The Successes of Progressive Era Reformers

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.

Many social movements throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shaped the Progressive Era. Towards the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century the economy was thriving. Industrialization was blooming with new achievements that were being brought to America. However, many problems were also brought. The Progressive Era tackled these problems. The Progressive Era made an immense change on America’s economy and society. This Era was a time of extreme change. Major changes were made in the economic and political levels during the time of this era. Many of the problems were problems of the urbanization and industrialization periods. The Progressive Era had many successes and many failures, however, the successes overshadow the failures. The progressive era was a response to the problems that were caused by the movements after the Civil War, problems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the era was successful in addressing problems such as public education, the Gilded Age, and living conditions.

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.

The progressive era was a time period in America after reconstruction that took place from 1900 to 1920. The progressive era focused mainly on social and political reform, trying to fix America's economy by working towards equal conditions for individuals, stopping political corruption and increasing government intervention on social and economic issues. Progressivists were social activists and political reformers working to improve conditions and the treatment of the American people. They believed that the government could be a tool for change. Progressive reform started out as a social movement and later on took a more political stand. The progressive era was successful in the fight to reform the United States by improving industrialization, urbanization cities, and reforming America's social and gender classes.

The first historian, George Mowry, wrote a piece called “Progressivism: Middle Class Disillusionment”. Mowry describes the progressives as “self-made” men, who were around the ages of 38-42, they were native born Americans who were educated. Mowry also explains the Progressives were conservative and considered good servants to the people. The occupations of the Progressives were very widespread ranging from lawyers to newspaper editors and then to independent manufactures. Basically, Progressives were considered people who were able to survive. In Mowry’s writings he explained how there was no Orientals, whites held the supremacy. The Progressives wanted everything to be about the whites, they did not

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

Prior to the Progressive Movement, there were a lot of problems across the United States. People didn’t have proper living conditions, children had to work, the government chose whoever they wanted as senator, and monopolies controlled almost the whole industry. Before the Progressive Movement happened, people across the United States were suffering because of the condition they were in.

Progressives ranged across the social and political spectrum with different views on reform and ideas on how to go about it. “It crossed the lines of party, class, gender and even race” (Nugent, page 4). Many presidents and influential speakers had overlapping ideas regarding reform. By the end of the era progressives managed to tackle everything from class conflict to making people better citizens. Famous progressives include iconic members of US history such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Adams and “muckraker” journalists such as Upton Sinclair

During the time from the 1890s to the 1920s a period of social and political reform took place in the United States known as the Progressive Era. “The era saw the expansion of political and economic freedom through the reinvigoration of the moment for woman suffrage, the use of political power to expand workers rights’ and efforts to improve democratic government by weakening the power of the city bosses and giving ordinary citizens more influence on legislation.” The progressive reformers from this time gained a majority of their support from the education middle-class of urban areas. Another term used to describe these reformers is Muckrakers.

The progressive movement was primarily a reform movement. The movement was pivoted to cure many of the problems of the American society that had developed during the great emission of industrial growth in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In this Era, the boundary had been restrained, great nations and businesses developed as well as overseas empire established but all citizens were entitled to share the new wealth, optimism and prestige. Therefore, the main goals of the movement were to eradicate the problems cause by immigration, urbanization, industrialization as well as corruption in the government. The movement was succeeded by several progressives who included politicians, writers as well as social welfare advocates who ensured that society would develop as a result of government action.

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

From the time of 1890- 1920 was the progressive era. In this time the American people experienced a very rapid industrialization in their major cities, where it grew not only with industrializing but economically as well. In this time we adopted many laws about working conditions that we still have today. For example, the government adopted laws about Jacob Riis and the photos he took, child labor, and women's suffrage movements. In the next few paragraphs I will explain to you why these three subjects are some of the most important things that happened in this time period.

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

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

Though the people of the progressive and reform era are labeled as progressives, the fact that they share a name does not mean that all their ideals were the same as well. Progressives were divided mainly into two camps and from those into even smaller ones. There were the progressives who wanted to go back to the good old days, those who wanted to preserve the way of life that was slipping through their fingers, and then there were those who wanted to address the changes by making changes. Some progressives felt that it was necessary to preserve the way of life that was fast disappearing in America. On the other hand some progressives felt that the government needed to be run differently because of all of the changes in public and private sector. Either way, change was part of the equation. The progressive era was composed of many people, each possessing one, two, or more of the many ideals that helped define the progressive era. It can be said however, that most progressive reformers were upper middle to upper class people for whereas the poor certainly saw the problems and recognized the need to solve them, there were not in a position where they could. Those who made up the progressive front were educated