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UNIT
The Progressive Era
C H A P T E R 1 8
America Claims an
Empire
C H A P T E R 1 9
The First World War
U N IT
j p u g o j E c r ^ New s S to ry
As you read Unit 5, identify a
person, issue, or event that
interests you. Plan and write an
illustrated news story about the
subject you have chosen. Use
your text as welf as information
that you research in the library
and on the Internet.
. 77ie Statue of Liberty hy Francis
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g S a B g N ^ - ■■
H P
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It is the dawn of the 20th century, and the reform movement is growing. Moral reformers are trying to ban alcoholic beverages. Political reformers work toward fair government and business practices. Women fight for equal wages and the right to vote. Throughout society, social and economic issues take center stage.
Explore the Issu e s
- What types of actions might pressure big business to change?
- How can individuals bring about change in their government?
- How might reformers recruit others?
VIDEO
William H Taft is elected president
119091W. E. B. Du Bois helps found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
19121 Woodrow Wilson is elected president.
119101Mexican revolution begins.
119121 China's 1119141World War I Qln dynasty : begins In Europe, topples.
119191Mohandas Gandhi becomes leader of the Independence movement In India.
: 119201 Nineteenth ■' Amendment : grants women : the
The Progressive Era 511
Woodrow Wilson is reelected.
119191Eighteenth Amendment outlaws alcoholic beverages.
The Origins of
Progressivism
MAIN IDEA
Political, economic, and social change in late 19th century America led to broad progressive reforms.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Progressive reforms in areas such as labor and voting rights reinforced democratic principles that continue to exist today.
Terms & Names
•progressive movement •Florence Kelley •prohibition •muckraker •scientific management
•Robert M. La Follette •initiative •referendum •recall •Seventeenth Amendment
W iTAKING NOTES Use the graphic organizer online to take notes about progressive reform organizations.
Camella Teoli was just 12 years old when she began working in a Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile mill to help support her family. Soon after she started, a m achine used for twisting cotton into thread tore off part of her scalp. The young Italian im m igrant spent seven m onths in the hospital and was scarred for life. Three years later, when 20,000 Lawrence m ill workers w ent on strike for higher wages, Camella was selected to testify before a congression al com m ittee investigating labor conditions such as workplace safety and underage workers. W hen asked why she had gone on strike, Camella answered simply, "Because I didn't get enough to eat at hom e." She explained how she had gone to work before reaching the legal age of 14.
A P ersonal V oice c a m e lla te o li
“ l used to go to school, and then a man came up to my house and asked my
father why I didn’t go to work, so my father says I don’t know whether she is 13 or 1 4 years old. So, the man say You give me $ 4 and I will make the papers come from the old country [Italy] saying [that] you are 14. So, my father gave him the $4, and in one month came the papers that I was 1 4. 1 went to work, and about two weeks [later] got hurt in my head. ” —at congressional hearings, March 1912
After nine weeks of striking, the m ill workers w on th e sym pathy o f the n ation as well as five to ten percent pay raises. Stories like Cam ella's set off a national investigation of labor conditions, and reformers across th e country organized to address the problem s of industrialization.
Mill workers on strike in 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts
Four Goals of Progressivism
At the dawn of the new century, middle-class reformers addressed m any of the problems that had contributed to the social upheavals of the 1890s. Journalists and writers exposed the unsafe conditions often faced by factory workers, including
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inmates in prisons and asylums, and working for suffrage. The WCTU reform activities, like those of the settlement- house movement, provided women with expanded public roles, which they used to justify giving women voting rights. Sometimes efforts at prohibition led to trouble with im migrant groups. Such was the case with the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1895. As members sought to close saloons to cure society's problems, tension arose between them and many immigrants, whose customs often includ ed the consum ption of alcohol. Additionally, saloons filled a number of roles within the im m igrant com m unity such as cashing paychecks and serving meals. CREATING ECONOMIC REFORM As m oral reformers sought to change individual behavior, a severe econom ic panic in 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist econom ic system. As a result, some Americans, especially workers, em braced socialism. Labor leader Eugene V. Debs, w ho helped organize th e American Socialist Party in 1901, com m ented on the uneven balance among big business, government, and ordinary people under the free-market system of capitalism.
