Success Of National Reforms During The Progressive Era

Taft had many accomplishments as president, but many were not recognized. One accomplishment of Taft’s was 80 antitrust suits. During the Taft administration, more than twice the numbers of antitrust suits were instigated than under Roosevelt. Major victories were won against Standard Oil of New Jersey and the American Tobacco Company, the Sugar Trust and U.S. Steel. Roosevelt was generally supportive of these Taft actions, but not the move against Morgan and U.S. Steel; the former president criticized Taft by proclaiming that Taft was unable to see the difference between a good trust and a bad one. Also

Thus his policy was known as "New Freedom." Under the New Freedom he sought to restore power to competition among small corporations rather that regulate large monopolies. Roosevelt's Square Deal and Wilson's New Freedom were policies that they used to help improve American economy, society and politics. However Roosevelt tried to reform many areas, Wilson's focus of reform was mostly economic. (Gould, 97-100) (Auchincloss, 62,81,91,116, & 127) (Whitelaw, 104,11-120,135,138,145-146, & 162)

When the time came to push for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment a group of women stood together to let their voice be heard. As Alice Paul said, "We came to be heard, not to be questioned or to be turned around. We will answer your questions and you may turn us around, but we will prove the burden of justice in our favor then you can no longer make us leave. With that we will

Roosevelt regulated business through trust-busting and protecting american consumers. One way that displayed trust-busting was when he sued Northern Securities Railroads for a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (allows and recommends that the federal government investigate and pursue trusts), the company was looking to build a monopoly in the northeast. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled in the government’s favor and the company was dissolved. This was one of the first examples of Roosevelt rooting out big monopolies. More examples of Roosevelt’s trust-busting were him going after companies/industries such as: Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and the Meat Industry. Another way he displayed trust-busting was creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, which monitored big corporations. A way that Roosevelt protected American consumers

Progressivism is a political movement and what it caused was rights that everyone deserved. Strikes happened because there were no rights to protect and make employees comfortable in their working environment. Progressive reform on the other hand made it so Capitalists could no longer suppress the problems that they produced. These unimaginable injustices toward the people by capitalists and government is what really sparked the progressive reform movement and lead to things like strikes. Desperation for change became critical in the new progressive era. John Spargo, a progressive muckraker and an active socialist, focused his reform efforts on improving lives of poor children. A quote from a book he wrote in 1908 advocated government controls over the distribution and pasteurization of milk to protect the health of babies and children. What spargo said in this quote was “...plea for action; to waken...dormant and neglected powers and impulses...need to be called into active cooperation in order that evils may be remedied.”(doc 4) Spargo, like many other Americans, wished to fix ills and asked for action to change the way of life for the better. This shows how

Remember your Ladies” (Revolutionary Changes and Limitations) is what Abigale Adams told to her husband John Adams when he was signing a new federal document. She was one of the earliest woman suffrage activists and her words towards her husband would eventually snowball into one of the most remembered suffrage movements in the history of the United States (Revolutionary Changes and Limitations). The women’s suffrage movement picked up speed in the 1840-1920 when women such as Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul came into the spot light. These women spearheaded the women suffrage movement by forming parties, parading, debating, and protesting. The most renowned women suffrage parties that were created during the 1840-1920 was the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The parties not only had similar names but similar goals: women will one day receive the right to vote. Each party had its own unique agenda of how women will receive the right to vote, the NWSA had Susan B. Anthony’s dedication, the NAWSA had Catt’s “Winning Plan” (Carrie Chapman Catt) and the NWP had Alice Paul’s perseverance to go to extremes by captivating people’s attention. Eventually the goal of the parties was reached when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. The Amendment granted women the right to vote, granting them all the same rights that were held by men. Women would have never

From 1900-1920, there was an era of reform by progressives, as a result, the federal government brought reforms at the national level. Two major types of reforms were Social reform, and Political reform. Socially, there was Women's suffrage, which gave women the right to vote. There was also meat inspection. This ensured that there were more sanitary practices in food industry. Politically, the direct election of Senators with the 17th amendment. This gave Americans the right to chose their own senators.

