Working Class In The Progressive Era

One of the main goals of the Progressive Era was to eliminate monopolies (trust-busting). Monopolies were threatening smaller businesses and treating consumers and affiliates unfairly. Theodore Roosevelt, the first president during the Progressive Era, felt very strongly about trust-busting and wanted to eliminate all “bad trusts”, while keeping the beneficial “good trusts.” In document 1, the political cartoon depicts Roosevelt’s beliefs and actions towards trusts and shows him killing the bears representing “bad trusts” and taking control of the bears representing “good trusts” by putting them on a leash. Following Roosevelt’s presidency, the theme of trust-busting continued with Woodrow Wilson taking office. During his first term as president, Wilson passed the Clayton Antitrust Act, which

The progressive movement developed in the early 1900’s in response to the problems caused by the age of industry. Between the 1890 and 1920, the progressive era was an attempt to solve the economic and social problems. These problems lead the nation to a downfall. The main goal of the progressive era was to expand the democracy, change unfair business practices protect consumers and eliminate social ills. Although there were problems many laws and acts were developed the solve them.

The progressive era from the 1890s to 1900s was the time where changes happened in the government in order to eliminate unfair business practices from big businesses corporations, exploitation of labor, and political corruptions. To begin with, many large businesses were corrupt; resulted in the formations of monopolies and trusts taking obscene amount of money. These businesses worked together to take control of the industry and charged unfair prices due to small quantity of competitions. To balance the economic power of these big businesses, the public demanded the government to take actions; the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in order to “prohibit anti competitive practices and prevent unreasonable concentrations of economic power” (Encyclopedia).

Progressives were groups of reformers dedicated to improve the social and the political problems in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They live generally in the towns, were well instructed professionals, and thought the government could be an instrument for the transformation. They started a social movement that turned into a political movement. Unfortunately, the remainder of the population was subject to law incomes, long working hours, risky industrial tools, and unprincipled employers. Progressives believed the problems (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) that the society faced could best be directed by offering good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace. In the words of historian Howard Zinn, the Progressives worked to “stabilize the capitalist system by repairing its worst defects. 2and restore some measure of class peace in a time of increasingly bitter clashes between capital and labor” (Zinn 354). The progressive tried to reform the United States; however, they were incapable to make significant changes and improve the labors of the working class.

The Progressive Era turned into an unprecedented time of social activism and political development amid which convincing open issues constrained significant changes in the part of government and presidential authority. The goals of the Progressives were to “attack corrupt political bosses and irresponsible corporate barons” (Shi and Tindall 937). Progressives wanted the government to be honest, efficient, to regulate businesses, and for the low-income workers to have a better way of life. “Millions of “progressives” believed that America was experiencing a “crisis of democracy” because of the urban-industrial revolution” (Shi and Tindall 937). Poverty created the initiative for churches, charitable organizations, experts, and individuals to stand up and take action due to the unsafe working conditions of children working in mines and factories. The actions to progressively create labor laws expand beyond the role of the government because someone had to take control. Amos Pinchot, a progressive attorney and reformer said, “Corruption was destroying our respect for government, uprooting faith in political parties, and causing every precedent and convention of the old order to strain at its moorings” (Shi and Tindall 937). This was due partly because of the Progressives arguing over the rapid changes that occurred in United States (US) since the end of the Civil war. One example was the gap between the rich and the poor kept increasing.

The Progressive Era was an era in the United States between 1900 and 1917 in which important movements challenged traditional relationships and attitudes (Goldfield 620). Progressivism was prevalent in all three levels of government: local, state, and federal. At the local level, they focused on improvements in immigrant neighborhoods and getting rid of all of the things that were unjust within workplaces; at the state level, they focused on improving civil services and human needs; and at the national level, they focused on financial issues and changing the way banks operated. Reform work begun at the local and state

In the 1890’s and 1920’s, the Progressive Era was a period of time where unprecedented government intervention entered the lives of many citizens.It was also a period of time where social activism and the political reform in the United States began to flourish. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the Progressive Era otherwise known as “Progressivism” began as a social movement and had grown to become a political movement as well. After the middle class emerged, a measure of power was found in the realm of politics and by doing so, this gave middle class citizens a opportunity to address various problems that was seen in American society.

