The Progressive Era

Progressive Era

Period: Jan 1, 1889 to Dec 31, 1925

Jane Adams push for reform

May 10, 1889

Jane Adams pushed for many reforms. She set up settlement houses that helped the poor in getting the things they need to survive. She also pushed for womens suffrage and countless other social justice reforms.

Eugene Debs Fights for Strikers

May 11, 1894

The workers of the Pullman factory in Chicago went on strike to dispute the new wage cuts. The head of the American Railway Union, Eugene Debs helped the strikers and urged them to boycott the trains. When threatened about losing their jobs, Debs and the other continued the strike until they finally were arrested. This was one of the many labor reforms.

William Jennings Bryan runs for President

Dec 8, 1896

Bryan ran for President in the year 1896 and wanted to introduce silver in bank in the Free Silver movement. He wanted to add the silver to create inflation in the economy so then farmers would increase revenue. He wanted to reform the economy of America.

Robert La Follette

Jan 7, 1901

La Follette was the governor of Wisconsin in 1900. He was once a Republican but then soon became a Progressive. He backed the reform plan called the Wisconsin Idea, which soon began to spread to other states. This plan increased the taxes on public utilities to creat commisions companies in the public intrest. He pushed for Public Service Reform and continued to fight for it until he died in 1925

Newland Reclamation Act

Aug 9, 1902

This act was in place to protect America's lands. This act allowed money from the sales of public lands to be used for irrigation and reclamation to change damaged land to productive land. This was a Public Service reform as it gave America land to farm on again.

Muckrakers write for change.

Nov 5, 1902

Journalist such as Ida Tarbell and other began writing in their own magazines in order to help spread the message of reform. They assaulted social evils, and many other problems that occured in the time. They talked about social, pulic and labor reform and caused much uproar from polictics. They were one of the first people to call and demand for reform.

Federal Workmen's Compensation Act

Dec 9, 1902

This act was put in order to reform labor. First ratified in Maryland, it would provide benefits to federal workers injured on the job. This was put in place after countless attempts to fix the working place.

National Child Labor Committee fight for labor laws

Apr 25, 1904

Headed by Florence Kelley, the National Child Labor fought to stop businesses from using child labor. At first they limited the amount of hours but over time the increased the amount of acts they passed. By 1912 the group had conviced 30 states to be against child labor.

Pure Food and Drug Act

Jun 30, 1906

This forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of food and patent medicine containing harmful ingredients. This law also made food and medicine to have a ingredient label.This was a Public Service Reform.

Upton Sinclair writes "Jungle"

Dec 7, 1906

Upton Sinclair was a muckraker writer who wrote the novel, Jungle that exposed the conditions of the meat packing industry. This fell under the Public Service Reform. This caused much demand for reform as many people thought the unsanitary conditions were wrong.

H.G. Wells writes The Future of America

Dec 8, 1906

H.G Wells wrote the novel The Future of America in 1906. This posied the question of where America would have been 30 years ahead of 1906. This started the quest for change as he predicted the fall of capitalism and other economic problems. Since he predicted unwanted things people demand change to prevent it.

Charles Evans Hughes becomes governor

Jan 1, 1907

Charles Evans Hughes became the governor of New York in 1907. When in office, he passed several laws to help stop corruption in the cities politicans. He passed the Lessland Act that gave him the power to oversee his policians and fire the corrupt offenders. This help and called for more corrupt practices reform to end the corruption in the government.

NAACP created, fight for African American rights

Feb 12, 1909

After fighting the Civil War to end slavery, Afircan Americans obtained some rights but not the full rights of others citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois, along with the help of other white progressives such as Jane Addams created the organization. They fought for voting rights and other civil rights they didnt't have at the time.

William Howard Taft

Mar 4, 1909

Under Taft, many progress was made. His admidistration filed 90 anittrust acts and created the Department of Labor to reform labor laws. With that he created 8 hour work days to prevent injuries. This was a part of labor reform.

First National Confrence on City Planning

Dec 9, 1909

The First National Confrence on City Planning was created as it was believed that cleaned up cities would produce better citizens. This was a Public service reform as it benifited the public and created better living conditions. This committee was headed by Daniel Burnham.

