Name Date Period Score. A NEW CENTURY - CHAPTER 11 Progressive Era, World War I, and the Roaring Twenties

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1 Name Date Period Score A NEW CENTURY - CHAPTER 11 Progressive Era, World War I, and the Roaring Twenties During the first two decades (20 years) of the new century, Utah s economy rested on agriculture and mining. Following World War I, agriculture and mining limped along while industry, construction, trade, and transportation prospered. Labor unions fought big business, and Progressives fought for a safer, cleaner life. Another Wave of Immigration Millions of immigrants came to America and then Utah after the Civil War. In the 1890's there were many more large waves. They came to find jobs. Laborors were needed to work on the railroad, in the mines and in the smelters. They were also needed to work in agriculture. For these enterprises, workers were imported from Italy, Slavic provinces, Crete, and mainland Greece. By 1920, Utah s new immigrants brought the population to a nearly equal balance between Mormons and non-mormons. In the late 1800's one out of every 10 Greeks left for America. 1/3 of the people in Ireland came to America. Hispanic immigrants also came for jobs. Until the 1950's, most of Utah s African Americans lived in Ogden. To help end discrimination and exclusion, Blacks in Utah established a chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in Salt Lake City. Many jobs were not open to Blacks. The Cathedral of the Madeleine was dedicated in The Congregation Montefiore Jewish Synagogue was built. In 1919 a Japanese school was established. They established a Buddhist Church.

2 By the 1920's, anti-japanese feelings ended with the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 which prohibited the immigration of all Japanese. The Rocky Mountain Times was a Japanese newspaper. After the Mexican Revolution, thousands of Mexicans fled to safer places. Soon there were Mexican colonies (communities) in Brigham, Garland, Ogden, and Salt Lake City. Following the Civil War, men claiming to be the ghosts of Confederate soldiers organized the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan used terror and violence, murdering hundreds. After World War I, Klan membership spread into Utah. They allowed only white, native-born Protestants to join. They were against Jews, Catholics, Blacks, and all new immigrants. Violence did not appear widely in Utah until an elderly Italian man died from a heart attack after being chased. A Black man was also hanged by a mob. Transportation Advances At the first of the century, electric streetcars and railroads caused a transportation revolution. The Banberger railroad went north from Salt Lake City as far as Farmington. Lagoon became a popular resort for swimming, dancing, and horse racing. People also took the train to Saltair. There, they could ride a giant roller coaster (which collapsed into the lake in the 1950's) dance to big bands, and float in the lake, then ride the train home. By 1909 the passenger railroad reached Ogden. A second line ran to Provo and soon to Payson. In those days, before many people had cars, the trains were a vital source of fast, cheap transportation. TRAX, the new light rail system will go into use on December 4, Some say it is the best way to provide transportation to work and shopping centers, and is less expensive. They also say it will decrease the traffic and help decrease air pollution. Others say it costs too much and will not really help the traffic congestion.

3 By 1900 there may have been 20 gasoline-powered automobiles int he state. By 1909 there were about 873 cars and trucks. It took twenty years for Utah to boast paved roads along main state routes. Airplane flight did not come to Utah until 1910, about 7 years after the Wright brother s flight in North Carolina. Electricity, Telephones, and Radios Utah had the first transcontinental railroad tracks, telegraph lines, and telephone wires come together here. At Wendover copper wires were spliced to complete a telephone circuit from New York to San Francisco. The first wireless radio broadcast was from station KZN (now KSL) began in earnest in Electric lights were displayed on the streets of Salt Lake City in Steam engines generated the first electricity. (It only ran a few days a week and was never generated on a full moon) Reclamation, National Forests, Parks, and Monuments By the turn of the century, farmers were using all of the available water. To solve this water shortage problem, a project to transport water from the Strawberry River across the mountains was proposed that required building a damn and diverting water from the river through a mountain tunnel to the Spanish Fork River. To be feasible, additional land was needed. Utah Senators Reed Smoot and George Sutherland lobbied the government to remove this land from the Uintah-Ouray Reservation under national reclamation acts. The Utes owned the land, but for over 40 years they had leased it to ranchers for grazing cattle. Eventually the water users won. The project had begun in 1905 and was completed in Besides building dams, people began to think more and more about taking care of the land. Albert Potter was a federal government officer. His job was to see how the needs of both the people and the land could best be met. He visited communities, talked with people, observed the timber and grazing lands, noticed how the mines and new electric power plants affected the land. He also saw that forests were very important as watersheds. Potter s survey resulted in a wide-scale forest management program. Two national forests had already been set aside as protected public lands, but more were organized. Today there are six

