Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
Introduction
The Progressive Era in US history occurred in the early 20th century, between 1900 and 1918, and comprised of a number of attempts to implement social and economic reforms in the country, to tackle the problems unleashed by industrialism, urbanization, and immigration. It was an era that consisted of a number of movements as members of the Democratic and Republic parties, as well as other third parties, tried to counter a multitude of problems that had resulted from events of the previous years. The movement was called “Progressive” because its advocates believed that their goals were forward-looking or progressive in nature.
Background
Towards the end of the 19th century, the US saw a massive influx of immigrants. These immigrants were a source of cheap labor and they served to support the wave of industrialization prevalent at the time. They sought residence in thickly populated urban areas. Soon enough, political parties used the voting prowess of these immigrant families to further their own aims and objectives, and in return, helped them by providing employment, housing, or other financial assistance. These people often lived in abject housing conditions, with dismal sanitation facilities and little or no access to health care facilities. Child labor was also an issue of concern at this time as it was a very common practice in these immigrant communities (Brinkley, 1999).
By the last decade of the 10th century, the US business sector was witnessing large growth rates, and businesses had gained a lot of clouts, through which they monopolized the economy and exploited workers as well as ordinary citizens. Lack of government regulation and policies gave businesses a free hand to abuse. Corporations started becoming increasingly powerful and “robber barons” controlled all the rolling stock of the country, as well as other resources such as oil, coal, and all the farm produce which was delivered to the east. While farmers and ranchers grew their own crops and food, if they wanted to sell their produce at a profit, they would have to adhere to a fixed set price (Brinkley, 1999).
The Progressives
During this time a large number of people belonging predominantly to the middle class started raising their voice against these practices. Industrialization and availability of cheap labor had led to a monopolistic situation where large national corporations hoarded economic power and formed “trusts” to do away with chief competitors. Mergers reigned supreme as in the span between 1897 and 1904, 4,227 firms combined and became 257 corporations. The largest merger was the one in which U.S. Steel Corp, at one time the largest corporation in the world, was formed after the consolidation of nine other steel companies. The concentration of wealth and power was such that in 1904, 318 countries were responsible for 40 percent of the country’s manufacturing output and only one firm generated more than 50 percent of the output in 78 industries (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
The Progressives then comprised coalitions of intellectuals, politicians, and activists who belonged mostly to the traditional upper and middle-class establishment. A large number of them belonged to urban centers and were White Protestants. They were strong opponents of the corruption and exploitation that prevailed in society at the time. They strived to grant workers their basic rights as well as protect the citizens of the country. The movement started out at a local, rudimentary level but soon gained strength and advanced to the state and eventually the national level. They wanted workers to be provided with equitable pay, a safer working environment, lesser work hours, and increased benefits. They staunchly opposed child labor, as they believed children should attain education instead of laboring in mines and factories. Their core agenda was social justice, social and income equality, stricter government regulation, and public safety (Brinkley, 1999).
The Progressives did not agree with the views and version of social justice propagated by the new emergent class of government and political figures as they had their own set of democratic ideals. Since they belonged to relatively more privileged backgrounds than the common worker, they took it as their social responsibility to make an effort to improve the living and working conditions of the lower classes of society. There were others, who acted out of their own self-interest to tackle the economic and social problems of the time. Had they not been successful in implementing the reforms that they did, the economic and social class structure of the US might have deteriorated completely as it did in Russia in later years. Many upper-class members became apprehensive about the possibilities which a Socialist and Marxist society could hold for them, and to curb this trend, they decided to become advocates of more moderate reforms to reduce the social tensions between the upper and lower classes and protect their privileged stature in society (Scott, 1958).
