chapter 22 the progressive era america past and present eighth edition
TRANSCRIPT
The Changing Face of Industrialism
• Industrial growth meant more goods at lower prices
• Residue of social problems from 1890s– Poverty & disease persisted
• 20th century began on optimistic note– People believed technology & enterprise
would shape a better life
p.628-629
The Innovative Model T
• Henry Ford transformed auto industry with mass production
• Small profit on each unit, gross of huge profit on high volume of sales
• 1908: Model T introduced– Best example of a mass
produced consumer product in the early 1900s
• 1916: Fed govt began highway subsidies p.629-630
The Burgeoning Trusts
• The trend toward bigness in industry accelerated after 1900– Standard Oil, American Tobacco,
Amalgamated Copper, US Rubber• 1% of industrialized firms producing nearly ½
of all manufactured goods
• Bankers provided integrated control through interlocking directorates
• Trusts controversial– Often denounced as threats to equality– Some defended as more efficient
p.630-631
Managing the Machines
• Frederick Taylor pub’d “Principles of Scientific Management, 1911” which advocated work standards & coop
• Worker welfare, morale suffered– Better paychecks– Increased danger, tedium
• 1911 ~ Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire demonstrated risks of factory work
p.631
Triangle Shirtwaist
Company Fire
• Focused attention on unsafe working conditions
• Doors locked to prevent theft & keep out labor organizers
• 146 deaths from stampede, burns, smoke inhalation, & jumping
• Mostly Italians & Jews from Eastern Europe
NYC ~ March 1911
p.632
Protests Against Working Conditions
• Rose Schneiderman, 29 yr old organizer for the Women’s Trade Union, lead numerous protests against factory working conditions.
• Outcry impelled NY’s governor to estab a State Factory Investigating Commission
p.632-633
Society's Masses
• To keep up with the demand for workers, more & more women, African Americans, Asians, & Mexican Americans entered the workforce– Expanded employment increased
production
• For many, life was harsh, spent in slums & working long hours
p.633
Better Times on the Farm
• Isolation reduced by mail and parcel post deliveries to farms
• Tenant farmers remained impoverished
• Western farmers benefited from vast irrigation projects
p.633-634
Women & Children at Work
• Women resisted ideals of domesticity to enter work force
• Women’s labor unions defended rights of women & child laborers
• Sheppard-Towner Maternity & Infancy Protection Act of 1921: Helped fund maternity & pediatric clinics– Set precedent for the Social Security
Act of 1935
p.634-635
Margaret Sanger
• Nurse & outspoken social reformer, led a campaign to give physicians broad discretion in prescribing contraceptives
• Fed Comstock Law banned interstate transport of devices & information
p.635-637
The Niagara Movement & the NAACP
• Most African Americans were poor sharecroppers, segregated by Jim Crow Laws & at mercy of violent white mobs
• Black workers gained least from prosperity• 1905: W.E.B. DuBois & others rejected
accommodation to racist society• "Niagara Movement" demands immediate
respect for equal rights of all – DeBois head of Niagara Movement
• NAACP & Urban League advocate African American rights
p.635-639
"I Hear the Whistle": Immigrants in the Labor
Force• 1901–1920: Fresh influx of
Europeans, Mexicans, Asians to labor force
• Non-English speakers considered a social problem
• Programs to "Americanize" them
• Immigration limitations– Chinese immigration banned in 1902– Literacy tests used against other
immigrant groupsp.639-641
Conflict in the Workplace
• Low wages combined with demands for increased productivity led to increase in labor unrest in early 1900s
• Industrial productivity fell
• Union membership soared
p.642
Organizing Labor
• AFL led by Samuel Gompers was the largest union
• 1903 ~ Women excluded from AFL form Women's Trade Union League
• 1905 ~ Those excluded from AFL form Industrial Workers of the World
• Radical organizations win spectacular strikes with small numbers
• Fear of class warfare increases p.642-643
Working with Workers• Some employers turned to the new
fields of applied psychology & personnel management to improved working conditions & avoid trouble
• Henry Ford doubled wages, reduced workday ~ Tried many innovations– Plant production increased– Union activity ended
• “Hawthorne Effect” ~ Cicero, IL– Western Electric Plant– NIB
p.644
AmoskeagManchester, NH
• Amoskeag Mills (textile plant), modeled paternalistic approach to labor management
• Company hired whole families
• Benefits included playgrounds, health care, home-buying plans, recreation– A model community
• Japanese system?p.644-645
A New Urban Culture
• For many, life improved significantly between 1900-1920– Jobs were plentiful– Growing middle class consumed new
inventions & entertainment
• Americans increasingly became consumers of the mass production of products
p.645
Production & Consumption• 1900–1920: Advertising agencies
boomed. New techniques created demand for goods
• Goods increased US standard of living
• Middle class expanded & rich grew richer
• New federal Income Tax (1920) provided first accurate accounting of income– 5% of population collected almost 25% of $
p.645-646
Living & Dying in an Urban Nation
• By 1920, the average life span increased substantially, infant mortality (death rate) still high
• Booming cities took on modern form– Giants were NYC, Chicago, &
Philadelphia ~ Turned out every kind of product from textiles to structural steel
• Zoning regulations, first in Los Angles, separated industrial, commercial, residential areas
p.646-647
Popular Pastimes• Ordinary people achieved leisure for
first time in American history• Popular music: Sousa marches,
ragtime, blues, jazz, vaudeville• Light reading included romance,
detective, science-fiction novels• Spectator pastimes included baseball,
football, movies, concerts– 1905 ~ 18 players die playing college
football ~ TR decided to clean it up– National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) founded in 1910p.647-648
Experimentation in the Arts
• Isadora Duncan transformed dance– Departed from traditional ballet steps &
stressed improvisation
• T.S. Eliot rejected traditional poetic meter & rhyme
p.648-650
Experimentation in the Arts
• Robert Henri & the realist painters –known to their critics as the “Ash Can” School—relished in the excitement of the environment of the cities– Painted the truth with “strength,
fearlessness & individuality”– Note: “Ashcan”
p.648-650
A Ferment of Discovery & Reform
• Racism, labor conflict remained
• Solid social & economic gains made
• Optimism that social experiments can succeed
p.650