4 national forests in Utah. Those national forests are: Wasatch Cache National Forest Uinta National Forest Ashley National Forest Fishlake National Forest Manti-La Sal National Forest Dixie National Forest One way the government protected natural land was through national parks and monuments. It began in 1872 with Wyoming s Yellowstone National Park. Utah now has thirteen national parks and monuments. The newest is the Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument, established in Natural Bridges National Monument was the first national monument in Utah (1908.) Rainbow Bridge National Monument was set up in U of U Professor Byron Cummings credited two Paiute Indians, Noscha Begay and his father, with the discovery of Rainbow Bridge. Earl Douglass, a geologist and fossil collector for the Carnegie Museum came to Utah to explore the Uinta Basin. He discovered a complete skeleton of a dinosaur. The longest skeleton was of a diplodocus, 84 feet long. This is now Dinosaur national Monument near Vernal. Utah s first national park was established in It was names Zions National Park. Industry Brings Progress and Problems Producing goods (about everything people needed) became big business. Shipping by rail was also a very important industry. One of the largest industries was mining. They mined copper, coal, silver, and gold. Daniel Jackling is called the Father of Utah Copper. He developed the open-pit mining method in Ore was hauled out by trains. The mine provided jobs for thousands of workers. There were problems: a smoke belt that polluted the air, damaged crops, and hurt animals. It was sulfur dioxide gas that escaped in the smoke. Coal mining boomed as railroad lines were extended to more towns. By 1920 forty-six coal

5 mines were in business. Oil production began in the San Juan region in Thomas Kearns and David Keith organized the Silver King Mining Company in Park City. This was in Today, the Kearns mansion is used as the governor s home. As mining of metals and coal increased, miners began to organize to get better wages and safer working conditions. Coal miners in the 1920's joined the United Mine Workers and went on strike when faced with a 30% wage reduction. Utah-born William D. Haywood was instrumental in establishing the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) nationwide. Large mine owners and corporations fought against the unions. The leaders of Utah s various religious groups were also generally against the unions due to the violence that came with the strikes. Strike breakers were often beaten up and sometimes murdered. Utah s worst mine disaster killed 246 people. They were killed when the Scofield Mine exploded. In an adjoining mine, carbon monoxide gas filled the tunnels. The company paid for a new set of burial clothes, a coffin and gave $500 to each dead miner s family. The disaster prompted a labor strike. The IWW supported Joe Hill who fought for better working conditions. He wrote songs. Hill was arrested and executed for the murder of a Salt Lake City store owner. Hill was executed by firing squad in 1915 and became an instant martyr and folk hero. Social Problems and Government Even after statehood, some of the old problems relating to the Mormon lifestyle emerged and caused trouble. New plural marriages had ended but polygamous families married before the Manifesto

6 continued to live in polygamy as they always had. B. H. Roberts, a Democrat, was elected to Congress. When he went to Washington, D.C., Congress refused to swear in Roberts because he was a polygamist. Reed Smoot was elected a senator. Ten months later, complaints against him started. They ranged from polygamy to making a union between his church and government. Finally, the Senate voted to let Smoot remain a senator. Reed Smoot was Utah s U.S. senator from 1902 to They thought that since he was an apostle of the LDS Church he must be a polygamist (he was not) and that he might not be loyal to the laws of the country. Smoot fought for land conservation, worked to set up national parks, and helped create the image that Utahns were loyal Americans. Throughout the nation, reformers were dedicated to more progressive living conditions, making life better for all Americans. People wanted the government to get involved. They wanted regulation of companies causing pollution and railroads charging high shipping charges. In 1911 a group of citizens in Kanab decided to change the male-dominated town board that refused to clean up the town. A team of progressive women ran for office and won. They passed ordinances that controlled drunkenness and prohibited sports on Sunday and shooting songbirds within the city limits. They were also responsible for the construction of a dike to protect the town from floods. Safe food was a real concern. Unscrupulous businesses sometimes sold rotten or even poisoned food. Some dairies were preserving their milk with formaldehyde to keep it from spoiling. Progressives worked for laws that prohibited dangerous employment for women and children. In 1896 the eight-hour workday became law for certain workers.