Secret Voting takes place

Dec 9, 1910

For a while, the election process was corupt as ballots were colored by the way one would vote. This in turn would show the way one would vote. State governments slowly passed this reform and then changed to a single colored ballot. This was an example of Corrupt Practices Reform.

Hiram Johnson pushes for suffrage

Jan 13, 1911

Hiram Johnson became the governor of California in 1911. While in office he pushed for womens rights and wanted other change in the way the government was run. He also created and headed the Progressive polictical party in 1912 and encourdaged others, such as Theodore Roosevelt to push for change.

Society of American Indians

Dec 9, 1911

A group of 50 middle-class Native Americans grouped together to fight for certain rights that they once had not had. Gertrude S. Bonnin was one of the founders of the group fought specifically so Native Americans werent being exploited.

Teddy Roosevelt runs again

Nov 16, 1912

Theodore Roosevelt decided to run again after being President from 1901 to 1909. After spending years on a safari, he came back hoping to run again but found a problem. On the trip he grew seperate from his Republic party who did not want to select him to run. In spite of this, Roosevelt then ran as a part of the Progessive to call for reform. He lost to Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson's New Freedom

Dec 9, 1912

Wilson campaigned with the idea that there should be a revival of small business and away from the control of bigger businesses. This was an example of business reform as it gave more freedom from big businesses. This was accepted as it was believed that it was good to have new businesses in America.

Minimum Wage

Dec 10, 1912

One of the labor reforms was the act of minimum wage. The first state to pass this Act was Massachusetts. This act set a base wage for children and women to avoid proverty.

The 17th Amendment

Feb 14, 1913

The 17th Amendment authorized voters to elect their senators. This was a movement towards government and social reform as the citizens could select the senators they wanted according to the causes they stand for. This was put in place after outrage of political corruption that occured in the years before.

Woodrow Wilson is elected

Mar 4, 1913

Woodrow Wilson ran for President against Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. He wanted tariff reductions, banking reform, anittrust legislation. Like Roosevelt, he promoted progressive beliefs and anted to put an end to corruption. In office, he passed several laws and acts that reduced taxes and tariffs. Acts such as the Federal Reserve Act and Underwood Tariff Act are among the many laws he passed.

The 16th Amendment

Mar 7, 1913

The 16th Amendment authorizes a national tax based on individual income. This was created because progressives had long supported a tax such as this and also wanted change from capitalism.

Federal Reserve Act

Dec 23, 1913

Wilson had alot of reform on his mind after he was elected President. In 1913 he passed the Federal Reserve Act to reform banking. This created a three-level banking system, first was the Federal Reserve Board, then 12 Federal Reserve banks and on the final level was private banks that borrowed from the other banks. This was an economic reform.

Clayton AntiTrust Act

Oct 15, 1914

Once Woodrow Wilson was in office, he passed the Clayton AntiTrust Act against big businesses. This gave limits to what corporations couldn't do. They couldn't sell goods below cost to drive companies out of business. Along with that they couldnt create a monopoly.

Federal Trade Commission

Dec 26, 1914

Under Wilson, cCongress created the Federal Trade Commission in 1914. this group was authorized to investigate coroportaion and issue "cease and desist orders". They mainly targeted mislabeled products and false claims. this was a part of corrupt practices reform.

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

Apr 10, 1916

Many people were outraged with the amount of child labor in American. After other laws were passed to prevent the use of child labor including this one. This act outlawed the interstate sale of products produced by child labor. This was an example of Social Justice Reform as people didn't want to use child labor for products.

The 18th Amendment

Dec 5, 1919

This amendment barred the manufacture, sale, or importation of alcohlic beverages. This came after the long Temperance movement which only goal was to stop the abuse of alcohol. This Amenment was not popular and was difficult to enforce which ended up forcing the amendment to be repealed. This was a sign of social reform

The 19th Amendment

Dec 5, 1919

The 19th Amendment was passed in 1919 and it granted full voting rights for women who for so long had no such right. This amendment was a part of the social justice refomr movement. This was mainly popular in the west and least popular in the east. The amendment was passed and ratified after many years for fighting for said rights.