Franklin Delano Roosevelt And The Populist Movement

The populists created a Farmers’ Alliance that began in Texas and it organized low cost insurance for farmers and put banks in their place with regulations. The Farmer’s Alliance also gave the government the ownership of the transportation system to regulate their costs and monopolies. When the Grangers lobbied for regulation of the

In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream. These two people, although they had different principles in mind, had one goal: to make changes to the nation for the better of the people and the country. Setting out to reach this goal, Roosevelt came to be a president of the common man while

Theodore Roosevelt's 'Square Deal' and Woodrow Wilson's 'New Freedom,' were both programs of reform. Roosevelt covered more areas of reform than Wilson (who focused mainly on economy), and was more of a progressive than Wilson was. As a governor and the first president of the era, Roosevelt set a terrific example of what a president of this time should do. 'Progressing' from bad, and implementing various reforms to do so defined the era. These two programs are comparable in the areas of antitrust, tariff, and labor reform. Though Wilson seemed to have many more acts in each category, mostly economic), he only acknowledged these few areas, unlike Roosevelt who acknowledged a whole array of areas such as labor, economy, politics, consumer

After 1880, the Grange gave rise to regional farmers’ alliances, which joined in 1892 to form the People’s Party. In the elections in the same year, their candidate gained 1 million popular votes showing the major political parties how serious the farmers’ issues were. The fall of the People’s party can be attributed to the financial panic that America faced in 1893. People started to embrace the idea of raising money supply by coining silver, which later became a burning issue in the 1896 Presidential election. Consequently, the populist joined forces with the Democratic party to support William Bryan for president who lost the seat to William McKinley, Republican. After the election, the party lost significant political power. 3.The New Deal It brought reforms in the sense that it raised the role of the American government in business and people’s welfare. When Roosevelt was elected, he made several changes to relief the starving individuals and the unemployed during the great depression

The Progressive Era from 1890-1920, was the response to the issues and injustices created by industrialization and modernization. The country had made sweeping advancements in the previous years, yet neglected to address the downfalls of the time period. However, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States as a whole, worked together towards achieving effective reform. Two of the main goals were restoring economic competition and making the government more effective and democratic. Although a lot of reform efforts were enacted, a large portion of those efforts fell short of fully achieving their purpose. Overall, the progressives did not effectively achieve their goals in regard to the economy and government.

Due to “…falling agricultural prices and growing economic dependency” (Foner 636) in the mid-nineteenth century, farmers in the South began to face inevitable economic uncertainty. Farmers, both white and black alike, were thrown into poverty due to sharecropping and the fall of the price of cotton, and many faced the fear of losing everything they had due the inability to pay bank loans. Believing that their situation was caused by “…high freight rates…excessive interest rates for loans…and the fiscal policies of the government” (Foner 636), disgruntled farmers hoped to better their lives and conditions through the founding of the Farmers’ Alliance in the 1870s. However, by the 1890s, the Alliance transformed into what became known as the Populist Party. Keeping their roots in mind, the Populists sought to end what they considered political corruption and economic inequality that arose during the Reconstruction. In order to do so, they proposed “…the direct election of U.S. senators, government control of currency, a graduated income tax, a system of low-class public financing…the right of workers to form labor unions…[and a] public ownership of the railroads” (Foner 638). In addition to their propositions, the Populists were considered radical due to their embracement of science and technology, their belief that the

From 1900-1920 in the United States of America the reformers of the Progressive Era and the Federal Government were effective bringing about reform dealing with reforms to improve the social disgrace of the working conditions, the enthusiasm to be a nation of self-governed people, and the individual interests of presidents despite limitations in the rulings of court cases, the application of reforms reached, and the varying effectiveness of presidents.

During the Gilded Age, the Democrats and Republicans dominated the political realm. As farmers began to confront financial insecurity and poverty due to falling agricultural prices, the Farmer’s Alliance formed. The Farmer’s Alliance was an agricultural movement that mobilized farmers to help in the reestablishment of economic stability. The Alliance did not get involved in politics, until they evolved into the Populist Party. The Populist Party was a new political rebellion that stood on the platform of democratic restoration, economic opportunity, direct elections of Senators, the formation of labor unions, referendum, income tax and public ownership of railroads (Foner, 638). The Populist Party also wanted to change from the Gold Standard to the Silver Standard to ensure that dollars issued were backed by silver. Under those conditions, the Sherman’s Silver Purchase Act passed, which attempted to assist farmers by the government purchasing more silver for coinage. As presidential elections of 1896 began, the Populist Party tried to appeal to Americans with their rhetoric, however, they did not accrue many Populist votes because of the inadequacy of their appeal to the American people. They ended up riding on the coattail of the Democratic Party, which ended up losing. The Populist Party was unable to emerge as an individual political party, but the changes they stood