A P e r s o n a l V o ic e eu gene v. d eb s “ Competition was natural enough at one time, but do you think you are competing today? Many of you think you are competing. Against whom? Against [oil magnate John D.] Rockefeller? About as I would if I had a wheelbarrow and com peted with the Santa Fe [railroad] from here to Kansas City. ” — Debs: His Life, Writings and S peeches
Though m ost progressives distanced themselves from socialism, they saw the truth of m any of Debs's criticisms. Big business often received favorable treatm ent from governm ent officials and politicians and could use its econom ic power to lim it com petition. Journalists who wrote about the corrupt side of business and public life in mass
circulation magazines during the early 20th century became known as m uckrakers
(m uk'rak'r). (The term refers to Jo h n Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," in w hich a character is so busy using a rake to clean up the muck of this world that he does not raise his eyes to heaven.) In her "History of the Standard Oil Com pany," a m onth
ly serial in McClure's Magazine, the writer Ida M. Tarbell described the company's
cutthroat methods of eliminating competition. "Mr. Rockefeller has systematically played with loaded dice," Tarbell charged, "and it is doubtful if there has been a time since 1872 when he has ran a race with a competitor and started fair." FOSTERING EFFICIENCY Many progressive leaders put their faith in experts and scientific principles to make society and the workplace more efficient. In defending an Oregon law th at lim ited w om en factory and laundry workers to a ten-hour day, lawyer Louis D. Brandeis paid little attention to legal argument. Instead, he focused on data produced by social scientists docum enting th e high costs of long working hours for both the individual and society. This type of argu m ent—the "Brandeis brief"—would becom e a model for later reform litigation. W ithin industry, Frederick Winslow Taylor began using time and m otion stud ies to improve efficiency by breaking manufacturing tasks into simpler parts.
"Taylorism" became a managem ent fad, as industry reformers applied these scien
tific m anagem ent studies to see just how quickly each task could be performed.
HISTORICAL
SPOTLIGHT
ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Quietly founded by progressive women in 1895, the Anti-Saloon League called itself “the Church in action against the saloon.” Whereas early temperance efforts had asked individuals to change their ways, the Anti- Saloon League worked to pass laws to force people to change and to punish those who drank. The Anti-Saloon League endorsed politicians who opposed “Demon Rum,” no matter which party they belonged to or where they stood on other issues. It also organized statewide referendums to ban alcohol. Between 1900 and 1917, voters in nearly half of the states—mostly in the South and the West—prohibited the sale, production, and use of alco hol. Individual towns, city wards, and rural areas also voted them selves “dry.”
MAIN IDEA
Evaluating 3 ) What contribution did muckrakers make to the reform movement?
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MAIN IDEA
C ontrasting SJ Contrast the goals of scientific management with other progressive reforms.
However, n o t all workers could work at th e same rate, and although th e intro duction of th e assem bly lines did speed up production, the system required peo ple to work like m achines. This caused a high worker turnover, often due to injuries suffered by fatigued workers. To keep autom obile workers happy and to prevent strikes, Henry Ford reduced the workday to eight hours and paid workers five dollars a day. This incentive attract ed thousands of workers, bu t they exhausted them selves. As one hom em aker com plained in a letter to Henry Ford in 1914, "T hat $ is a blessing— a bigger one th an you know but oh they earn it." Such efforts at im proving efficiency, an im portant part of pro-
gressivism, targeted n o t only industry, bu t governm ent as well. Cj
Workers at the Ford flywheel factory cope with the demanding pace o f the assembly line to earn five dollars a day— a good wage in 1914.
