Progressive Era

Unit 4
The Rise of Industry
Day 1
 Learning Goals

Students will understand industrialization

and the development of corporations:
1. Industrialization
2. Inventions
3. Railroads
4. Big Business
 Developments of Civil War

• Factories stepped up production and

employed new tools and methods to
produce products for troops.
• The food industry transformed and
develop ways to process foods – canned
food.
• Railroads expanded and new methods of
creating power were developed.
 The U.S. Industrializes

• From 1861 to 1900

manufacturing increased 8x.

• Vast natural resources made

production cheaper:

• Timber, coal, iron, copper,

petroleum.

• Oil fields were drilled from

PN to TX by 1900.
 The Workforce

• Population tripled from 1860

to 1910.
• Larger families
• Immigrants
 New Inventions
• Transatlantic Telegraph - 1866
• Cyrus Field

• RR Air Brakes - 1869

• George Westinghouse

• Telephone - 1876
• Alexander Bell

• Light Bulb - 1879

• Thomas Edison
• Edison General Electric
Company
Railroads
 Transcontinental Railroad

• The Pacific Railway Act

funded the construction of a
railroad from the east to the
west coast.

• Union Pacific Railroad

• From Omaha, NE to Utah
• 1,068 miles

• Central Pacific Railroad

• Sacramento, CA to Utah
• 688 miles
 Industrial Growth

• Railroads increased the

markets for many products.

• Small rail lines were

consolidated by 7 large rail
companies.

• Time zones were created to

make rail service safer and
more reliable.
 Transcontinental Railroad
Video clip
• http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinen
tal-railroad/videos/transcontinental-railroad
Big Business
 Corporations

• Owned by many people who

buy stock in the company.

• Corporations were able to:

• Hire large workforces
• Purchase many machines
• Invest in new technologies
 Consolidation

Monopoly – when a single company

achieves control of an entire market.

• Steel Industry
• Andrew Carnegie
• Vertical Integration – owns all of the
different businesses on which it depends
for operation.

• Oil Industry
• John D. Rockefeller
• Horizontal Integration – combining
firms in the same business into 1 large
corporation.
 Trusts

• Trusts were used to merge

businesses without one
company actually buying
another (which was illegal).

• Investment banking –
companies sold stock to the
banks, who then sold it for a
profit.
• JP Morgan
 Big Business

• By 1904 holding companies:

• 318 of them
• Controlling 5,300 factories
• Worth $7 billion
Urban Problems
Day 3
 Learning Goals

Students will understand social problems created by

urbanization:
1.Urbanization
2.Political Machines
3.Child labor
4.Working conditions
5.Tenant housing
 Appeal of the City

• More higher paying jobs

• Running water

• Modern plumbing

• Bright lights

• Museums

• Theatres

• Libraries
 Technology
• Skyscrapers helped utilize
space in the city.

• Technology that made

skyscrapers possible:
• Steel cable
• Steel beams
• Elevators
 Urban Problems

• Growing crime

• Disease and Pollution

• Improper sewage disposal
contaminated city drinking
water
 Political Machines

• Political groups that would

gain control over a city.

• “Boss” Tweed was the leader

of the most infamous
political machine
organization, the New York
Democrats of Tammany Hall.
 Child Labor

Children as young as 6 would

work to help support their
families.
• Factories
• Mining
Children would work long hours
for low wages.
Working Conditions
 Tenement Housing

• The working class lived in

crowded, multi-family
tenements or apartments

• Both parents typically

worked

• Sometimes children worked

The Roots of Progressivism
Day 3
 Learning Goal

Students will understand how Progressives tried to

reform society:
1.Origins of Progressivism
2.Social Problems
3.Muckrakers
4.Settlement Houses
5.Women’s Rights
 Progressive Profile
• Urban, educated, middle-class,
white Americans.

• Belonged to both political parties.

• Believed that industrialization

and urbanization had created
many social problems in society.

• Doubted the free market’s ability

to fix these problems.
 Muckrakers

• Journalists who investigated

and published news about
social problems and political
corruption in the cities.
• Industries
• Political machines
• Social problems
 The Jungle

• Upton Sinclair illustrates the

horrors of the living and
working conditions in
Chicago’s stockyards in his
book The Jungle.
 The Jungle
Read the excerpts with your tablemates and answer the
following questions.
1. What were the working conditions like in the
meatpacking industry? Provide examples.
2. What could be found in a batch of Durham’s Pure
Leaf Lard?
3. How did factories try to cover up bad meat? Provide
examples.
4. What was in the sausage that was sold to Americans?
 Workers and Consumers

• Federal and state labor

departments were created to
protect workers against poor
working conditions, provide
workers with insurance, and
give them necessary rights.

• Pure Food and Drug Act -

Legislation passed to control
the safety of foods.
 Reforming Government

Government was corrupt and

needed reform.

