Intro to Progressivism Part 2

Settlement House Workers and Womens Activism

Settlement houses were intended to help the immigrant poor cope with urban life
Much of the early inspiration came from college-educated women.
In 1889, Jane Adams and Ellen Gates Starr founded the first great settlement house, the
Hull House, in Chicago.
o They visited Londons Toynbee Hall which was comprised of middle-class men
who worked with the citys poor.
o Came back to Chicago and bought a decaying mansion once belonging to Charles
J Hull.
Jane Adams emerged as the leader of the Hull House and moved into the building.
o She required all workers to move also: Florence Kelly, Alice Hamilton, Julia
Lathrop
They set up a nursery for children with working mothers, set up a penny savings bank, an
employment bureau, a baby clinic, neighbor hood playground, and social clubs.
o Also aided cultural as well as economic needs by sponsoring an orchestra, reading
groups, and lecture series.
Chicagos growing circle of reform minded intellectuals, artists, and politicians
contributed their services to the Hull House. (John Dewey;philosopher. Frank Wright;arc)
Clarence Darrow, a renowned attorney in America who represented Unions, spent a lot of
time at the Hull House.
In 1893, John P. Altgeld named Florence Kelly Chicagos chief inspector of factories.
o This led to Illinoiss first factory law which prohibited child labor, limited women
to 8 hours a day, and authorized enforcement inspectors.
Julia Lathrop used her appointment as state board of Charities to campagin for
improvements in the care of the poor, handicapped, and delinquents.
o Established a department of social research at the University of Chicago. First
school of Social Work.
Alice Hamilton overcame gender discrimination to become a doctor and created the field
of public health.
o First female faculty at Harvard.
Though not as famous as the Muckrakers, Hull house leaders were drawn into the public
arena and inspired thousands of women to open more than 400 settlement houses.
o Leaders of the Hull House created the progressive agenda.
Settlement house workers were not liberal, but cultural. Their attempts to help the poor
was very paternalistic.
Most reformers saw immigrants as culturally and racially inferior, but Jane Adams
appreciated immigrants and their gifts.
Jane Adams was troubled by the entertainments of the new working-class which gave
adolescence unregulated opportunities for intimate association.
o Jane Adams and others saw a serious problem in urban life in which rural women
prefer prostitution to 65 poorly paid hours a week, essentially a sweatshop.
o Reformers exaggerated the problem which led to questionable legislation like the
Mann Act which criminalized the transportation of women across states for
immoral purposes.
o Jack Johnson, a black boxer, fell victim to the act when he and his white secretary
moved across state lines.
Another social ill that was addressed by the progressives was drinking, alcohol.
o Men wasted money in saloons souring domest relations; thus, reformers preched
to refrian from drinking and sought out closing saloons.
Progressives then joined forces with the Womens Christian Temperance Union and their
collective efforts prohibited sale and manufacture of alcohol in sixteen states. Then their
crowning achievement was the eighteenth amendment.
Reformers failed to see or ignored the social role of saloons in ethnic working-class com.
o Saloons provided tens of thousands of workers with a place to eat lunch.
o They provided food and drinks for diff. cultures, meeting spcae for fraternal
societies, and offered camaraderie in native languages.
o Served also as informal bankers, cashing checks and making small loans.
o Alcohol was also used for serving ethnic ways of life. Catholic communion.

Socialism and Progressivism
Issues like female sexuality and alcohol drew progessives in a conservative direction, but
other issues drew progressives to a socialism viewpoint.
Socialism meant transferring ownership of industries from industrialists to the laboring
masses, known as nationalization.
o To convert from private to governmental ownership and control.
Socialists thought this would make it impossible for ewalthy elites to control society.
Socialist Party of America was founed in 1901 and became a political force.
In 1812, in the peak of its influence, it enrolled more than 115,000 members and its
presidential candidate, Eugene V. Debs, got one million votes.
Many periodicals spread the socialist movement. The most important of which was called
Appeal to Reason with 750 thousand subscribers by Arkansan named Julius Wayland.
o In 1905, it published the jungle in serial form, and it was so successful that it
forced the fed. gov. to regulate the meatpacking industry.
Socialists came in many varieties:
o German immigrants, Jewish immigrants, former populist farmers, and especially
Oklahoma.
o In the West, Socialism was most popular among workers in isolated areas where
industrialist wielded enormous power. (miners timber)
The radical workers joined the militant union The Industrial Workers of the World, which
was allied with the socialist party.
Socialist were also varied by politics and ideology. The radical IWW called for a
revolution while mainstream socialism was much more respectful of traditions
o Mainstream socialists saw themselves as saviors of the American public as heirs
of Jefferson.
o They believed in american democracy.
The differences between mainstream and radical socialist would fragment their
movement after 1912, but they coexisted for about a decade because of Debs.
o Debs was an effective orator who glorified the Dec. of Ind., spoke eloquently
about the dangers of unregulated capitalism, and believed in a strong state.
Progressives and Socialists often worked together to win economic and political reforms
at the state and local level. Many even moved back and forth between the two.
o For example: Florence Kelly, Walter Lipmann, Helen Keller, and John Dewey.
On the other hand, Debss talk of revolution scared progressives. Progressives wanted to
tame capitalism not end it. They wanted to improve the lives of the working masses.