"Everybody will be able to afford [a car], and about everyone will have one.” HENRY FORD, 1909
Cleaning Up Local Government
Cities faced som e of th e m ost obvious social problem s of th e new industrial age. In m any large cities, political bosses rewarded their supporters w ith jobs and kick backs and openly bought votes w ith favors and bribes. Efforts to reform city pol itics stem m ed in part from th e desire to make governm ent more efficient and m ore responsive to its constituents. But those efforts also grew from distrust of im m igrants' participation in politics. REFORMING LOCAL GOVERNMENT Natural disasters sometimes played an im portant role in prom pting reform of city governm ents. In 1900, a hurricane and tidal wave alm ost dem olished Galveston, Texas. The politicians on the city cou ncil botched th e huge relief and rebuilding job so badly th at the Texas legis lature appointed a five-m em ber com m ission of experts to take over. Each expert took charge o f a different city departm ent, and soon Galveston was rebuilt. This success prom pted the city to adopt the com m ission idea as a form of government, and by 1917, 5 0 0 cities had followed Galveston's example. A nother natural disaster— a flood in Dayton, O hio, in 1913—led to the wide spread adoption of the council-m anager form of governm ent. Staunton, Virginia, had already pioneered this system, in w hich people elected a city council to make laws. The cou ncil in turn appointed a manager, typically a person with training and experience in public adm inistration, to run the city's departments. By 1925, m anagers were adm inistering nearly 25 0 cities.
The Progressive Era 515
istor^hr^uiHl (^) Photojournalism )
IMAGES OF CHILD LABOR In 1908, Lewis Hine quit his teaching job to docu ment child labor practices. Hine’s photographs and descriptions of young laborers—some only three years old—were widely distributed and displayed in exhibits. His compelling images of exploitation helped to convince the public of the need for child labor regulations. Hine devised a host of clever tactics to gain access to his subjects, such as learning shop managers’ schedules and arriving during their lunch breaks. While talking casually with the chil dren, he secretly scribbled notes on paper hidden in his pocket.
forced to climb atop moving machinery to replace parts. For four- year-old Mary ( l e f t ) , shucking tw o pots o f oysters was a typical day’s work. SKILLBUILDER In terp retin g Visual Sources
1. Lewis Hine believed in the power of photography to move people to action. What elements of these photographs do you find most striking?
- Why do you think Hine was a successful photographer? SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.
national politicians to pass the Keating-Owen Act in 1916. The act prohibited the transportation across state lines of goods produced w ith child labor. Two years later th e Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional due to interference w ith states' rights to regulate labor. Reformers did, however, succeed in nearly every state by effecting legislation th at banned child labor and set m ax im um hours. EFFORTS TO LIMIT WORKING HOURS The Supreme Court sometimes took a
m ore sym pathetic view o f the plight of workers. In the 1908 case of Muller v.
Oregon, Louis D. Brandeis— assisted by Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark—
persuasively argued th at poor working w om en were m uch more econom ically insecure th an large corporations. Asserting th at w om en required the state's pro tectio n against powerful employers, Brandeis convinced th e Court to uphold an Oregon law lim iting w om en to a ten-hour workday. O ther states responded by enacting or strengthening laws to reduce wom en's hours of work. A similar
Brandeis brief in Bunting v. Oregon in 1917 persuaded the Court to uphold a ten-
hour workday for m en. Progressives also succeeded in w inning workers' com pensation to aid the fam ilies of workers who were hurt or killed on the job. Beginning with Maryland in 1902, one state after another passed legislation requiring employers to pay ben efits in death cases.
