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Progressives

The Basics - The following information has appeared on New York examinations

• Because of the rapid industrialization and immigration during the late 1800s and early 1900s, many issues, such as overcrowding, poor living and working conditions, dangerous food, and unfair business practices, came to the forefront. The progressives were journalists, politicians, and regular citizens who hoped to take action to reduce or even eliminate these problems.

• Journalists who sought to expose the problems in society at the turn of the 20th century (1900) were called muckrakers. This name was derived from the fact the they wanted people to take notice of these problems through their speeches, magazine and neewspaper articles, novels and photography. Examples of muckarakers are Jacob Riis (photos of tenements), Lewis Hine (photos of child labor), Ida Tarbell (articles about John D. Rockefeller), and Upton Sinclair (The Jungle).

• Business leaders rountinely cut the number of laborers they hired, and/or cut the workers wages. In response, workers formed labor unions in order to use collective bargaining. In collective bargaining, all workers negotiate together rather than indivdually, giving them more power. Unions sometimes asked workers to stop working. This was called a strike.

• Haymarket Riot - In Chicago, laborers working for the Mc Cormick Harvester Company went on strike to protest low wages and poor working conditions. The company owners called in the police to break up the strike, and a violent incident broke out in which two workers were killed. The next day a city wide strike was held downtown at Haymarket Square to protest the killing of the workers by police. When the police showed up to break up the protest, anarchists (people who are against an organized government) exploded a bomb, killing eight officers. Around the country, the labor union Knights of abor were blamed for the attack. This hurt the unions as a group because people began to associate unions with violence and lawlessness.

• Pullman Strike - A strike at the Pullman Railroad car Company was begun because the union disliked the company laying off workers and cutting pay to those who remained. The Pullman Company succeed in breaking the unions strike when the federal government stepped in and supported the Pullman Company.

• Triangle Shirtwaist Fire - One incident that really brought working conditions to the public eye was a fire the occured in New York City on March 25, 1911. When the fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, workers couldn't escape because the doors were chained and locked shut, and the windows on the lower floors were barred in an effort to keep workers from skipping out during work hours. The fire killed 146 workers, most of whom were females. See http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/ for additional details.

• Standard Oil was a company led by John D. Rockefeller than had control of over 90% of the oil industry in the U.S. - a monopoly. As a result, Rockefeller could, and did, charge high prices for his products due to the lack of competition. He also kept his costs down by requiring low wages and long hours for his workers. Ida Tarbell continously wrote newspaper and magazine articles attacking Rockefeller buisness tactics.

• Another goal of progressives was to get citiznes to have more say in who candidiates for politcal offices were going to be. The way someone got to be a candidate was that they were selected by powerful polictical bosses like William Marcy "Boss" Tweed in New York City. Because these political bosses controlled who could run, many times the candidates bought they way into office with bribes and government contracts. Progressives had laws changed so that now citizens select party candidates in special primary elections. In addition, Progressives changed the law to allow for direct election of U.S. Senators (before they were picked by state politcal leaders).

• While Theodore Roosevelt was President (1901 - 1908) he was known as the "Trustbuster" because he strengthend anti-trust legislation (laws) and arrested many powerful people who violated these laws. By breaking up trusts, Roosevelt increased competiton between companies, reducing costs for consumers.