Progressivism And Conservatism

The Progressives made great efforts to solve the political problems that industrialization and urbanization were causing. They tried to wipe out political corruption by limiting power to big companies/ bosses and reduce the control of political machines. Many of the progressive reforms also supported the railroad legislation, conservation movement, and food and drug laws. This also included efforts to protect society by initiating prohibition and they also extended suffrage to women. The progressives succeeded at keeping the power of the railroad industry in the hands of the governments but failed at protecting the states right to control businesses. Finally in 1890 the first federal law was passed against monopolies known as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

During the Progressive Era, pressure from labor, suffrage, and conservation movements profoundly changed the course of American history. Many of the reformers' ideas clashed with the male-dominated, capitalist economic structure present at the turn of the century. Some of the intended reforms opposed the current system, but the level of social unrest necessitated change. Businessmen and activists alike initiated the reforms during the Progressive Era. Government, due to the intention of calming the common man and quieting the seemingly more and more vocal middle class, supported them. In the final analysis, from the year 1900 to 1920, Progressive Era reformers were successful in bringing about reform to the United States.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, presumably around the 1890's, it became known as the Progressive Era, a time of change, reform, and adaptation. As Vernon L. Parrignton put it, it was a "democratic renaissance" (Vernon L. Parrington in The Progressive Movement: Liberal or Conservative). So what was Progressivism? Well, its main goals were to curb corporate power, to end business monopolies, and to wipe out political corruption. They also wanted to democratize electoral procedures, protect working people, and bridge the gap between social classes. They called for reforms such as the referendum, initiative, and the recall. They wanted the Americanization of the immigrant and 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

     As the nation came to grips with what mechanization had done to the labor force, the progressivists took an active approach to correct problems they encountered. They began a tax on corporations (612). Roosevelt was troubled by the threat posed by big businesses to competitive markets (615) and showed disdain for those who sought profit by betraying the public (613). They aimed to strip power of the employers and sought to advance the undermined working

Our discussion revolves around the Progressive Era of American history, dated in the early 1900’s. Richard M. Abrams author of The Failure of Progressivism, and The Progressive Era: American Society 1900-1914’s Wynn, are two scholars who gave their humble opinion to the question of was progressivism a failure. Abrams believed progressivism failed simply because American society was still scarred from heinous acts committed towards certain groups and refusal to deal with this held back any progress to be made; whereas Wynn believed that society was more prosperous due to social upheaval for almost all minuscule groups by those groups in American society—almost all. Abrams was correct in his analysis, progressivism did fail simply because to achieve something would be to make sure all of your goals are met; progressives strived to ensure certain goals were met but failed because they did not incorporate disenfranchised groups such as the African Americans and immigrants, while claiming mass success for those who fit the ideals of a typical American as Wynn did in his analysis.

The Progressive Era was a time period between the years 1900-1920 and it marked a time in American history in which society was bursting with enthusiasm to improve life in the industrial age by making political and social changes through government action that ultimately led to a higher quality of life for American citizens. Progressives were known for their beliefs in limiting the power of big business, strengthening the power of the states, and were advocators against corruption and social injustice. These progressive reformers as well as the Federal Government successfully managed to improve the quality of life and establish a precedent for a move active government, although neither was completely successful in solving significant

The Progressive Era was a time in which there was a lot of social activism and political reform as a result of the lack of equality in the nation between the social classes, sexes, and job amongst other things. During this time, there were a lot of political figures that rose up and spoke about the inequalities that the society had. Ultimately, this caused political disputes and the people of the nation wanted to see a change. This change came from two presidents that sought to help the nation progress; Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Both presidents fought for the same general vision; however, they achieved different things. Progressivism became the ultimate goal for the two presidents, where they sought to "clear up corruption in all

During his two terms of presidency, Wilson fared well in terms of persuading the Congress, which had mostly consisted of conservative Democrats, to pass acts that adhered to the Progressive legislative agenda. However, this can be partially attributed to the fact that many of these acts were aligned with the ideals of Democrats. Some of the issues that characterized the period between the late 1890s and the early 1920s were economic inequities, poor working conditions, and insufficient social welfare. Progressive reformers sought to foster efficiency, protect social welfare, promote moral development, and secure economic reform. As one can see, the Progressive reformers were focused on properly addressing the major issues of the time period. Therefore, it can be assumed that President