Around the start of the 20th century, America partook in a great period of reform known as the Progressive Era. The government’s previous laissez-faire approach in the Gilded Age gave way to massive urbanization and industrialization, and with it came a terrible deterioration of the middle and working classes. Efforts to remedy the different effects of ruthless capitalism collectively formed the Progressive Movement. Led by reform-oriented presidents, the nation aimed at making government more democratic, and managed the effect big business had on the people. Although the economic and social reforms of the Progressive Era successfully addressed the issues of the Gilded Age, as seen by increased regulation of business and the government’s heavy

The big business reforms were to help stop the government regulation of big businesses and monopolies. The growth of monopolies helped to stifle competition and the American dream. The concentration of wealth has also increased from 1800 to 1900. In 1800 one percent of the population owned fifty percent of the wealth and then in 1900 only ten percent of the population owned ninety percent of the wealth. This lead to the wealthy being slowly destroying the cities and civilization by the inexperienced and [D] responsibility falling into their hands that was created by the businesses. Wealth against Commonwealth by Henry Lloyd tried to inform the cities that the rich are destroying the cities due to their inexperience in the cities monetary control. The wealth in cities were used to help provide utilities for the public good. It also showed how the cities are affected politically and how they need to control [E] the public utility and how the cities tried to reform the parks and etc. to help the public. The trusts cause a major concern about their relationships with monopolies. Between the time of Roosevelt's and Taft's presidency they together dissolved about one-hundred and thirty monopolies. Roosevelt was known as the ‘trust-buster’ because he started this change of monopoly enforcements. The Sherman Anti-trust Act helped to further this movement by helping to

The Progressive Era in America lasted from the 1890’s to the 1920’s. During this time, The United States underwent several changed, or reforms. These reforms helped to shape our nation into what it is today. There are 10 reforms I’m going to discuss in this essay including the reforms on civil rights, conservation, government reform, health and medicine, labor reform, radical trade unionism, socialism, temperance, trust busting, and women’s rights.

The Progressive Era was a time period that ran from the 1890’s through the 1920’s. It started as a social movement but turned into a political movement. Progressivism really gained a strong voice in 1901 with the election of Teddy Roosevelt as President. He believed that strong corporations were good for America, but believed they should be watched and monitored so that corporate greed did not get out of hand. The main goal of Progressivism was to eliminate corruption in the government.

The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s. Interpretations of the goals and participants can vary and are described in the works “Progressivism: Middle Class Disillusionment,” from The Era of Theodore Roosevelt by George Mowry, excerpts from The Triumph of Conservatism from Gabriel Kolko, and “From The Dimensions of Progressivism,” in Who Were the Progressives? By James j. Connolly. Mowry writes about the inner workers of the progressive era, what they were like and what their goals looked like. One thing that Mowry points out is the age of the progressives, and how they were oddly young for what they were achieving.

George F. Will once said, “The United States is a successful nation that is constantly susceptible to melancholy because things are not perfect.” During the 1880’s to the 1920’s this statement seemed to be true about America but this sadness was not seen from the outside. The Progressive Era brought out these issues and made everyone aware of them. This era was a period in the United States that consisted of social activism and political reforms. The importance of this era was the passing of labor laws, anti-trust laws, unionization for important industries and the introduction of four new amendments in the constitution.

The lower class, also known as the “working class”, were those individuals whom partook on the strenuous and dangerous jobs. These individuals were expected to work each and every day for multiple hours as a time and without a break. Although they worked extremely hard, the lower class was not paid well for their effort. Instead, they received the very minimum wage that one could, and were expected to live off of this (Allingham, 2002). Because the people of this class did not have as much money, their material items such as; housing, clothing, and food were very minimum. Even with the small amount of income that they received, the “lower section of the society was also burdened with numerous taxes that made their life miserable.” (Bishal, 2008) Lastly, the working classes remained shut out from the political process, making these individuals in reality separated from the rest of society (Allingham, 2002).

In the United states, social classes is a controversial issue in terms of defining the actual nature of the classes themselves. Many individuals have categorized the society into three elementary groups that is the “poor”, “middle class” and the “rich”. Additionally, a more complex system of social classes is derived from the three elementary classes. In this regard, a four-class system includes “the capitalist/upper class”, “the middle class”, “the working class” and “the lower class” (Thompson, 2005). Moreover, sociologists have expanded the for-class system into a six class system includes “the capitalist or upper class”, “the upper-middle class”, “the middle class”, “the working class”, “the lower-working class” and “the lower class”.