Introduction: Today we enter our third unit of study - "Bringing California Into the 20th Century." To do this, we begin with an understanding of several national movements that all spilled over into California and in so doing, dramatically influenced the political, economic and social development of the State. Each of these movements is related to our topic for today - "Labor, Reform, Industry, and Politics." As we move into this topic, it will become clear that California's issues of labor, reform, industry and politics were deeply tied to national issues. Indeed, at the end of the 19th and early in the 20th Century, the U.S. was locked in a class struggle between worker and capitalist classes, as well as a political struggle betweeen emerging supporters of socialism and the traditional forces of capitalism. And we will see these struggles played out in California.

Discussion Goals - Labor, Reform, Industry, and Politics

1. To define the terms related to labor and capital.
2. To learn about the background of early labor efforts in the state of California.
3. To answer several questions about labor and capital during this early era of union politics.
4. To carefully examine the rise and fall of progressive reform in California in the early 20th Century.

Cold Call: 13th Cold Call on required reading: Goals 1, 2, and 3 and "The L.A. Times Terrorist Attack" at http://www.thenativeangeleno.com/2012/09/07/the-la-times-terrorist-attack

Goal #1: To define the terms related to labor and capital

Before we move ahead, it is important that we understand the terms used in our reading and in the discussion that will follow.

• Capitalism is an economic and social system in which capital - the means of production - is privately owned, and in which labor, goods and capital are traded and the profits are distributed to owners and/or investors.
• Socialism is a social and political system in which the means of production are be owned and controlled by the community as a whole.
• Communism is a political system derived from Karl Marx that advocates for class war that will lead to a society in which all property is publicly owned, each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs, and a classless society emerges.
• Anarchy is a political and social system in which there is no governing person or group of people, but each individual has absolute liberty.
• Fascism is a political system in which an authoritarian and nationalistic government has absolute rule an believes in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group and that the nation's interests should be elevated above those of the individual.

Goal #2: To learn about the background of early labor efforts in the state of California

Beginning in the 1850s, craft workers in Northern California combined to protect themselves and keep their wages high enough to meet living costs.  Among those were the typesetters, brewers, building tradesmen, and some musicians.  However, because of the high turnover among workers, it was difficult to organize permanent unions.

• In the 1860s, Northern California craftsmen began organizing for the eight-hour day. Shortly thereafter, some of the trade unions began to adopt resolutions setting a date after which its members would work a maximum of eight hours a day.
• By 1868, there were at least twenty-five 8-Hour Leagues in San Francisco and in February, a state-wide 8-hour law was passed by the California legislature.

However, employers immediately began to sabotage the new law by bringing in workers from the east to break the 8-hour day in San Francisco. Advertisements by the California Labor and Employment Exchange, a bureau supported by employers to find cheap labor, attracted many immigrants to California. After the Civil War and after the transcontinental railroad opened up, an influx of desperate, unemployed people were willing to work in San Francisco for as many hours as they could get. By 1872 few workers held to the 8-hour day, although bricklayers and plasterers held out until the late 1870s.

Another reaction to the failure of the 1868 bill to enforce the 8-hour day was anti-Chinese attitudes and actions.  Chinese immigrants who lost their jobs after the railroad was completed and who continued immigrating in large numbers worked for low wages and long hours. Thus, white workers began blaming the Chinese for unemployment and poor working conditions. Emotions were so inflamed in 1871 that a Los Angeles mob of over 500 white men swarmed through the city’s Chinatown and robbed or ransacked almost every Chinese resident.  At least 18 Chinese deaths were confirmed. Out of this racial and labor turmoil arose the first large organized union in California – the Workingmen’s Party. 

Using their slogan, "The Chinese Must Go!" the Workingmen's Party leaders argued that capitalists monopolized wealth and property, used their political influence to keep workers subordinate, and employed cheap Chinese labor to gain more wealth. They favored a workingmen's political movement to combat the wealthy capitalists and their corporate entities and to rid California of Chinese workers. To that end, they argued that workingmen had two major enemies: corporations and the Chinese.

