1. Progressive Era Reforms
The Jungle: A View of Industrial America: http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=3CF8E02B-9429-45BD-AD35-716373B2EA6F&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US
2.
3. Labor Rights
GAINS
•8 hour workday
•¾ of all states ban child
labor
•Minimum wage
•Workers compensation
SETBACKS
•Muller v. Oregon
4. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
….they bought up all the old rancid butter left over in the grocery stores of a continent, and
"oxidized" it by a forced-air process, to take away the odor, rechurned it with skim milk, and sold
it in bricks in the cities! . . .
…There were those who made the tins for the canned meat, and their hands, too, were a maze of
cuts, and each cut represented a chance for blood poisoning….
…as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were
open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and
when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting—
sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the
world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard! . . .
…there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that
was mouldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the
hoppers, and made over again for home consumption….
….There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip
over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to
see well, but 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 poisoned bread out for
them, they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together…..
….in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water—and cart load after cart
load of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the
public's breakfast…..
6. Political Reforms
Tammany Hall, NYC
•Secret ballot, direct primary, recall
•Initiative – new laws
• Referendum – strike down laws
• 17th Amendment – direct election of senators
• 19th Amendment – Women’s Suffrage
7. President Teddy Roosevelt
• The Square Deal = regulating big business, protecting workers and consumers.
• The “Trust Buster”
8. Environmental Regulation
• 140 million acres designated as
national forest = Great Britain
and France combined
• 5 new national parks
• Crater Lake, OR
• Glacier, MT
9. Regulation of Industry
•1890 Sherman Anti-trust Act > 1914
Clayton Act
• Government could sue corporations
involved in monopolies.
10. Redistribution of Wealth
16th Amendment
• Income tax
“The Congress shall have power to lay
and collect taxes on incomes, from
whatever source derived, without
apportionment among the several
States, and without regard to any
census or enumeration.”
Income Tax Debate
12. ANSWER in YOUR NOTEBOOK:
1. Today, what areas of our society are in need of reform? Why?
2. What is the role of government in society?
3. How much influence should the government have over business? Why?
4. How much influence should business have over government? Explain.