• Democratic reforms:
• Direct primary
• Initiative
• Referendum
• Recall

• Direct election of senators –

17th Amendment
 Social Welfare Problems

• Child Labor Laws

• States passed laws requiring a
minimum age and maximum
hours a child could work.

• Prohibition
• 18th Amendment – banned the
production, transportation,
and distribution of alcohol.
 Settlement Houses

• Community center which

provided social services
to the urban poor in the early
1900s.

• Taught urban poor skills to

succeed in society.

• The Hull House

• Settlement house in Chicago
founded by Jane Addams.
 Corrupt Big Business

• Most progressives believed

that big business needed
regulated.

• Some progressives advocated

for socialism:
• Government should own and
operate industry for the
community.
 New Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission
created to identify activities
in which business could not
engage.

• Sherman Antitrust Act

• Clayton Antitrust Act

• prohibited certain business

practices that federal
government regulators
deem to be anti-
competitive.
Women’s Rights
 Suffrage

• National American Woman

Suffrage Association worked
to gain the vote for women.
• Lobbied lawmakers
• Organized marches
• Delivered speeches

• 1920 – 19th Amendment

passed granting women the
right to vote.
Nativism
Day 4
 Learning Goals

Students will understand social problems that came with

industrialization and urbanization:
1. Nativism
2. Pollution
3. Inequality
4. Jim Crow Laws
5. Plessy v. Ferguson
 America Bound
• Between 1865-1914, 25
million Europeans
immigrated to the U.S.
• 14 day journey by ship.
 Why America?

• Escaping: • Looking for:

• War and military service
• Poverty
• Political tyranny
• Religious persecution
• Population pressure
• Land to farm
• Jobs to work
• Higher standard of living
• Democratic political system
• Social advancement
 Checking In

• Immigrants went through a

grueling inspection upon
their arrival to the U.S.

• Europeans – Ellis Island,

New York

• Asians – Angel Island,

California
 Ethnic Cities

• Immigrants clung to their

customs, language, and
cuisines.

• Chinatown
• Little Italy
• Lower East Side (Jews)
 Nativists

• Nativists feared that:

• Roman Catholic Church
would gain too much power.
• Immigrants would take
American jobs.
• Immigrants would weaken
unions.

• Nativism: an extreme dislike

of immigrants by native-born
people.
 Discrimination

• Immigrants faced a lot of

discrimination in America.

• Jewish Americans created the

Anti-Defamation League to
defend against verbal attacks
and false statements.
 Ellis Island

• Interactive Tour of Ellis Island

Segregation
 Taking Away Votes

• Some states made it

impossible for African
Americans to vote:
• Poll tax
• Literacy test
• “Grandfather Clause”
 Jim Crow Laws

• Southern states passed laws

that allowed private
businesses to legally practice
segregation.
• Hotels
• Railroads
• Theaters
• Buses
• Dinning halls.
 Plessy V. Ferguson

• Established “separate but

equal” facilities for African
Americans.
 African American Response

• Booker T. Washington
• Wait out inequality and build up
their own self-sufficiency and the
respect from white Americans

• W.E.B. Dubois
• Demand their Constitutional
rights that they were wrongfully
being denied
• Founder of the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP)
 Learning Goals

Students will understand social problems that came with

industrialization and urbanization:
1. Nativism
2. Pollution
3. Inequality
4. Jim Crow Laws
5. Plessy v. Ferguson
Progressive Era Presidents
Day 5
 Learning Goals

Students will be able to compare and contrast the

Progressive presidents:
1.Theodore Roosevelt
2.William Howard Taft
3.Woodrow Wilson
4.Progressive Fails
 Theodore Roosevelt

• 26th President – Republican

• Roosevelt believed in
progressive ideals for the
nation and took on big
business.

• Roosevelt’s reform programs

became known as the Square
Deal.
 Roosevelt the Trustbuster

• Roosevelt set out to ensure

that trusts (large monopolies)
did not abuse their power.

• Took suit against J.P.

Morgan’s railroad holding
company, Northern
Securities, for violation of
the Sherman Antitrust Act.
 Conservationist President

• Created the United States

Forest Service

• Established:
• 150 national forests
• 51 federal bird reserves
• 4 national game preserves
• 5 national parks
• 18 national monuments

• Yellowstone – First U.S.

national park.
 William Howard Taft

• 27th President – Republican

• Trustbusting

• 16th Amendment
 Income Tax

• 16th Amendment – Income

tax collected by federal
government
 Woodrow Wilson

• 28th President – Democrat

• Legislative policies:
• Federal Reserve Act
• Federal Trade Commission
• Clayton Antitrust Act
• Federal Farm Loan Act

• 17th, 18th, and 19th

Amendments
 End of Progressivism

• In 1914, progressivism was

no longer the main concern
for most Americans due the
start of World War I.
 Progressive Fails

• Did not address equality

issues in America
• Race
• Women
• Immigrants