The Progressives also comprised a number of muckraker journalists who played a vital role in exposing the economic and social malaise which prompted government action later on. Famous for his role is Jacob Riis, a Danish-American social reformer and journalist who wrote his magnum opus “How the Other Half Lives” in 1890. His was a pioneering effort at photojournalism which paved the way for more muckraking journalism, as it showed the filthy and sordid conditions of the New York City slums at that time. It was through this book that a vast number of middle- and upper-class citizens found about the poor living conditions, legislation regarding the housing standards in tenements gained importance, and the Police Commissioner at the time, Theodore Roosevelt clamped down police-run poor houses (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
Lincoln Steffens published “The Shame of the Cities” in 1904, through which he sought to document the political corruption which was so common in the major cities such as Chicago and New York. He wanted to provoke people to pursue reform by exposing the evils of politicians who catered to the interests of businessmen seeking favors. “The Jungle” was published by Upton Sinclair in 1906 and based on the exploitation an immigrant family faces, it exposed the poverty, miserable living and working conditions of the lower classes, the unhygienic ways in which the meatpacking industry functioned, and the rampant corruption in the richer segments of society. The public outcry which resulted led to the establishment of minimum standards for food and drug production as the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were enacted in 1906 (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, went on to become one of the most influential personalities of the Progressive Era. He did not conform to the pro-business stance his own Republican Party had adopted for so long, instead, implemented measures to curtail the monopolistic practices of business. He was the driving force behind the Bureau of Corporations, the purpose of which was to investigate and govern the big business. He was known as the “trust-buster” as he asked Congress to limit the power of trusts. He believed that “such increased supervision is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one hand or a still more radical policy on the other.” When Congress did not extent restrictions, he acted himself and issued more than 40 lawsuits against major corporations. he distrusted big businesses as he found them more often corrupt than not, and his famous anti-trust lawsuit against the J. P. Morgan-controlled large railroad trust, Northern Securities Company, led to its dissolution in 1904 (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
Roosevelt was also instrumental in giving the government greater powers within the economy, and one way he did so was by supporting the power of organized labor as they attempted to exert influence over their employers. The Anthracite Coal Strike in 1902 was a national emergency which Roosevelt resolved by becoming the first president to get actively involved in the labor dispute. He supported the workers, even to the extent of threatening the coal mine owners with sending the U.S. army if they did not settle the issue through arbitration. Along with the food and drug safety acts mentioned earlier, Roosevelt was also responsible for the Elkins Act (1903) and the Hepburn Act (1906) as he aimed to pursue one of his foremost goals of railroad regulation (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
After Roosevelt, William Taft followed his predecessor’s Progressive philosophy as he filed anti-trust lawsuits suits, continued and extended Roosevelt’s public land conservation policies, established a Children’s Bureau in the Labor Department, and attempted to get the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 approved by the Congress as a further measure to regulate the railroads. Woodrow Wilson, who followed Taft and became President in 1912, was another famous intellectual of the Progressive Era who has significant achievements to his credit. As Weibe (1958) stated, “the common denominator for this mixture of campaigns was an attempt to create a more equitable balance of privilege and power in American society” (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
Wilson did not conform to the New Nationalism policy of Roosevelt as the latter had made human rights versus property rights, and a powerful federal government to ensure a regulated economy and social justice for all his agenda during the elections of 1912. Wilson on the other hand followed a policy known as New Freedom which differed from Roosevelt’s stance in various ways, particularly with regard to antitrust modification, as he believed that “If America is not to have free enterprise, she can have freedom of no sort whatever.” While both were united on the abuse of power by the government, Wilson had different ideas on the ways that the American government should control private power. He did not file a large number of lawsuits as his predecessors had but formed the Federal Trade Commission in 1914 to ensure fair business dealings. He lowered basic tariff rates under the Underwood Act of 1913 and implemented banking and currency-related reforms. Moreover, he was responsible for striving hard and eventually succeeding in getting the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914 to further tighten antitrust regulation. This legislation renders price discrimination and other monopolizing or uncompetitive agreements illegal and was a formative milestone in U.S. antitrust law (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
Other notable Progressives included the politician Robert M. La Follette who was Governor of Wisconsin and a Republican Senator. He made attempts to take away power that the political machines had accumulated and which they shared with big businesses to exploit others. He was a proponent of a broader base of citizen participation in elections. In a number of states, mostly in the West, progressives supported a version of direct democracy which would, following a system of “Initiative and Referendum” allow citizens to propose new legislation, review current laws and participate in a referendum on important issues. The direct election of U.S. senators was part of a series of reforms called the Wisconsin Idea, which also included worker’s compensation and progressive taxation. These were strongly advocated by La Follette and all of these were eventually adopted. The 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913 and replaced the old system of election or appointment of senators by state legislature giving the people of a state the power to elect their own. The current system of “primaries” in U.S. elections also has its roots in the Progressive Era and the Wisconsin Idea (Foner & Garraty, 1991).
At this time, women were struggling to secure their right to vote and were involved in other social issues as well. Starting from 1910 suffrage referendums were being held in several states and the 1912 suffrage referendums approvals in Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon were a major stepping stone for the nineteenth amendment which was passed in 1920 and extended the right to vote to women. Women were also actively involved in pursuing political reform, providing social welfare aid, and forming groups to promote safe and equitable working conditions (Brinkley, 1999).
Other significant events of this time were the temperance movement and the immigration restriction movement. As the prohibition movement gained momentum at the local and state levels, by the beginning of the 20th century, it had become a national movement. Their purpose was finally achieved in 1919 when the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified which enforced a ban on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. They opposed immigration and in later years, during the 1920s, enacted many immigration restrictions (Brinkley, 1999).
The End of the Progressive Era
As the international situation worsened and the background to World War I was laid, the attention of policymakers shifted from domestic matters. In the later years of prosperity, the focus shifted to more pragmatic concerns on the domestic and international front. Nevertheless, the span between 1900 and 1914 was an important time in U.S. history as it established strong foundations for a relatively fair, industrialized economy free from exploitation and corruption. While aspects of the Progressives’ beliefs and ideas remain today, by the late 1920s, the Progressive Movement had virtually disappeared.
References
Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. New York: McGraw Hill, 1999.
Foner, Eric & Garraty, John. The Reader’s Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
Scott, A. M. “The Progressive Era in Perspective.” The Journal of Politics, 21.4. (1959): 685-701.
Weibe, Robert. “Business Disunity and the Progressive Movement, 1901-1914.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44.4 (1958): 664-685.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.