The Progressive Era 517
REFORMING ELECTIONS In some cases, ordinary citizens won state reforms. William S. U'Ren prompted his state of Oregon to adopt the secret ballot (also called the Australian ballot), the initiative, the referendum, and the recall. The ini tiative and referendum gave citizens the power to create laws. Citizens could peti
tion to place an initiative —a bill originated by the people rather than lawmak
ers—on the ballot. Then voters, instead of the legislature, accepted or rejected the
initiative by referendum , a vote on the initiative. The recall enabled voters to
remove public officials from elected positions by forcing them to face another elec tion before the end of their term if enough voters asked for it. By 1920, 20 states had adopted at least one of these procedures. In 1899, M innesota passed the first mandatory statewide primary system. This enabled voters, instead of political machines, to choose candidates for public office through a special popular election. About two-thirds of the states had adopted some form of direct primary by 1915. DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS It was the success of the direct primary that
paved the way for the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. Before
1913, each state's legislature had chosen its own United States senators, w hich put even more power in the hands of party bosses and wealthy corporation heads. To force senators to be more responsive to the public, progressives pushed for the popular election of senators. At first, the Senate refused to go along w ith the idea, but gradually more and more states began allowing voters to nom inate senatori al candidates in direct primaries. As a result, Congress approved the Seventeenth Amendment in 1912. Its ratification in 1913 made direct election of senators the law of the land. Governm ent reform—including efforts to give Americans more of a voice in electing their legislators and creating laws— drew increased num bers of w om en into public life. It also focused renewed attention on the issue of woman suffrage.
MAIN IDEA
Sum m arizing Summarize the impact of the direct election of senators.
ASSESSMENT
1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance. *•progressive movement muckraker •initiative •Florence Kelley •scientific management •referendum •prohibition (Robert M. La Follette
•recall •Seventeenth Amendment
MAIN IDEA
2. TAKING NOTES Copy the web below on your paper. Fill it in with examples of organizations that worked for reform in the areas named.
Which group was most successful and why?
CRITICAL THINKING
3. FORMING GENERALIZATIONS In what ways might Illinois, Wisconsin, and Oregon all be considered trailblazers in progressive reform? Support your answers. Think About:
- legislative and electoral reforms at the state level
- the leadership of William U’Ren and Robert La Follette
- Florence Kelley’s appoint ment as chief inspector of factories for Illinois
4. INTERPRETING VISUAL SOURCES
This cartoon shows Carry Nation inside a saloon that she has attacked. Do you think the cartoonist had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of this prohibitionist? Explain.
Economic Moral
Progressive Reforms
Social Welfare
Political
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Today, when Americans use the telephone, an automated voice often greets them with instruc tions about which buttons to press. In the 19th century, every telephone call had to be handled by a telephone operator, a person who connected wires through a switchboard. Young men, the first telephone operators, proved unsatisfactory. Patrons complained that the male operators used profane lan guage and talked back to callers. Women soon largely replaced men as telephone operators, and were willing to accept the ten-dol lar weekly wage. Department stores advertised shopping by telephone as a con venience. One ad in the Chicago telephone book of 1904 declared, “Every [telephone] order, inquiry, or request will be quickly and intelligently cared for.” The ad pictured a line of female tele phone operators.
one out of five American women held jobs; 25 percent of them worked in manufacturing. The garment trade claimed about half of all women industrial workers. They typically held the least skilled posi tions, however, and received only about half as m uch m oney as their male counterparts or less. M any of these women were single and were assumed to be supporting only themselves, while m en were assumed to be supporting families. W omen also began to fill new jobs in offices, stores, and classrooms. These jobs required a high school education, and by 1890, women high school graduates outnumbered m en. Moreover, new business schools were preparing book keepers and stenographers, as well as training female typists
to operate the new machines, kj
DOMESTIC WORKERS M any w om en w ithout formal education or industrial skills contributed to th e econom ic survival of their families by doing dom estic work, such as cleaning for other families. After alm ost 2 m illion African- American wom en were freed from slavery, poverty quickly drove nearly half of them into the work force. They worked on farms and as domestic workers, and migrated by the thousands to big cities for jobs as cooks, laundresses, scrub women, and maids. Altogether, roughly 70 percent of w om en employed in 1870 were servants. Unmarried im m igrant w om en also did dom estic labor, especially w hen they first arrived in the United States. M any married im m igrant w om en contributed to the family incom e by taking in piecework or caring for boarders at hom e.
