American History: The Progressive Movement

Rockefeller’s statement began the progressive era because it put the many thoughts of progressive leaders into words. The Progressive Era was the era that people started to solve U.S problems through individual and group actions. The problems within the Industrial Capitalist society weren’t new, but the reactions were. Rockefeller symbolized a new way of thinking about the problems that the middle-class and working-class of the late 1800’s - early 1900’s were encountering. The 2 percent of the upper population controlled the nations industry and banks. They made known their wealth and pleasure filled lives by flaunting yachts, mansions, and private collections of art. The Upper Class embraced a world of individualism in which every man was responsible for his family’s poverty or wealth. This seduced many middle-class Americans in uncritically echoing this idea and the words of the oil master,

Background-The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. Progressives were mostly middle-class citizens who saw corruption and wanted change in society.

The Progressive Era brought great change for America. The movement emerged during a time of great need in America. Corruption and poverty were continually growing problems. The Progressive Movement brought change for business and politics, and it also improved the daily life of an American. Looking back, the movement had its flaws. It lacked togetherness, and not all of its changes lasted.

The main fear of people was the destruction of the democratic government and free economic opportunity. Progressive consist of the new middle class professionals, who were looking for new changes in the society. In addition, some journalist, some political reformers were part of the progressive as well. What is interesting, based on the readings, they have never made a movement oddly. Their ideas were usually too diverse to fit together. As it was mentioned earlier, people were mainly either workers or employers. The employers had the main wealth, while the workers struggled to survive. The working hours were so long, the wages were too low to support their families, and it was always a chance to get unemployed. (Zinn 257)

The progressive era was not the first reform America faced, but it is perhaps one of, if the most important. It was a time that stretched roughly from 1890 to 1920. It was a time of “progress”. A time where the American people wanted to make America a better country. The people wanted to do away with political corruption; they wanted to fix all problems, especially those economic, social, and political. Progressivism was considered to be an “umbrella”. Under this “umbrella” fell labor issues, unsafe work conditions, child labor, no work man’s comp, and the issue of poverty. There was one group of people who truly lead the charge when it came to exposing the corruption in politics and the unsafe work conditions millions of American workers faced.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy was booming, new technology flourished. The rapid industrialization brought achievement to the United States, however, it also caused several social problems. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a few, and poverty and political corruption were widespread. As people became aware of these problems, a new reform group was created. Unlike populism, which had been a group of farmers grown desperate as the economy submerged into depression, the new reform movement arose from the educated middle class. These people were known as the progressives. The Progressive Movement was a movement that aimed at solving political, economic, and social problems. The Progressives were people

Women were a big part of the progressive army. For example, settlement houses allowed many women, both native-born and immigrant to develop life-long passions for social activism

A lot of changes have been made in the course of American history from colonial times to the present. From a new country trying to develop, to a world superpower, many issues mainly regarding the rights of the people have changed and evolved for the better. As a young country, rights were very restricted to all those except white men, and as time has progressed, others began gaining rights throughout the different eras, such as the 2nd Great Awakening. This created a larger awareness of morality and eventually led to the Progressives, and by the 1900s, they were striving to move America forward and get more people involved in political matters. One of the main objectives of the Progressive movement was eliminating corruption in government,

Filene defines a movement as a “collectivity acting with some continuity to promote or resist a change in the society…one can then analyze its internal characteristics along four dimensions: program, the values which underlie this program, membership and supporters” (20-21). Filene finds the program of a social movement the most important part, for without a program the movement will be unable to sustain itself. His most convincing point is that on so many issues, the Progressives, supposedly a defined and cohesive movement, had numerous splits within their group. For example, “The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created, according to Arthur Link, a conflict between ‘uncompromising’ and ‘middle-of-the-road’ progressives.” The most convincing example concerns women’s suffrage, “a cause that has generally been attributed to the progressive movement.” However, as Filene points out, progressive Presidents Roosevelt and Taft were unwilling to appease feminists with suffrage, and stayed far from the idea for as long as possible. Indeed, if a list of 400 so-called progressives is carefully researched, it may be noted that they are divided almost exactly down the center for and against a woman’s right to vote (22-23). In this way, it is clear that

     The progressive movement was an effort made to help make America to be safer and make the economy better. Social Welfare and African American rights where things that improved during the progressive era. Election Reforms started to change so it would give more power to the people

The progressive movement can be described as how the government was becoming more and more corrupt due to political machines, or a political organization where one “boss” has all of the authority. One of the most famous political machines was William Tweed or “Boss” Tweed. He was the leader of Tammany Hall, a democratic party during the progressive era. Boss Tweed would get people to vote for him by providing jobs, food, and housing to immigrants coming into America, if they would give him a vote. This excerpt striving for the removal of political machines is from a speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt, “to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness,” (Document 6). This is a representation of how the political machines took advantage of the land instead of using it the way it was intended. Instead of conserving the land, Roosevelt is recognizing how political machines are wasting natural resources and their only concern is gaining power and money for themselves. There was a big struggle to try and put an end to the thriving of political leaders such as “Boss” Tweed, who eventually got convicted for taking $25-$45 million dollars from New York taxpayers. The downfall of political machines occurred when new laws were passed about secret ballot voting, so people did not have to worry about not voting for people like “Boss” Tweed.

The rapid industrialization of United States in the late part of the 19th Century challenged the political, economic and judicial system in every possible way. The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson weakened the executive branch for many years until President Theodore Roosevelt came into power. A new progressive movement of positive government started emerging at both federal and state level. This government was ought to take a more proactive role to reform government that could address the new needs of society, like the access to public education, better economic policies to benefit the middle class, improve their working conditions, and access to health care.

I believe the driving forces behind the progressive movement were women of the era. Women such as Jane Addams, Margaret Sanger, and Alice Stone Blackwell devoted their lives to reforming the world and creating change in the political sphere. The beginnings of the progressive movement in the United States had its start in the early 1800’s, but didn’t really start gaining ground until the late 19th century when a new middle class tired of the excesses of the Gilded Age. This era brought about fortunes and extreme poverty, labor clashes between working class and companies, large-scale immigration, and other events that made the middle class nervous.

The progressivism manifested itself in social issues as several states granted women the right to vote, since these state believe women would elevate the political tone. The progressive movement made the most impressive gains in the cities, therefore, export staff commissions were able to enact effective reforms, without running into the usual political gridlock. These reforms usually targeted at slums and prosecutions. Moreover, women were key leaders with the progressive movement as literary clubs headed by them were quickly converted into movements for social reforms. These groups focused on maternal issues such as keeping children out of factories and fighting back against the spread of tuberculosis. Elsewhere, they argue against unsanitary

The Progressive Movement of the mid twentieth century initially required to reform the ills of civilization prepared by industrialization yet the Movement proceeds till this day in the U.S. Progressivism is portrayed by the possibility that science and innovation could enhance a general public and that the administration ought to be improved. This was truly critical when the Industrial Revolution came and items were being mass-created. In the meantime the administration was controlled by enormous organizations and looter nobles. Progressives at the time figured out how to boycott liquor for some time, manage extensive organizations, and help poor people.