The Progressive Era "Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door." - Emma Lazarus

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The Capitalists "While Capitalism may sometimes be hard for the individual, it is the best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest." - Andrew Carnegie Terms Resources Websites Home Assignments Syllabus "Upon the sacredness of property civilization itself depends -- the right of the laborer to his hundred dollars, and equally the right of the millionaire to his millions." - A. Carnegie "God gave me my money!" - John D. Rockefeller The Workers "Suppose we look into one of the tenements on New York's Cherry Street?...Be a little careful, please. The hall is dark and you might stumble over the children...You can feel your way, if you cannot see it...." -Jacob Riis mmmmm Wages Men: $1.50 per day Women: $1.00 per day Children: $.50 or less per day  Hours Dawn to close 1/2 hour unpaid lunch no breaks     Conditions broken time layoffs 1 million per year killed or seriously injured no benefits The System "There is honest graft and I'm an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin', 'I seen my opportunities and I took 'em'." - George Washington Plunkitt The Sherman Anti Trust Act New York City Court House $13 million invested over 13 years Bills submitted on behalf of "T.C. Cash," "Phillip F. Dummy" Three tables and 40 chairs billed at $179,729.60 Total cost equal to four times the price of both Houses of Pariliament Total cost twice the price of the state of Alaska   In Philadelphia the signers of the Declaration of Independence voted in state elections in the 1870's. In Chicago, the dead voted as a matter of standard practice. When this was brought to the attention of the city fathers, their response was to assure the public that deceased citizens only voted the way they would have done had they been alive. - The Socialists "Capitalism robs man of his birthright, stunts his growth, poisons his body, keeps him in ignorance, poverty, and dependence, and then institutes charities that thrive on the last vestiges of his self-respect." -Red Emma Goldman mmm   STRIKE Mollie McGuires Miners' Strike Pennsylvania 1874   1500 Irish coal miners maimed for life, 500 dead in 10 yr period Economic downturn results in wage cut Pinkertons shoot into striking miners 19 miners hung   STRIKE The Great Railroad Strike of '77   Economic downturn results in 18 hour days and 35% wage cut Federal troops kill 25 workers Workers sack Pittsburgh, paralyze city, burn down the railyard   STRIKE The Haymarket Riots, Chicago 1886   Workers strike for improved wages, hours and conditions Police shooting leads to protest rally at Haymarket Street in Chicago At rally bomb explodes killling 6 cops, wounds 60 others Police response results in 100 casualties 4 anarchists hung; 25,000 attend funeral     STRIKE The Homestead Steel Strike, Pennsylvania 1892   Skilled workers earning $2.43 for a 12 hour day, 6 day week; unskilled workers earning $.14 per hour now face 20% pay cut Pinkertons called in to break up strike Workers seize plant in "sit down strike" resulting in 10 deaths Pinkerton attempt to retake plant via Monongahela River access fails when workers set river on fire Governor send in 8000 state militia STRIKE The Pullman Strike, Chicago 1894   Expenses of company town leaves workers with paychecks as low as $.02 with many receiveing a bill instead of a check Grievance committee approaches Pullman who fires them Workers turn to socialist, Eugene Debs, to lead strike When Pullman fires strikers, railroad workers across the nation walk out and midwest shuts down Federal troops move in, jail Debs Upon his release Debs is hailed as a martyr by 100,000 "oppressed workers" STRIKE The Great Anthracite Coal Strikes Country wracked with strikes from 1900-1905; Economy paralized; Government stymied! Read all about it. The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 The AFL "Bread and Butter Unionism" - Sam Gompers mmmmm When the unions' inspiration through the worker's blood shall run there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one? For the union makes us strong. As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead Go crying through our singing, their ancient song of bread Small art and love and beauty, their ancient spirits knew Yes, it is bread we fight for, But we fight for roses, too.   The Muckrakers "Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch seeing what is vile...there is filth on the floor and it must be scraped up with the muckrake..." TR mmm W R I T E R S How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis The Shame of the Cities - by Lincoln Steffens A History of the Standard Oil Company - by Ida Tarbell The Bitter Cry of the Children - by John Spargo The Woman Who Toils - by Marie Van Vorst Following the Color Line - by Ray Stannard Baker     THE ASHCAN SCHOOL Robert Henri Everett Shinn John Sloan Arthur Stieglitz Edward Steichen A R T I S T S   The Social Reformers "Life cannot be administered...wisdom to deal with a man's difficulties comes only through some knowledge of his life and habits..." - Jane Addams mmmmmmmmmm Activities Public baths Engllish classes Visiting nurses Social clubs College extension classes College scholarships Jane Club Sunday Tea Butler Art Gallery Kindergarten Playgrounds Music School Boys Club Camp Fire Girls Craft Fairs Social Clubs Hull House, Chicago Achievements Founded University of Chicago School of Social Work Created Juvenile Justice System Illinois Child Labor Law Federal Child Labor Law International Ladies Garment Workers Union Illinois 8-Hour Day for Women Compulsory education Consumers League Illinois Factory Inspection Laws The Political Reformers "The object of government is the welfare of the people." - T.R. mmm   Theodore Roosevelt "You go into T.R.'s presence, you feel his eyes upon you, you listen to him, you go home and wring the personality out of your clothes." - in Miller, T.R.: A Life "He had to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral." - Alice Roosevelt Longworth "Life is a great adventure and the worst of all fears is the fear of living." - T.R.   Trustbusting Northern Securities Miners' Strike Department of Commerce and Labor Bully Pulpit   Federal Reserve Federal Trade Commission Child Labor Laws Workers Compensation Graduated Income Tax Direct election of Senators Woman Suffrage Woodrow Wilson The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made an instrument of evil. - First Innaugural Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? - First Innaugural