From the ashes of the American Civil War period, the Gilded Age movement emerged into rapid economic growth. From the end of reconstruction in 1877 to the panic of 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. The expansion of Industrialization led to growing wages and the urge to work. As new machinery developed, so did the urgency for rapid production of manufactured goods. In this period, new ideas of time being money emerged. Big business men controlled the Gildan age instead of political leaders. Out of the rapid need to gain money and work harder, negative effects such as child labor, women labor, and unfair working conditions appear. In response, the progressivism era emerged. The Progressive movement arose as a response to negative effects of industrialization such as child labor and unemployment. Reformers longed to regulate private and large industries to strengthen working conditions for both employers and consumers Progressivism was an important political and social reformation from 1890-1920 that aimed to make major political and social reforms in effort to progress society after the negative outcomes of industrialization.

President Theodore Roosevelt, a leader of progressivism was highly in favor for a reform at a national level. He believed it was the governments duty to regulated businesses and improve the life's of the people. While the second industrial revolution brought major industrial achievement it also gave corporate bosses excessive amount of power, which they used to bend political parties to their favor and progressives such as president Wilson hoped to rectify this(Document 2). During this progressive movement many Americans focused on reform the country in ways that would creating a limitation on major business, such as Rockefeller Standard Oil, that used a unfair monopoly system to build their empire, which was damaging the economy. Roosevelt being the first to take signification action on trust-busting, such as passing the Hepburn Act which was enacted in 1906 set a precedent for the power of the federal government. The Hepburn Act set a maximum price for the freight rates on the railroads and it extended the reach of the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulation of pipelines, freight companies, sleeping-car companies, bridges and ferries. During this period the federal government passed an incredible amount of legislation that mainly regulated the problems in the society to provide a greater sense of regulation and protection for the people. Problems such as overbearing freight prices, vile food preparation and inconsistent economic status were issues that needed to be amended. Roosevelt also focused of the conservation of natural resources to help further developed the nation land and it's usefulness(Document 6). Anti-trust acts, Federal Reserve Acts were also established to break trusts to help improve market rates and improve the quality of life for the working class through more regulations on businesses by the federal government. Roosevelt trust-busting helped

The Progressive Era was a term used to describe a time period that had numerous reforms to correct the problems of the country. The origins of this time period was created from the lower class aiming to, “eliminate corruption in government, regulate business practices, address health hazards, and improve working conditions.” Not only did the lower class support reform, but middle class workers too because they were in competition with immigrants for jobs or they were women struggling for the same rights that men had. Another reform Progressives wanted was the right to a direct say in the primaries of elections so the public had more control within government. With more control in the government, this would allow the power of big corporation to be limited and prevent future problems that the middle and lower classes could endure. These goals the reformers had in the Progressive Era, led to a plethora of movements and actions in

Toward the latter part of the 19th century, bustling America, in response to the trends of industrialization and urbanization that characterized its Gilded Age, began its new century by entering into a new historical/political epoch that came to be known as the Progressive Era. This distinctive period in history (spanning from the 1890s through 1920) found progressives seeking to use the American federal government as a means of change through social, political, and economic reforms. Politically, the passage of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th amendments are evidence of the success of progressive reformers, despite the fact that some of the new laws failed to create desired social changes. The efforts of the progressives were mainly effective when it came to social reforms related to worker’s rights and child labor, but less productive in attaining improved civil rights for African-American citizens. In addition, the government was, to a large extent, successful in the establishment of economic reforms to aid the working class, such as those enforced by Woodrow Wilson’s “Triple Wall of Privilege”; however, President Roosevelt’s famous anti-trust efforts were ultimately not far-reaching enough at the time to eliminate all problematic corporate monopolies and related corruption.

The Progressive Era brought an abundance of changes to America. Lasting from the mid-1890s through World War I, progressivism publicised the national concerns about the state of society, the effects of industrialization and urbanization, social disorder, political corruption, and a multitude of other issues. Regulating giant businesses, gaining the right to vote for women, and offering a newfound hope to the American people are only a few of the changes that occurred during this time. These changes also contributed to the reconstruction of the cultural, educational, work, safety, and political areas of American life.

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.