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

In the year 1923, Alice Paul, a famous suffragette, proposed an amendment to the Congress of the United States of America that would explicitly require the United States government to treat men and women equally. This proposed amendment, commonly referred to by the masses as the Equal Rights Amendment, reads as the following:

Supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, progressive reformers, like the Populists, sought to strengthen railroad regulation and both enforce and further strengthen the antitrust laws. In 1902, President Roosevelt not only forced mine owners to submit to arbitration to settle a nationwide coal strike, he also asked his attorney general to file an antitrust suit against the Northern Securities Company, a large railroad holding company. After the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to break up the Northern Securities Company in 1904, Roosevelt went on to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Commission’s ability to regulate railroad rates by pushing the Hepburn Act through Congress in 1906. A few years later, another progressive reformer, Woodrow Wilson, succeeded to the presidency, and he managed to further strengthen the antitrust laws by pushing the Clayton Antitrust Act through Congress in

After using the Sherman Act, Roosevelt started using new legislature to conquer the Trusts and make labor conditions more tolerable. The first department that he made to conquer Trusts was the Federal Department of Commerce and Labor. The Commerce Department could not break down the Trusts, but they could make working conditions better for all workers, and also set rates so the corporations could not over charge. The Commerce department set a maximum rate for the railroad companies in which they could charge companies. This way, the companies tnies could not survive and compete. Also, the

The Women’s Suffrage Movement of the 1920’s worked to grant women the right to vote nationally, thereby allowing women more political equality. Due to many industrial and social changes during the early 19th century, many women were involved in social advocacy efforts, which eventually led them to advocate for their own right to vote and take part in government agencies. Women have been an integral part of society, working to help those in need, which then fueled a desire to advocate for their own social and political equality. While many women worked tirelessly for the vote, many obstacles, factions, and ultimately time would pass in order for women to see the vote on the national level. The 19th Amendment, providing women the right to vote, enable women further their pursuit for full inclusion in the working of American society.

Reform was the goal of the Progressive movement, and with that in mind the reformers had great success. Progressive reformers were made up primarily of middle class men and women whose two main goals were to limit the trusts and to improve conditions of life and labor. These people were part of both political parties at the time, as well as in all regions of the country, and in all levels of the government. They wanted to remove bribed members of the legislature so that just laws and regulations were made that would benefit the people rather than the power-hungry corporations. This major movement altered all aspects of life creating a better living and working environment for people. The Progressive Era reformers and federal

Furthermore, economics also played a key role in describing whether liberalism or conservatism triumphed in this era. President William Howard Taft encouraged a policy known as "Dollar Diplomacy" where the United States invested in foreign countries in order to gain power. This dollar diplomacy would make money for as well strengthen the US. Later Taft went on to become more of a trust buster than Roosevelt. His most noteworthy bust was the Standard Oil Company, one of the largest trusts of the time, which was ordered to be broken into smaller companies in 1911. He then went on to attack another one of the largest trusts, The US Steel company which Roosevelt had allowed to survive since he deemed it as a good trust. Roosevelt became furious as Taft when he heard of this. Taft then passed the Payne-Aldrich bill which he unwisely named "the best bill that the Republican Party ever passed" which split the Republican Party into old school/more

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was passed to prohibit trusts, this was the first law passed by U.S. Congress to enforce this. This act was named after Senator John Sherman. Before this act was put into place, many other states had enforced laws very similar to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. These laws were not perfect though, the large corporations had the majority of the economic power. Congress was not pleased with this, thus making the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This act allowed Congress to regulate interstate commerce, outlawing monopolistic practices. If a person were to violate this act, he or she could be imprisoned for a year and fined five-thousand dollars. This law was successfully used to help Theodore Roosevelt during his campaign, “trust-busting”. Also, President Taft used the law to back himself up against the Standard Oil Trust and American Tobacco Company. The Standard Oil trust was when a board of nine trustees was set up to make all of the company decisions , allowing the company to run as a monopoly. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act allowed both presidents to dissolve the trusts that were creating problems. On the other hand, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act had many holes, it did not have exact wording, therefore allowing companies to still control the majority of the producing and still get away with it. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had substantial success, but was put to rest and replaced with the Clayton Anti-Trust