By Thanksgiving of 1877, the WPC was able to muster 10,000 members to march in San Francisco's annual parade. Denis Kearney, the leader of the Workingmen's Party and an Irish immigrant, not only promised to drive all of the Chinese in California into the Pacific, he also promised to burn down San Francisco's City Hall in the name of the coming revolution that would sweep away capitalism and establish a workers' democracy. In an 1877 speech he declared:

"The Central Pacific Railroad men are thieves, and will soon feel the power of the workingmen. When I have thoroughly organized my party, we will march through the city and compel the thieves to give up their plunder. I will lead you to the City Hall, clean out the police force, hang the Prosecuting Attorney, burn every book that has a particle of law in it, and then enact new laws for the workingmen. I will give the Central Pacific just three months to discharge their Chinamen, and if that is not done, Stanford and his crowd will have to take the consequences." (San Francisco Evening Bulletin, November 5, 1877)

By 1878, the WPC had won about a third of the seats to California's constitutional convention electing a state senator , some local officials in Alameda County, the mayor and a majority of the board of supervisors in San Francisco, and some other local officials throughout the state. These politicians, in turn, began adopting ordinances that discriminated against the Chinese in housing, employment, and city services - laws that were later ruled to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

By 1880, the WPC had largely dissolved. But it left behind a reliable and strong labor vote in San Francisco, which for many years had a large influence in state politics.

Goal #3: To answer several questions about labor and capital during this early era of union politics

• What were the major problems that limited the effectiveness of labor organizations during this period?
  • Chronic disunity - workers could not unite under a socialist or capitalist banner.
  • Public perception - much of the American public, as well as many Californians, identified unionization with socialism and/or communism.
  • Confused goals – collective bargaining with employers for economic goals or national organizing for national goals.
  • Disagreement over the type of organization – local craft unions or a federation of all craft unions. The question was unclear - were unions more effective at the local and state level, or at the national level?
• What form did most labor unions finally take in California?
  • Continued to support capitalism rather than move to replace it with socialism.
  • Fought for better wage and working conditions within the capitalist structure.
• Wbat was the status of California's agricultural workers, most of whom worked in Southern California?
  • In California, most agricultural laborers were nonwhite foreigners. The state had a large supply of cheap, foreign labor willing to work - even for low wages.
  • Most work required seasonal migration which, in turn, made unionization difficult.
  • Low agricultural wages meant laborers could not afford union dues.
  • Employers viewed their agricultural workers with great contempt.
  • Because agricultural workers were largely foreign, other trade unions were not inclined to accept them into unions or to promote unionization.
• Why did unions flourish in San Francisco but not in Los Angeles?
• San Francisco was a flourishing industrial city while Los Angeles was still heavily agricultural and rural.
• San Francisco was considered the premier seaport of the Pacific Coast, making labor problems on the waterfront inevitable.
• San Francisco's population was dense and urban while the population in Los Angeles was sparse and rural - making unionization more difficult.
• San Francisco's sophisticated industries were rife with horrible working conditions that were not yet widespread in largely rural Los Angeles.
• Some of the major employers in Los Angeles formed an Employers' Association as well as the M&M - the Merchants and Manufacturing Association - to promote commerical and industrial enterprises that did not tolerate unions.
• In 1908, the M&M announced it would unite with employers who had been injured by "unAmerican, unjust, unwarrented, illegal" boycotts.
• They then launched a boycott against any employers in Los Angeles who negotiated with unions.
• Los Angeles had a powerful supporter of the anti-union, open shop ideology – Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of The Los Angeles Times.Otis popularized support of what was nationally known as the "open shop" and "industrial freedom."
  • Open shop - employers refused to make agreements that require employees be union members and often refuse to bargain with unions.
    • Men of wealth were the only men wise enough to have economic ad political power.
    • Good workers never struck or boycotted.
  • Industrial freedom = freedom of workers not to join a union and freedom of employers to fire workers if they did join.
  • Otis regularly used the pages of the Los Angeles Times to attack unions, unionism, and union workers. He believed that empoyers were involved in a war that could not be won until unions were driven out of Los Angeles. Union workers were never welcome at the Times.
  • It is under Otis's anti-union leadership that the infamous bombing of the Los Angeles Times building occurred in February of 1910.
• What were the consequences for unionization in California due to the Times bombing?
  • The bombing was illustrative of the statewide struggle beetween employers and employees over closed versus open shops. In California, the southern region of the state remained open while the northern region was largely a closed shop.
  • The results of the trial indicated that most labor organizers in California were opposed to labor violence. They were shocked to discover that the McNamara brothers had bombed the building.
  • The bombing was symbolic of the huge and intense nationwide struggle over unionization.
  • The bombing was a example of how desperate unions were at the turn of the century. In order to achieve national and state support, some union leaders were willing to use violence/terrorism - and blame it on employers - to gain support.
  • The bottom line was that after the bombing, both the national labor movement and the California union movement were demoralized.
    • Employers, on the other hand, were emboldened and eager to push their open shop agenda.
    • Bitterness between employers and employees increased.
    • Open shop continued to dominate Los Angeles for the next 30 years

