The Progressive Era: Politics, Women, and Reform

Hi, and welcome back to Heimler's History.

In this lecture,

we get into the Progressive Era,

which is an era of great

change in American history.

Now, the progressives had many faces

and diverse stations in life,

but they all agreed on one thing: to use

the government as

an agent of human welfare.

No! [REACTION]

Yes.

All right, let's get to it.

(It's time to kick it old school).

[MUSIC]

(Take that easy).

So, the Progressives had their roots

in the Greenback Labor Party of the 1870s

and the Populous Party of the 1890s,

and as a whole, this movement was very

wary of the unrestrained

power of capitalism.

All of this hands-off,

laissez-faire-type governing didn't

seem to fit in a new industrial age.

The Progressives reasoned

that a non-interventionist government was

fine for the old days of the Jeffersonian

farmer, but now things had changed

and grown more complex,

and there needed to be a government

which could change with the times.

And so, beginning in 1902,

there was a whole group of photographers

and writers who made an industry out

of exposing the evils of this new age,

and they became known as the muckrakers.

Among the most significant

of the muckrakers was Jacob Riis,

whose photography of the New York City

poor uncovered the grinding conditions

in which many of the city's poor lived.

There was also Ida Tarbell,

who published a scathing history

of Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

And perhaps most famous of all was

Upton Sinclair, whose expose on the brutal

and unsanitary conditions of a Chicago

meat processing plant appalled the nation

so profoundly,

President Roosevelt included,

that Congress hastened to pass new

legislation including the Pure Food

and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

Now, progressivism wasn't only a movement

among writers and photographers, it also

had a strong political contingent as well.

And we can't really talk about all their

different political aims and desires,

but essentially the progressivists

wanted two things.

Number one, they wanted to curb corporate

monopolies through the agency

of the state, and two, improve

the common lot of laborers and citizens.

And to this end, the Progressives were

able to pass a constitutional amendment,

namely the 17th Amendment.

Prior to this,

the only members of the federal government

who were elected by the people were

the House of Representatives,

but the 17th Amendment changed

that and put the election of senators

into the hands of the people.

And let's not forget the ladies.

Traditionally, as you know,

the woman's place in American culture was

having babies, raising babies,

and making everybody in the family

a sandwich, because the men have important

things to do like, you know, vote

and drink prodigious amounts of alcohol.

But it's during this age that women start

banding together to find the strength

enough to tell their men to make

their own stinking sandwiches.

Most significant during this period was

the ground swell of agitation these

women caused for the right to vote.

Now, the men were not too happy about

this, and why would they be since in their

view, a woman was just

a half-baked version of a man?

Now, it wouldn't be until 1920 that women

officially had the Constitutional

right to vote, but it all began here.

Now, one significant area of reform

that attracted women was factory reform.

You'll recall that during this time,

many women started working in factories,

and they were a good hire for employers

because they only had to pay them

about a third of what they paid men.

Honestly, I don't understand why women

are so discontent during this period.

Anyway, a couple of very significant court

cases were settled in favor of women

during this time,

including Muller versus Oregon.

Now,

this case proved the constitutionality

of laws protecting women workers

on account of they were

weaker bodily than men.

Now, we have to be careful not to read our

current standards of equality

and anti-discrimination

laws back into this period.

If we do, we'll be tempted to wag our

finger at all this, but in reality,

women felt this was a legal triumph

in their favor and a stepping

stone to further their goals.

The problem with laws, however,

is that they mean nothing sitting on the

books in some dusty legal depository.

No, laws must be enforced, and sadly,

many of these new laws which upheld

the rights of women were not.

Case in point, the Triangle

Shirtwaist Factory in New York City.

Now, this factory employed hundreds

of women in the garment industry.

We already know that factories were dismal

places to work, but in addition to all

of that, this factory paid no regard

for fire safety codes and kept

all of its exit doors bolted shut.

For what reason, I don't know.

Anyway, one night in 1911,

a fire broke out in the factory

and hundreds of women working

there were trapped inside.

And when it became clear that there was no

way to escape the fire,

many women fled to the windows

on the eighth floor and jumped.

Here's a firsthand account published

in the Milwaukee Journal March 27th,

1911: "I was walking through

Washington Square when a puff of smoke

issuing from the factory caught my eye.

I reached the building before

the alarm was turned in.

I saw every feature of the tragedy

visible from outside the building.

I learned a new sound, a more horrible

sound than description can picture.

It was the thud of a speeding

living body on a stone sidewalk.

Thud, dead; thud, dead;

thud, dead; thud, dead.

62 thud deads."

I call them that because the sound

and the thought of death came to me

each time at the same instant.

There was plenty of chance

to watch them as they came down.

The height was 80 feet.

I even watched one girl falling,

waving her arms, trying to keep her body

upright until the very instant

she struck the sidewalk.

She was trying to balance herself.

Then came the thud, then a silent,

unmoving pile of clothing

and twisted, broken limbs.

It would be the worst human disaster

New York City would know

until September 11th, 2001.

And I don't quote this to shock you,

although it is shocking.

I tell you this to try to move you out

of the cold, rational realm of court cases

and factory legislation and to help you

feel the horror that these progressives

felt, and to help you feel the reason why

they agitated for so much new

legislation and government intervention.

Now, there's more to the Progressive story

and we'll get to that in the next lecture,

but for now, I will see you next time.