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History of the United States Naomi Biden
Take home essay, Spring 2011 3/5/11
As the country rapidly industrialized and urbanized, a struggle to create a national ‘moral’ standard marked a new period in American history. During the progressive era a significant amount of political, economic and social reforms were made by a new group of American people, coined ‘progressives’ because of their strong belief in the ability of society to improve. The most notable reforms were social ones however; the success of the reforms can be almost entirely attributed to political efforts. Between 1890 and 1920 countless acts, tariffs and changes were made on federal and state levels throughout the nation as people fought too correct “a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin”. The reforms were ones that sought to improve the living quality of all Americans. Progress is defined as a movement towards a goal and although the goals of the era were diverse and furthermore controversial the thirty-year period was one of astronomical political social and economic innovations that improved the quality of life in the United States. Progressivism began as an urban white middle class movement varying in each state and centered in cities. However as reform gained publicity and energy it began to move to the front and center of the national stage. The presidency, by example of Theodore Roosevelt, became the most significant and efficient mode of change, and laisses faire methodology was nevermore a sufficient means of bettering society.
The momentum for the progressive movement was first articulated by a new division of journalists dedicated to exposing social, economic, and political injustices. These investigative reporters initially focused on uncovering big trusts and the Rail Road industry as corrupt. In 1906 after expose’s on the corrup Rail Road industries the government addressed the demands of the people and authorized the Hepburn act which set maximum railroad rates so that they were regulated and set at a fair price. The most notable economic reforms were those allowing for the distinguishing between good trusts and bad trusts, and good big industry, from ‘corrupt’ big industry. For the most part President Roosevelt felt it was his personal responsibility to decide what was beneficial to the economic welfare of the nation and what was not. He supported regulation as opposed to complete obsoletion of trusts. At a time when the senate was portrayed as “of the monopolists, by the monopolists and for the monopolists”, a notable faction of progressives understandably leaned towards antimonopoly. Antimonopoly was the belief that wealth and power should not be concentrated but rather widely spread. This notion was especially popular with farmers and middle class urban citizens. President Roosevelt however recognized the importance of some big industry. Nevertheless The Sherman Anti Trust act, passed in 1890 was essentially what allowed and what continues to allow for the restriction on monopoly and enables antitrust litigation. If destroying big trusts and eliminating monopolies was the progressive goal they failed to achieve it however they did succeed in exposing corruption and dealing ‘justly’ accordingly.
The government essentially led the march to ‘economic reform’ as the people focused more narrowly on what affected them directly, wages and hours. In the 1890’s nearly three-fourths of New York’s population lived in poverty in tenements. The divide between the rich and the poor was carved deeply into the streets of the cities. As despair entrenched the people they began to believe that the “system” that was the “evil offspring of public neglect” and “private greed” had “come to stay, a storm-centre forever”. Reformers, particularly female ones refused to accept the vehement living conditions of the ‘other half’ or as was the case in the 1890’s, the other three-fourths. Economic reform was the most difficult to achieve and the slowest to take effect. The. the 16th amendment authorized the federal income tax.. Clayton anti trust act clarified the Sherman anti trust act.
Social reform was perhaps the most publicized, successful and passionate movement during the progressive era. Muckrakers exposed the living conditions of poor immigrants with pictures and vivid detailed descriptions. . Industrialization had caused living and working conditions to fall below previous standards and the laws of the nation had not yet caught up so as to regulate the new laborers essential needs and rights. Working conditions for women, men both old and young, and children, were up until the 20 years preceding the First World War, completely intolerable by American standards. The middle class, particularly white middle class women saw helping less fortunate immigrants as their personal duty or responsibility. Settlement houses, a concept borrowed from England, were houses where impoverished foreigners could essentially come and stay to learn the ways of the white, middle class American. One of the first settlement houses was Hull House started in Chicago by Jane Addam’s. A full time staff of educated white men and women taught immigrants skills and English to prepare them for there integration. Sophisticated white women like that of Jane Addams and Alice Paul found themselves appalled at the conditions workers, specifically immigrant laborers were forced to work under. After a death at the factory the owners” makes no claim for damages resulting from “carelessness”. The hypocrisy of statements like such caused for the immediate demands for reform on a national level. “a fearful kind of work that began at four o’clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful of men in a few years” child labor down to 5 percent by 1930. Federal child labor law. Oregon women’s labor law. Maryland workmen’s compensation law. NY state tenement house law. 19th amendment. Pure food and drug act. 18th amendment. Racial.
The government responded to the demands, partly in sympathy and party because of President Theodore Roosevelt’s political savvy. He understood that meeting the demands of the people, even if only halfway, was necessary in order to get things done. “We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin,” signed into law the meat inspections act that banned packers from using unhealthy dyes chemical preservatives or aduterangsts. “The specific evils you pint out shall, if their existence be proved and if I have the power, be eradicated” 17th amendment. Progressive party platform minimum wage staards for women to provide a living wage. Prohimgbition o fight work for women and eight-hour day. Compensation for death by accident or injury or trade disease. Conservation. General welfare. The prohibition of held laborites platforms “equal political rights on account of sex, pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike. “Initiative a process for putting a proposition or proposed law on a ballot
a. Referendum, the voting on an initiative, allowing the people to enact legislation that a state legislature is either unwilling or unable to do;
b. Recall, a process giving voters the power to remove elected officials from office through petition and a vote. Governor Robert M. Lafollette of Wisconsin championed these reforms, and their implementation in his state became the model for the rest of the country (the Wisconsin Idea).
c. 17th amendment 1913 direct election of senators instead of selection by state legislators