7 Other laws prohibited child labor and set minimum wages for female workers. Workmen s compensation made money available for workers injured on the job. Citizens who didn t think their current government was doing enough to solve social problems organized the Socialist Party. One of the reasons Governor Banberger was elected, besides the prohibition issue, was that the Republican Party had been unwilling to deal with the issues. During his administration, worker s compensation bills were passed and regulation of railroads and public utilities. They also passed prohibition. Protestant ministers came to preach the dry gospel in Utah. Banberger promised to deliver Prohibition legislation. A national amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, making it illegal to manufacture, sell, or consume alcoholic beverages. Reasons for Prohibition: 1. Social Reformers blamed alcohol for poverty, health problems, and neglect of the family. 2. Political Reformers believed saloons were the backbone of corrupt politics. 3. Business owners thought drunkenness reduced safety and productivity on the job. 4. Religious Leaders taught drunkenness was immoral. Alcohol in History: 1. Ancient Chinese and the ancient Aztecs tried to impose prohibition. 2. Hindu law in Indian prohibits the use of alcohol. 3. Islamic countries have prohibition as an important part of their law today. 4. There are counties in the U.S. that are dry today. It is against the law to buy or sell alcohol in these counties. Simon Bamberger was born in Germany. He was the first Democratic governor, first non-mormon and the oldest taking office at 71 years. War Clouds Bamberger was a Jew. He built the Salt Lake and Ogden Railway and Lagoon resort. He established the Department of Health, created Public Utilities Commission, and passed a Workmen s Compensation Act.

8 After a telegram was intercepted proposing a German-Mexican alliance, President Wilson addressed Congress and asked for a declaration of war in Utah residents joined the nation and planted victory gardens to supply part of their own food. They supported the campaign for wheatless Mondays and meatless Tuesdays.They also bought liberty bonds that they could turn in after the war and get more money back than the bonds cost. U.S. wheat was needed to feed the troops in Europe AND the people starving over there. 200 thousand bushels of Relief Society wheat was donated and shipped overseas. On November 11, 1918, Utah heard that the war had ended (WWI). At 11 o clock in the morning -- the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month -- the guns in Europe fell silent. John Browning developed the first automatic machine gun purchased by the U.S. government. It was used during the Spanish-American War and World War I. In 1914 the P.S. president designated Camp Williams as permanent maneuver grounds for the Utah National Guard. More soldiers who died in Europe died as a result of the dreaded influenza virus than in battle. The same enemy was spreading death at home. In 1918, a Utah state health officer banned all public gatherings, including church services and schools. Streetcars limited the number of riders, business hours were shortened, and funeral services were limited to thirty minutes and later to fifteen minutes. Today, during any given week, you can find units from the Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force as well as personnel from the FBI and local sheriff departments at Camp Williams. Because of the popularity of the rappel tower and the leadership course for youth groups, the camp is utilized every weekend

9 of the summer. The Age of Jazz America was changing from rural to urban. By 1930, over half of the population lived in cities. During the 1920's--the Age of Jazz or the Roaring Twenties--cities became more important in the lives of the people. The twenties were remembered for sports spectaculars, bootleg gin, flappers, short skirts and short hair, the Charleston, bathing-beauty contests and soap operas on the radio and in the newspapers. Black developed Jazz and movie theaters offered many shows, including talkie movies. Those are movies with sound. Most of Utah s great artists had a hard time earning a living by painting. Some traveled to Paris to study with impressionists in the 1880's and 90s. Cyrus Dallin created the Massasoit Indian statue in front of the Utah State Capitol, the statue of the Angel Moroni and the Brigham Young Monument in Salt Lake City (he also created the statue of the minute man in Boston.) Mahonri Young created the Seagull Monument and the This is the Place Monument. Baseball teams played against each other. Football and track also. During the 1912 Olympics in Sweden, Alma Richards became the first Utahn to receive an Olympic gold medal. It was for the high jump. Five years later Clint Larson broke Richards record of 6 feet, 5 inches by 3/8 of an inch. Jack Dempsey grew up in the mining towns of Colorado and Utah he was the national heavy weight (boxing) champ of the 1920's. Maud May Babcock was Utah s first lady of theater and physical education. She was the first woman to become a full professor at the University of Utah. Immigrant families lived in two distinct worlds. ---Inside their homes where our country and history and people was about the homeland. ---Outside their homes where the American flag and the English language symbolized their other world.

10 Miners were usually paid more than other laborers. They worked long hours in dark, wet, dangerous mines. Some joined labor unions to help them get better wages and safer working conditions

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