions
 Either were so caught up in earning enough to go back home in comfort
 Were so confident in American dream to move up or secure better job
 Sons & Daughters would profit from American way

Reform in the Cities and States

 Reform movements of progressivism usually started local, then to state, then to

national capital
 Called for more democracy, power for the people, legislation regulating railroads
and other businesses
 Growth of cities called for more housing, transportation, & municipal services
 Many concerned over people cities were attracting
 Americans from rural centres prospered
 Immigrants produced greatest surge in population
 Seemed to threaten American way of life & very tenets of democracy
 Immigrants were the target of reformers, who believed urban crisis @ its highest
 Wanted to regulate & control sprawling metropolis, restore democracy, reduce
corruption, limit the power of political bosses & immigrant allies
 ‘To return power of the people meant ensuring the power stayed in their
hands’
 ‘To make the city more organised and efficient for the business &
professional classes who were to control its workings’
 Best system of administration was small body of nonpartisan commission
 First organised to relieve stress of hurricane- ravaged Galveston

The City Beautiful

 Period where American cities set out to bring culture & beauty to their centres
 Influenced by Greco-Roman styles of Europe
 More meaningful form middle and upper classes
 Social justice progressives more concerned with parks and playgrounds
 To get urban children out of environment to summer rural camps
 To make city more liveable and beautiful
Reform in the States

 Western states extended populism to regulate railroads

 Other states tried to extend powers of democracy to people
 Citizens to originate legislation & recall laws – to remove elected officials
 Progressive state legislation mainly included order & efficiency, other states passes
social justice measures as well
 Workers’ compensation
 Aiding mothers with dependent children
 Anti-child labour laws
 10-hr law in Oregon, restricting women’s labour