In short, in the late 19th and early 20th Century, California unionization was strong in the highly urbanized portion of the state - San Francisco - and extremely weak in the rural, agricultural portion of the state - Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California. Because the state was so split and there were so many racial and ethnic divisions between its urban and rural workers, it was difficult for national union organizations such as the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) to come in and unionize. Thus, unionization had only a small impact on the state during its first 50-60 years.

What had a greater impact on the state's labor were the huge anti-immigrant attitudes that were brewing in California, most of which we previously discussed in Unit II. However, we did not bring our discussion of the long history of California's anti-immigration legislation into the 21st century when the tide gradually began to change. Indeed, by late 2015, as the political battles heated up in advance of the 2016 presidential election, Californians could look to at least three major efforts to combat its history of anti-immigrant legislation:

2001 - California begins passing a series a laws - over a dozen between 2001-2015 - known as "The California Package." According to the LA Times, "These various laws collectively produce a kind of state-level citizenship ... The California Package is innovative in several respects. Not only does it grant rights to immigrants that are restricted at the federal level, but it also tends to blur the distinction between citizens, authorized, and unauthorized immigrants - valuing everyone who lives in the state and contributes to society." (June 24, 2015) The various laws include:

• Health Care - low-income Californians are eligible for health and prenatal care even if they don't qualify for coverage through programs such as the Affordable Care Act because of their immigration status. The Children's Health Insurance Program is also available to undocumented immigrant children.
• Education - any child who has spent enough time attending California schools qualifies for in-state tuition at California colleges.
• Freedom of Movement - undocumented immigrants can get driver's licenses in California.
• Freedom to Work - undocumented immigrants qualify for the California state bar. In 2016, they will be eligible for 40 state professional licenses.

2013 - California passed a law prohibiting local law enforcement officials from detaining immigrants for longer than necessary on minor offenses so that they can be turned over to federal officials for possible deportation.

2015 In April, the California legislature unveiled a sweeping package of bills that would dramatically expand protections for undocumented immigrants far beyond what's offered by any other state. The 10 pieces of legislation would:

• offer state-subsidized health care coverage to the undocumented poor,
• prohibit businesses from discriminating against customers based on their immigration status or the language they speak;
• make it more difficult for federal authorities to deport immigrants living here illegally;
• create an Office of New Americans to help guide immigrants through bureaucratic maze;
• strengthen protections for immigrant workers;
• help immigrant victims of crime apply for special federal visas; and
• block disclosure of immigrant children's records to federal authorities.

Taken together - and considering the "California Package" of immigration bills passed between 2001-2015 - gives California the reputation of being a national leader on immigration policy.

Goal #4: To carefully examine the rise and fall of progressive reform in California in the early 20th Century

What is "Progressivism" and who were the "Progressives?"

• Progressivism refers to the wide variety of responses to the economic and social problems that 19th Century rapid industrialization introduced to the United States - and in our case, California. It began as a social movement and but quickly grew into a political movement that believed government could be a tool for progressive change.
• The early progressives believed that poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare could be ended by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace for Americans.
  • Progressives were largely college educated and lived in cities where they witnessed the negative consequences of rapid industrialization.
  • Progressives believed in exposing the evils of corporate greed and combating fear of immigrants. Consequently, many urged Americans to think hard about what democracy meant.
  • Some Progressives - especially those in California - encouraged Americans to register to vote, fight political corruption, and let the voting public decide how issues should best be addressed through adopting the direct primary, the initiative, the referendum, and the recall.
    • The direct primary replaced the previous system whereby nominees for a general election were selected by political party leaders. In a direct primary, voters choose a party's candidate in a preliminary election and the government is responsible for printing ballots and managing voting.
    • The initiative allows citizens to bypass their state legislature by placing proposed statutes and, in some states, constitutional amendments on the ballot.
    • The referendum is measure that appears on the ballot. A legislative referendum takes place when the state legislature refers a measure to the voters for their approval and a popular referendum occurs when voter petition drive successfully places a measure on the ballot for voter approval.
    • The recall is a procedure that allows citizens to remove and replace a public official before the end of a term of office. Recall differs from impeachment - recall is a political device in which an election is held and the people decide to remove or retain the official while impeachment is a legal process that requires the House of Representatives to bring specific charges and the Senate to act as a jury.

