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NAWSA
The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) are reunited as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. -
Temperance Movement
Antiliquor campaigners recieved powerful support especially from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Founder Frances E. Willard recruited nearly 1 million women and built the WCTU into the largest organization of women in the world. In addition, the Anti-Saloon League also advocated against alcohol. Some states and numerous counties passed "dry" laws, which controlled, restricted, or abolished alcohol. -
National Consumers League
Florence Kelley became the state of Illinois's first chief factory inspector and one of the nation's leading advocates for improved factory conditions. Her newly founded National Consumers League mobilized female consumers to pressure for laws safeguarding women and children in the workplace. -
Woman Suffrage
Woman suffrage received powerful new support from the progressives early in the 1900s. The suffragists, with their cry of "Votes for Women" and "Equal Suffrage for Men and Women," protested bitterly against "Taxation Without Representation." Many of the states gradually extended the vote to women. -
Galveston, Texas
In 1901 it had appointed expert staffed commissions to manage urban affairs. Galveston begins a new era of nationwide government reform on the local level by eradicating the old and ineffective city council and replacing it with municipal directors who are elected every two years. -
Urban Reform
Urban reformers attacked "slumlords," juvenile delinquency, and wide-open prostituion, which flourished in red-light districts unchallenged by bribed police. Robert M. La Follette wrested considerable control from the crooked corporations and returned it to the people. He also perfected a scheme for regulating public utilities. Other states also began to steadily regulate railroads an trusts, chiefly through public utilities commissions. -
Conservation of Nature
Roosevelt proceeded to set aside in federal reserves some 125 million acres, or almost 3 times the acreage thus saved from the saw by his three predecessors. He also earmarked millions of acres of coal deposits, as well as water resources useful for irrigation and power. The Sierra Club, founded in 1892, dedicated itself to preserving the wilderness of the western landscape. -
The Square Deal
The Square deal embraced: control of the corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources. A crippling strike broke out in the anthracite coal mines of Pennyslvania. Some 140,000 workers, many of them illiterate and immigrants, demanded 20% increase in pay and a reduction of the working day from 10 to 9 hours. A compromise decision ultimately gave the miners a 10% pay boost and a working day 9 hours. -
Progressive Women
The women's club movement provided an even broader civic entryway for many middle-class women. Most female progressives defended their new activities as an extension of the traditional roles of wife and mother. Female activists agitated through organizations like the Women's Trade Union League and the National COnsumers League. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire
A lethal fire in 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City claimed about 146 workers due to locked doors and other flagrant violations of the fire code. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers
