Progressive Era

Eugene Debs

Apr 9, 1894

Debs founded the Socialist Party and campaiged worker control of government and public ownership of all major industries as a way of progressing and supporting the business reform.

International Ladies Garment Workers Union

May 10, 1900

The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was formed in 1900 and was a Union made up of mostly women. They led "The Great Revolt" in 1910 by picketing and eventually won union recognition, a health benefits program, and higher wages, http://womenshistory.about.com/od/worklaborunions/a/ilgwu.htm

Teddy Roosevelt

Sep 14, 1901

Teddy Roosevelt was elected president in 1901 and was promoted the Square Deal in 1904 to limit the power of trusts, promoting public health and safety, and improving work conditions.

Jane Addams

Dec 8, 1902

Published "Democracy and Social Ethics" which argued that democracy meant more than the right to vote and pushed for social reform where society is concerned for the poor.

National Child Labor Committee

Apr 25, 1904

Formed in 1904 at the Carnegie Hall in New York City to tend to the issue of working children. This committee's biggest influence was photographing the conditions of the working children which appauled most Americans which lead to immediate reform changes. http://www.nationalchildlabor.org/history.html

Ida Tarbell

Oct 13, 1904

An American author who wrote "The History of the Standard Oil Company" which exposed The Standar Oil Company run by John D. Rockefeller. She inspired many other authors to write about and expose other monopolies. She was later credited for being the cause of the breakup of Standard Oil. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/p_tarbell.html

Industrial Workers of the World

Jun 27, 1905

The IWW is a union comprised of wage workers who came together due to anger over philosophy, conservatism and craft unions of the American Federation of Labor. The union had a successful strike against Hansel & Elcock Construction which caused the workers to eventually leave their jobs due to their persuation. This union began to reform the labor system in America.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1050.html
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1050.html

Samuel Hopkins Adams

Oct 7, 1905

Adams published an article called "The Great American Fraud" in 1905 which criticized and exposed false claims about patent medicines. This eventually lead to the goverment's reaction of passing the Pure Food and Drug laws in 1906 because they were so appauled. http://www.museumofquackery.com/ephemera/overview.htm

Upton Sinclair

Feb 2, 1906

Published "The Jungle" which alerted the public of capitalist greed and the meat packing industry as a way of supporting corrupt practices reform.

Business Reform

Jun 30, 1906

The Elkins Act forbade shippers from accepting rebated and was passed in 1903. The Hepburn Act authorized the ICC to set railroad rates and to regulate other companies involved in interstate commerce and was passed in 1906. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 was an act that clearly stated what coporations could not do in order to prevent business corruption.

Public Service Reform

Jun 30, 1906

The Meat Inspection Act required government inspection of meat shipped from one state to another and was passed in 1906 to protect the health of the public.

Corrupt Practices Reform

Jun 30, 1906

The Pure Food and Drug Act forbade the making, sale or transportation of food or drugs with harmful ingredients and was passed in 1906 in order to stop the shady practices going on and to potect the health of citizens.

H.G. Wells

Aug 11, 1906

British writer who published "The Future in America" which was an update of Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" by predicting the outcome of American society in 30 years to scare people into supporting progressivism in America. http://kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm

Robert La Follette

Oct 9, 1906

A progressive politician who influenced America by making inspiring speeches against railroad trusts, bossism, the League of Nations, World War I, political bosses, and employment of experts for public service.

Ray Stannard Baker

Sep 3, 1908

He is an American author who wrote the book "Following the Color Line" which was based on the racial divide in America. The book was a huge success which influenced many Americans to support the social reform in America and influenced anti-racism. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/peopleevents/p_stannard.html

First National Conference on City Planning

May 21, 1909

This was a conference meeting in Washington, D.C. in order to map out the planning of future cities in America to tend to the needs of industries, businesses, transportation and homes. This meeting later influenced other city planning meetings which would later craft American cities into what they are today.
http://www.planning.org/centennial/aprilpelcommentary.htm

Sixteenth Amendment

Jul 12, 1909

This amendment specifically authorized income tax in the U.S. and was ratified but many Americans believed the Secretary of State fraudulently ratified it. This amendment angered the American community, but ir was a way of progressing the economy into a better direction. http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/hottopic/irs_history.html

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Dec 11, 1909

The NAACP is an African-American civil rights organization with a goal "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination". The group made an opposition to the Jim Crowe Law in order to reform social justice, They also had a big role in the challenge of Guinn vs. United States in 1915 along with Buchanan vs. Warley in 1917.
http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history
richmondspokes.org/naacp-richmon

National Urban League

Sep 29, 1910

The league was founded by African-Americans wanting to push for more black employment in America and to erase the denial of jobs because of race. They began training members for occupations they wished to gain and influenced the reform of social justice severely. http://law.jrank.org/pages/8743/National-Urban-League.html

Society of American Indians

Oct 8, 1911

This group was established by 50 Native Americans in order to fix the issues Indians face and hoped to improve health, education, and civil rights.They managed to publish the "Quarterly Journal of the American Indian" to influence American citizens to fix their hardships. Through attempting to improve Indian's rights they influenced later Indian groups to form and reform society to fix the issues American Indians faced. http://www.answers.com/topic/society-of-american-indians

Minimum Wage Law in MA

Mar 23, 1912

A commision in Massachusetts met in 1912 in order to help develop a solution to the poor wages of women and children. Massachusetts passed the minimum wage law first and set the standard for the country, later influencing other states to pass minimum wage laws. These laws helped reform the broken labor practices in America and pointed the U.S. in a non-discrimatory direction. http://american-business.org/2606-minimum-wage-laws.html

Seventeenth Amendment

May 13, 1912

The amendment was ratified in 1912 and authorized voters to elect their senators. This was a way of reforming the election process and restored honest government.

Social Justic Reform

Dec 23, 1913

Congress passed the Underwood Tariff Act which reduced tariffs to their lowest levels in over 50 years, but imposed a graduated income tax to make up for lost revenue. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created a thee-level banking system in order to justify the banks in America to prevent any fraud in the sytems in order to help protect US citizens.

William Jennings Bryan

Apr 17, 1916

Secretary of State (1913-1915) who was called “The Great Commoner”. He campaigned for the amendments on prohibition and women's suffrage as a way of pushing towards progressivism. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/brya-a11.shtml

Labor Reform

Sep 2, 1916

This reform involved groups who pushed for closed shops with many supporters of socialism. Citizens wanted to change how workers were treated and wished to be treated fairly in the work industries. The Keating-Owen Act passed in 1916 and made it so government could regulate business conditions especially child labor, but it was later removed. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/davis/photography/reform/progressive_era.html

Woodrow Wilson

Jan 8, 1917

U.S. president who had a "New Freedom" campaign. Wilson moved towards lower tariffs, reformed banking, regulated corporations, and aided farmes and wage earners to reform America in a better economical direction.

Eighteenth Amendment

Jan 19, 1919

The Eighteenth Amendment barred the manufacture, sale or importation of alcholic beverages in 1919 until it was repealed in 1933. This amendment proved to be very unpopular and hard to inforce, but it was to reform society and their habits along with making communites safer.

Nineteenth Amendment

Jun 4, 1919

This was ratified in 1919 and it gave women more rights which included the right to legally vote as a way of progressing towards women's freedom.

Charles Evans Hughes

Mar 12, 1921

He was a leader of the Progressive Movement and later Secretary of State who called for reform by enhancing the powers of the governor and the experts in the bureaucracy which lead citizens to support progessivism in order to prevent a corrupt governent. http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/8_printable.html

Hiram Johnson

Dec 8, 1922

Johnson was a populist and senator who implemented many reforms, made speech that promoted isolationanism in order to promote social reform. One reform was the popular election of U.S. Senators which helped make the government more fair. Johnson also supported women's suffrage and pushed for their rights. He supported the California Alien Land Law of 1913 to prevent alians denied citizenship from owning land or property to reform this corrupt practice.