Three Questions about Progressive Reform in California, 1880-1920

1. What ushered it in?
2. What were its goals and accomplishments?
3. What brought about its demise?

What factors brought Progressive reform to California?

Two events ushered in the Progressive Era began in San Francisco: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that occurred in April was the first event and the second event was the Graft Prosecution that began in October 1906.

• The 1906 earthquake. The quake was a disaster - the initial shock started more than 50 separate fires. Almost immediately, gas connections and chimneys broke, stoves were overturned, and most of the cities flimsy, privately ownd water mains were shattered. Thus, fire fighters could not use the water to put out the fires.
  • The fires merged into one giant disaster and raged for 3 days and 2 nights.
  • Over 500 city blocks - most of the city - was destroyed.
  • Early estimates of deaths were 500 but recent research indicates that as many as 3,000 people may have died and that $1 billion worth of property was destroyed. This is a photograph of Stockton Street from Union Square, looking toward Market Stret.

In the aftermath of the disastrous quake, San Franciscans did not want potential migrants or businesses to think that another quake could ever destroy their city again. So they argued that it was not the quake itself - a natural disaster that human beings could not control - that destroyed the city, but rather, it was the subsequent fire - which human beings could control with a better planned and constructed, publically owned water system. But to build a new city on top of the ruins and construct a new water system, many San Franciscans knew required ridding San Francisco of its corrupt city government - one that had been in power since 1901.

• The Graft Prosecution of October, 1906. Abraham Ruef, the only son of a moderately wealthy San Francisco family of French Jewish origin and a idealistic lawyer became involved in politics at the end of the century.

• When he attended his first Republican convention, he quickly recognized that becoming a boss for a district in the northern part of the city would give him great power and wealth. He set about creating a political machine in which he became the middleman between the politicians and big business. As such, he worked to get out the votes of the poor and immigrant families by distributing Turkeys at Christmas and helping with immigration papers.
  • What is a "boss?"
  • What is a "political machine?"
• While Ruef was busy creating his political machine, few San Franciscans questioned the way the city was managed. However, in summer of 1901, Mayor Phelan ordered city police to support scab workers to break up a major union strike. Some citizens were furious that the mayor used the police as strike breakers and that he had used the power of government to destroy unions.
• A group calling itself the Union Labor Party of San Francisco was organized in September with the goal of having union members enter politics to elect a government of their own.
• Ruef threw his support to the new party. He chose his close friend Eugene Schmitz, president of the musicians union, to run for mayor. A Catholic of German-Irish descent, Schmitz appealed to a high percentage of the electorate.
• Schmitz was elected mayor in 1901, 1903, and 1905. In the last election, every one of the 18 Union Labor nominees was elected to the city's governing board - the board of supervisors. Ruef, then, controlled the entire government.
• These 18 men were members of labor unions but knew nothing about running government. They knew Ruef received large payments from public corporations. Following are two examples of the corruption that came with such payments:
  • United Railroads of San Francisco which was the largest street railway company in the city, wanted a special ordinance that would allow it to convert all remaining cable car lines to overhead electric trolleys. To get the ordinance passed, the company paid a $200,000 attorney's fee to Boss Ruef who then divided $85,000 among the supervisors who passed the ordinance. Ruef pocketed the remaining $115,000.
  • Pacific Gas and Electric Company wanted to be certain that reductions would not occur to the gas rate. To assure this, they paid Boss Ruef $20,000. Ruef then paid $13,250 to the supervisors who blocked any such rate reduction.
• Such arrangements were typical of other cities - but in San Francisco what was not typical was that these examples and many others of corruption became know in full to the public.
  • And this brings us back to the earthquake.
  • With people demanding a new government that could respond to a natural disaster, charges of graft became the second vehicle to bring in a new, progressive city government.
• The graft trial began when a reform-minded millionaire, Rudolph Spreckels, pledged his financial support to a prosecution fund.
  • A great prosecutorial team came together and secured indictments against both Ruef and Mayor Schmitz that they had extorted money from the owners of several "French restaurants" - establishments that had a conventional restaurant on the first floor, private supper bedrooms on the second floor, and houses of prostitution on the upper floors.
  • The evidence was limited, but the detective hired for the case was able to trap one of the supervisors into taking a bribe. The supervisor was then promised immunity if he disclosed every bribery in which he and the Board of Supervisors had participated.
  • All the other supervisors were also granted immunity, as was Ruef if he testified against the corporate executives who had given him the bribes in the form of "attorney fees."
  • The prosecution, however, was still not able to make their cases in court. Of all the defendants, Ruef alone was forced to serve a term at San Quentin.
• Ruef's graft prosecution contributed to a growing statewide demand for political reform.
• What subsequently happened began at the Republican state convention in September 1906.
  • It became obvious that the Republican Party in California was controlled by the railroad interests.
  • Thus, a group of reform minded Republicans left the Convention with the idea of overcoming this control and reforming the Republican Party itself.
  • In May 1907, a group of "Lincoln Republicans" was created and drew up an "emancipation proclamation" that would wrestle the party away from corporate interests and domination. Thus, it announced as its first objective "the emancipation of the Republican Party in California from domination by the Political Bureau of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and allied interests."
  • By 1908, the progressive reformers, now sponsored by the League of Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican Clubs, had elected enough members of the legislature to begin working for their other goals.
  • Soon thereafter they became known as the "Lincoln-Roosevelt Republic Club" and they threw themselves into the election of Hiram Johnson as governor. In 1909, in the first direct primary in the state’s history, he received the Republican nomination and in 1910 he was elected. Thus began the era of progressive reform in California.

Goals and Accomplishments of California's Progressive Reformers

1. Goal: "... the emancipation of the Republican Party in California from domination by the Political Bureau of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and allied interests."
   • Accomplishment: Largely accomplished by 1910, but Progressive domination of the Republic Party only lasts until about 1920.
2. Goal: Increasing the power of the voters and decreasing the powers of city bosses through the institution of the direct primary as well as the initiative, referendum, and recall. (The initiative, referendum, and recall had already been enacted in Los Angeles in 1904 in a historic vote - making it the first city in the nation to do so.)
   • Accomplishment: Direct primary became law in 1909. This had some far-reaching consequences for the state in 1910 when the first statewide direct primary election occurred and Hiram Johnson won the Republican nomination for governor - thus bringing the Progressive Republicans to power in the state.
   • Accomplishment: Initiative, referendum and recall became the law in 1911.
3. Goal: Regulating public utilities.
   • Accomplishment: The Railroad Commission received full power to set uniform rates and end discriminatory practices of the Southern Pacific in 1911.
   • Accomplishment: The Commission also had the power to regulate the rates charged by all other public utilities, except those that were municipally owned.
   • Accomplishment: California had the most comprehensive system of public utility regulation in the nation.
4. Goal: Introducing the principles of scientific management used in private enterprise into government.
   • Accomplishment: California had its first comprehensive budget and its first general inventory of state property by 1910.
   • Accomplishment: A moderate state tax on the gross incomes of corporations was created and property taxes were to be paid only to county and local governments by 1910.
5. Goal: Protecting what Progressives believed were the true interests of labor unions and once accomplished, the temporary evil of labor unionism would wither away.
   • Accomplishment: Workers' compensation - employers liability for industrial accidents - and the creation of an industrial accident board to determine liability in 1911
   • Accomplishment: Employers were required by law to participate in the state-operated workers' insurance system (except in agriculture) in 1913.
   • Accomplishment: 8-hour work day for women (excluding farm labor and the canning and packing industries) in 1911.
   • Accomplishment: Minimum wage law for women and children in 1913.
   • Accomplishment: A labor camp sanitation and housing act with minimum standards and a commission to enforce it in 1915.
6. Goal for California women, but not for Republican Progressives as a whole: Adopting women suffrage.
   • Accomplishment: California became the sixth state in the U.S. to adopt woman suffrage in 1911. However, it was approved by less than 2 percent margin - the smallest margin for any of the other state constitutional amendments passed in 1911.
7. Goal for temperance organizations, but not for Republican Progressives as a whole: Banning saloons - the centers of prostitution and excessive drinking - in local areas at the option of the voters.
   • Accomplishment: More than half the districts in the state voted to close all the saloons in their borders betwen 1911-1916.