-4 Telephone operators manually connect phone calls in 1915.
MAIN IDEA
Analyzing Causes kj What kinds of job opportunities prompted more women to complete high school?
Women Lead Reform
Dangerous conditions, low wages, and long hours led m any female industrial workers to push for reforms. Their ranks grew after 146 workers, m ostly Jew ish and Italian im m igrant girls, died in a 1911 fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Middle- and upper-class w om en also entered the public sphere. By 1910, women's clubs, at w hich these w om en discussed art or literature, were nearly half a m illion strong. These clubs sometimes grew into reform groups that addressed issues such as tem perance or child labor. WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION M any of the w om en who becam e active in public life in the late 19th century had attended the new women's colleges. Vassar
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MAIN IDEA
Analyzing Effects Bj What social and economic effects did higher education have on women?
College—w ith a faculty of 8 m en and 22 wom en— accepted its first students in
- Sm ith and Wellesley Colleges followed in 1875. Though Columbia, Brown, and Harvard Colleges refused to adm it women, each university established a sep arate college for women. Although w om en were still expected to fulfill traditional domestic roles, w om en's colleges sought to grant w om en an excellent education. In her will, Sm ith College's founder, Sophia Smith, made her goals clear.
A P erso n a l V o ice sophia sm ith
“ [It Is my desire] to furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our College to young men.... It is not my design to render my sex any the less feminine, but to develop as fully as may be the powers of womanhood & furnish women with means of usefulness, happi ness, & honor now withheld from them. ” —quoted in Alma Mater
By th e late 19th century, marriage was n o longer a woman's only alternative. M any w om en entered th e work force or sought higher education. In fact, alm ost h alf of college-educated w om en in the late 19th century never married, retaining their own independence. M any of these educated w om en began to apply their
skills to needed social reforms. M
WOMEN AND REFORM Uneducated laborers started efforts to reform workplace h ealth and safety. T he participation of educated w om en often strengthened exist ing reform groups and provided leadership for new ones. Because w om en were n o t allowed to vote or run for office, w om en reformers strove to im prove condi tions at work and hom e. Their "social housekeeping" targeted workplace reform, housing reform , educational im provem ent, and food and drug laws. In 1896, African-American w om en founded the National Association of
Colored W om en, or NACW, by merging two earlier organizations. Josephine Ruffin
identified th e m ission of th e African-American w om en's club m ovem ent as "th e m oral education of th e race w ith w hich we are identified." The NACW managed nurseries, reading rooms, and kindergartens. After th e Seneca Falls convention of 1848, w om en split over th e Fourteenth and Fifteenth Am endm ents, w hich granted equal rights including the right to
vote to African American m en, but excluded wom en. Susan B. Anthony, a lead
ing p roponent of w om an suffrage, th e right to vote, said "[I] would sooner cut
off m y right hand th an ask th e ballot for the black m an and n ot for w om en." In 1869 A nthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had founded the N ational W omen Suffrage Association (NWSA), w hich united w ith another group in 1890 to
Suffragists recruit supporters for a march.
Teddy Roosevelt's
Square Deal
MAIN IDEA
As president, Theodore Roosevelt worked to give citizens a Square Deal through progressive reforms.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
As part of his Square Deal, Roosevelt’s conservation efforts made a permanent impact on environmental resources.
Terms & Names
*Upton Sinclair
- The Jungle •Theodore Roosevelt 'Square Deal
*** Meat Inspection Act •Pure Food and Drug Act ‘ conservation •NAACP**
TAKINGNOTES Use the graphic organizer online to take notes about Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.
W hen m uckraking journalist Upton Sinclair began research for
a novel in 1904, his focus was the hum an condition in the stock yards of Chicago. Sinclair intended his novel to reveal "th e breaking o f hum an hearts by a system [that] exploits the labor of m en and w om en for profits." W hat m ost shocked readers in
Sinclair's book T h e Ju n g le (1906), however, was the sickening
cond itions of th e m eatpacking industry.
Upton Sinclair poses with his son at the time of the writing of The Jungle.
A P er so n a l V o ice upton S in c la ir
“ There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption [tuberculosis] germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in room s;... and thousands of rats would race about on it.... A man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poi soned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. ” — The Jungle
President T heodore Roosevelt, like m any other readers, was nauseated by
Sinclair's account. The president invited the author to visit him at the W hite House, where Roosevelt promised th at "th e specific evils you point out shall, if their existence be proved, and if I have the power, be eradicated."
A Rough-Riding President
Theodore Roosevelt was n ot supposed to be president. In 1900, the young gover nor from New York was urged to run as McKinley's vice-president by the state's political bosses, who found Roosevelt im possible to control. The plot to nom inate Roosevelt worked, taking him out of state office. However, as vice-president,
The Progressive Era 523
When the president spared a bear cub on a hunting expedition, a toymaker marketed a popular new product, the teddy bear.
Roosevelt stood a heartbeat away from becom ing president. Indeed, President McKinley had served barely six m onths of his second term before he was assassinated, making Roosevelt the m ost powerful person in the government. ROOSEVELT’S RISE Theodore Roosevelt was born into a wealthy New York family in 1858. An asthma sufferer during his childhood, young Teddy drove him self to accomplish demanding physical feats. As a teenager, he mastered marksmanship and horseback riding. At Harvard College, Roosevelt boxed and wrestled. At an early age, the ambitious Roosevelt becam e a leader in New York politics. After serving three terms in the New York State Assembly, he becam e New York City's police com m issioner and then assistant secre tary of the U.S. Navy. The aspiring politician grabbed national attention,' advocating war against Spain in 1898. His volunteer cavalry brigade, the Rough Riders, won public acclaim for its role in the battle at San Ju an Hill in Cuba. Roosevelt returned a hero and was soon elected governor of New York and then later won the vice-presidency. THE MODERN PRESIDENCY W hen Roosevelt was thrust into the presidency in 1901, he becam e the youngest president ever at 4 2 years old. Unlike previous presidents, Roosevelt soon dominated the news w ith his m any exploits. W hile in office, Roosevelt enjoyed boxing, although one of his opponents blinded him in the left eye. On another day, he galloped 100 miles on horseback, merely to prove the feat possible. In politics, as in sports, Roosevelt acted boldly, using his personality and pop ularity to advance his programs. His leadership and publicity campaigns helped create the modern presidency, making him a model by w hich all future presidents would be measured. Citing federal responsibility for the national welfare, Roosevelt thought the government should assume control whenever states proved incapable of dealing with problems. He explained, "It is the duty of the president to act upon the theory that he is the steward of the people, and... to assume that he has the legal right to do whatever the needs of the people demand, unless the Constitution or the laws explicitly forbid him to do it."