During this time, “…FDR promised ‘a new deal for the American people’” (Polenberg, 8). FDR quickly realized that in order to win over the citizens of the United States and to fix the crisis they were in, he had to address the two main things that he saw every American wanted during this economical depression. Polenberg informs his readers that FDR saw that the two things every American wanted was “…Work; work with all the moral and spiritual values that go with work. And with work, a reasonable measure of security—security for themselves and for their wives and children” (p.8). Knowing that these were the two main aspects (at the time) that FDR had to place the majority of his attention on, he went to work immediately as “He feared that a resolution was likely if he failed, as Hoover had, to solve the nation’s problems” therefore he begun formation of the first New Deal reforms (Polenberg, 8). These reforms were “…designed not so much to promote reform as to proceed recovery,” (Polenberg, 9) therefore indicating that “…the Roosevelt administration intended to move the country in a dramatically new direction” (Polenberg, 9). Some of the programs that the New Deal initiated were: the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), the NRA (the National Recovery Administration), the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the CWA (Civil Works Administration), and the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) just to name a few (Polenberg, 9-13). Each reform act was aimed at recovering a different but specific area of society. For example, the TVA worked to “…provide cheap electrical power… and… help prevent soil erosion and control floods” (Polenberg, 13) while the AAA “…served as the foundation of New Deal farm policy… balancing agricultural production and consumption so as to avoid surpluses and ensure that

In 1912, the Progressive Party formed to support Theodore Roosevelt in his attempt to be elected for a third presidential term (O 'Toole par. 7, 11). The party was formed after the Republican National Convention repudiated the nomination of Roosevelt (Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt 251). Furthermore, this resulted in Roosevelt splitting the Republican vote between him and William Howard Taft and gave Democrat Woodrow Wilson an advantage (Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt). The Progressive Party took a platform that was new and innovative for the time period in which it began. To understand the the start of the Progressive Party one must acknowledge its political platform, the outcome of the presidential election between Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, and the outcome and end of the Progressive Party.

In the late 1800s businesses were taking over, many groups of people were upset with the power that business had such as farmers. They started a Farmer’s Alliance which later developed into the Populist Party. The platform for the Populist Party included many things such as graduated income taxes and regulations of railroads. Although the Populist Party had very little success, the Progressive reformers wanted to continue the Populist Party’s legacy. Both parties had similarities and differences but the end goal was the same: To improve the lives of the people they were fighting for, economically, politically and socially.

During the progressive era in the late 19th century, many changes were made that have impacted humans’ still today. Such as new reforms that helped and improved the country’s health, safety, and happiness. Not only did the changes help society, it advanced the country to become well developed, strong, and indpendent. Because of Teddy Roosevelt, as president of America, the United States was able to grow exponetially in improving all aspects of life including; socially, politically, and economically.

For numerous of reasons concerning economic, political, and social developments that has taken place in four decades after the Civil War, sparked a revolutionary movement called Progressivism. In a new, vast land full of economic opportunities, this created a small class of elitists that will dominate the political system for self-interest, and will also cause an effect on the social life of the majority. A prominent, Progressive figure, was President Theodore Roosevelt; In his “New Nationalism” speech delivered in Osawatomie, Kansas, he outlines the goals and ideals of Progressivism that will appeal to the diverse majority of Americans and proves to be the foundation for future reformers and several accepting ideals still utilized today. Even though the Progressive movement deteriorated, these “radical” ideals sought to improve and benefit the society as a whole was the stepping stone for the future generations.

During the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, America saw three new presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. This period of time is known as the Progressive Era due to the political and social changes made to move away from a laissez-faire government to a more active government by the administrations of these presidents. Prior to this period, Americans had to suffer through poor working conditions, low wages, social and class inequality and become victims to large corporations that took advantage of the people. In particular, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson established the key principles and ideas of economic reform and social reform, which would end up returning the power from the manipulative corporations back to the government, establishing a model for a more active role for the federal government, and improve the lives of Americans. However, even though Roosevelt and Wilson had similar intentions of reforming America, they both had different means of achieving it.

The economic crisis that showed all the contradictions of capitalism led to an increase of a deep political crisis in the USA in late 1920?s. October 29, 1929 is known in the American history as the Black Tuesday. It was the date, when the American stock market collapsed. In such economically difficult situation, in November 1932, a regular presidential election took place. The Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who spoke with the program the New Deal, came to presidency. It was a series of social liberal programs applied in the United States in 1933-1938 in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal was focused on three main principles: relief, recovery, and reform.[footnoteRef:1] They promised to bring the country to prosperity and economically stable future. However, the Conservatives criticized the New Deal during the whole period of the reforms. It was expressed by Herbert Hoover in Anti-New Deal Campaign Speech in 1936 and Minnie Hardin in 1937 in a Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt. [1: (notes)]