Factors contributing to the Decline of the Progressives in California, 1916-1920

1. The 1916 election of Hiram Johnson, the leader of California's Progressive movement, to the U.S. Senate and his exit from state politics.
2. The 1917 entrance of the U.S. into WWI that diverted national and state attention to the military effort and away from reform.
3. The decline of the Socialist movement in the U.S. - a movement that had shown some clear support for the Progressive agenda.
   • Socialism reached is highest popularity in both the U.S. as a whole and in California during the Progressive era. This gave the traditional Republicans ammunition to attack and weaken progressivism with socialism.
   • The Socialists in California, however, were hardly radical - they wanted limited changes such as the 8-hour workday.
   • Many prominent California Socialists resigned from the party in 1916 when the national party opposed American intervention in the war.
4. The decline of organized labor.
   • IWW opposition to American participation in the war, arguing instead that the only just war was a class war against capitalism. This allowed progressive opponents in the business community to describe IWW members who were involved in many state strikes during the war as radicals who were anti-patriotic.
   • The state's 1919 passage of the Criminal Syndicalism Law that defined criminal syndicalism as "any doctrine or precept advocating...unlawful acts of force and violence...as a means of accomplishing a change in industrial ownership or control, or effecting any political change." Several hundred people were prosecuted under this law in California between 1919-1924. (The California Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 1968.)
   • In 1921, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce created a new Industrial Association that effectively brought back the open shop for the next 10 years.
   • Consequently, membership in labor unions steadily declined in California during the 1920s.
5. The collapse of the Democratic Party.
   • From 1900 through the early 1920s, Democrats struggled in California.
   • It was also divided between the prohibitionist Democrats of southern California and the wet Democrats of northern California.
6. The triumph of conservativism. In 1922, Friend W. Richardson was elected governor. Advocating a program of "sweeping retrenchment," he drastically reduced funding for regulatory boards, education, and humanitarian agencies that had been supported by the progressives. Some of these efforts were reversed in 1926 when Clement Young was elected on a progressive platform. However, he lost in 1930 to James Rolph, a traditional Republican.

Conclusions - Labor, Reform, Industry, and Politics

1. Three national movements spilled over into California at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: the struggle between labor and capital; the anti-immigration campaign; and the battle for progressive reform.
2. While union membership increased during this time period, union efforts on behalf of working Californians was met with fierce resistance from the industrial and agricultural sectors of the state.
3. California has a long, ugly history of anti-immigration actions, policies, and violence - all of which reached a peak during this era. However, by 2015, a series of immigration bills both passed and proposed since the beginning of the 21st Century gave California the reputation of being a national leader on immigration policy.
4. Progressive reform in California paralleled progressive reform in the nation - beginning at the end of the 19th century and dominating much of the first two decades of the 20th century.
5. Muckraking journalists helped to expose many of the problems that progressive reformers sought to overcome.
6. The era of progressive reform in California was ushered in by citizen reaction to two events that occurred in 1906: the San Francisco earthquake, and the public exposure of the excesses of Boss Ruef and the trials that ensued.
7. Progressivism divided California's Republican Party between the progressives - those upper class members who favored divorcing the party from the control of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and other corporate interests - and the traditional Republicans who were closely aligned with the business interests of the state.
8. The Progressive Republicans met many of their goals while in power in California - especially in terms of increasing the power of the voters, regulating public utilities, meeting some of labor's demands for improving working conditions, and giving women the right to vote.
9. While the Progressives accomplished a great deal between 1910-1920, their success was short lived - the traditional Republicans began to wrestle power away from the Progressives as the decade came to an end.
10. By 1930, progressive reform in California ended for several reasons - especially the entrance of the nation into WWI, the demise of labor union membership and activity, the ability of the conservatives to link progressivism with socialism, the collapse of the Democratic party, and the ability of the conservative side of the Republican Party to gain more power and ultimately to destroy the progressive wing.