Teddy Roosevelt enjoyed an active lifestyle, as this 1902 photo reveals. ^
“In life, as in a football game, the principle... is: Hit the line hard/ THEODORE ROOSEVELT
1 9 0 2 COAL STRIKE W hen 140,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike and demanded a 20 percent raise, a nine-hour workday, and the right to organize a union, the m ine operators refused to bargain. Five m onths into the strike, coal reserves ran low. Roosevelt, seeing the need to intervene, called both sides to the W hite House to talk, and eventually settled the strike. Irked by the "extraordinary stupidity and bad temper" of the m ine operators, he later confessed that only the dignity of the presidency had kept him from taking one owner "by the seat of the breeches" and tossing him out of the window. Faced with Roosevelt's threat to take over the mines, the opposing sides final ly agreed to submit their differences to an arbitration com m ission—a third party that would work with both sides to mediate the dispute. In 1903, the com m ission issued its compromise settlem ent. The miners won a 10 percent pay hike and a shorter, nine-hour workday. W ith this, however, they had to give up their demand for a closed shop—in which all workers must belong to the union—and their right to strike during the next three years. President Roosevelt's actions had dem onstrated a new principle. From th e n on, w hen a strike threatened th e public welfare, th e fed eral governm ent was expected to intervene. In addition, Roosevelt's actions reflected th e progressive belief th a t disputes could be settled in an orderly way w ith th e help o f experts, such as those on th e arbitration com m ission. ,§/ RAILROAD REGULATION Roosevelt's real goal was federal regulation. In 1887, Congress had passed the Interstate Commerce Act, w hich prohibited wealthy rail road owners from colluding to fix high prices by dividing the business in a given area. The Interstate Commerce Com m ission (ICC) was set up to enforce the new law but had little power. W ith Roosevelt's urging, Congress passed the Elkins Act in 1903, w hich made it illegal for railroad officials to give, and shippers to receive, rebates for using particular railroads. The act also specified th at railroads could not change set rates w ithout notifying the public. The Hepburn Act of 1906 strictly lim ited th e distribu tion of free railroad passes, a com m on form o f bribery. It also gave the ICC power to set m axim um railroad rates. Although Roosevelt had to com prom ise w ith conservative senators who opposed the act, its passage boosted th e gov ernm ent's power to regulate the railroads.
MEAT INSPECTION
During the Progressive Era, peo ple worried about the kinds of things that might fall—or walk— into a batch of meat being processed. Today, Americans worry more about contamination by unseen dangers, such as E. coli bacteria, mad cow dis ease, and antibiotics or other chemicals that may pose long- range health risks to people. In July 1996, Congress passed the most extensive changes in standards for meat inspection since the Meat Inspection Act of
- The costs of the new, more scientific inspections amount to about a tenth of a penny per pound of meat. The FDA has also adopted restrictions on importation of feed and live stock from other countries to pre vent the spread of disease.
Health and the Environment
President Roosevelt's enthusiasm and his considerable skill at com prom ise led to laws and policies th at benefited both public health and th e environm ent. He wrote, "W e recog nize and are bound to war against th e evils of today. The remedies are partly econom ic and partly spiritual, partly to be obtained by laws, and in greater part to be obtained by individual and associated effort."
REGULATING FOODS AND DRUGS After reading The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair, Roosevelt responded to the public's,clam or for action. He appointed a commission of experts to inves tigate the meatpacking industry. The com m ission issued a scathing report backing up Sinclair's account of the disgust ing conditions in the industry. True to his word, in 1906 Roosevelt pushed for passage of the M e a t In s p e c tio n A c t,
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MAIN IDEA
Analyzing Effects What was significant about the way the 1902 coal strike was settled?
Vocabulary collude: to act together secretly to achieve an illegal or deceitful purpose
b b m b m b
| Donkeys or mules pulled the i coal cars to th e elevators, j which transported the coal 3 to th e surface.
The m iners’ main tool w as th e pick. Many also used drilling machines.
Coal Mining in the Early 1900s
*5P hmhsodalstudies.com INTERACTIVE
Coal played a key role in America’s industrial boom around the turn of the century, providing the United States with about 90 percent of its energy. Miners often had to dig for coal hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface. The work in these mines was among the hardest and most dangerous in the world. Progressive Era reforms helped improve conditions for miners, as many won wage increases and shorter work hours.
The c o a l mines em p loyed ... ' thousands, of children, fike this, boy pictured i n 1909. In 1916, ■ progressives helped secure p assage o f a child labor law that fofb ad eiriterstate com m erce of go od s produced by children under th e ja g e o f 14. ►
M ost underground mines had tw o shafts— an elevator shaft (show n here) for transporting workers and coal, and an air shaft for ventilation.
Like these men working in 1908, miners typically spent their days in dark, cramped spaces underground.
Most mines used a room-and-pillar method for extracting coal. This entailed digging out “rooms" of coal off a series of tunnels, leaving enough coal behind to form a pillar that prevented the room from collapsing.
'-djr The Progressive Era^527
