Proggresivism movement
Due to the many problems that had been arising in the U.S. at the time, many people felt that a change was necessary. People from all classes of life came to contribute, but many were middle and upper class, native born, and college graduates. One group of people who helped send this movement on its way was the news journalists. These people were often called muckrakers because they racked back the "muck" of society, exposing the truth in their newspapers. Some more significant muckrakers are Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. These two writers both exposed the corruption of businesses and their effects in the U.S. government. These people followed the example set by Thomas Nast who used his journalism talents to expose one of the worst political machines of all
through cartoons, "Boss" Tweed. These articles helped motivate the ideas that would found the progressive platform. These ideas included limiting monopolies, 8 hour work days, setting a minimum wage, child labor restrictions, election reforms, less poverty, and using science to solve societies problems. These concepts were taken by people like Roosevelt to mold America into a better country.
through cartoons, "Boss" Tweed. These articles helped motivate the ideas that would found the progressive platform. These ideas included limiting monopolies, 8 hour work days, setting a minimum wage, child labor restrictions, election reforms, less poverty, and using science to solve societies problems. These concepts were taken by people like Roosevelt to mold America into a better country.
Proggresivism under Roosevelt
After the Roosevelt's predecessor was assassinated, Roosevelt got to work on undoing the very businesses that indirectly got him into power. One of Roosevelt's major accomplishments was his breaking of trusts which he felt were responsible for much of America's problems. His first major succesful bust was that of against the tycoon J.P. Morgan. This bust was a huge step that allowed Roosevelt to bust many more. Also, Roosevelt passed many laws that helped reform general living conditions of the common people. For example, upon reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Roosevelt realized and became appalled at the surreal conditions that the meat that was fed to the people was kept in. To combat this, he passed the Meat Inspection Act, which had federal agents come in and inspect general work and meat conditions in the factories. Injunction with this, Roosevelt also soon passed the Clean Food and Drug Act for consumer's benefit. Another major thing Roosevelt did was that he helped conserve many of the nations depleting resources. Until now, many Americans acted like they could never run out, yet Roosevelt saw ahead and took measures through national parks to ensure we did not. Due to these movements, Roosevelt is often considered the quintessence of the proggresive movement, probably also largly due to him forming the progressive party.
Proggresivism under Taft
Upon America falling in love with Roosevelt, eventually he had to step down. Before doing so, Roosevelt hand chose a succesor, namely Taft. Although Taft did do many of the things Roosevelt wanted him to do, like busting tons of trusts, over all he was little liked. Unlike his predecessor, Taft took a slower, more conservative method to things where Roosevelt was more out going. Most of Taft's major accomplishments were through court cases like busting standard oil, since he had a great legal mind. However, he did help with expanding America through technology with better communication through out the country. None the less, many people considered him a failure since they felt he should be at least as good as Roosevelt. This caused Roosevelt to come back into the picture and try to wrestle the title of president from Taft. This conflict allowed a third candidate to take the lead and win the election.
Proggresivism under Wilson
Of all the progressive presidents, Wilson was probably the harshest upon monopolies. While Roosevelt and Taft saw monopolies as the inevitable by product of a productive nation, Wilson felt monopolies limited America's industrial potential. So, Wilson spent much time trying to abolish monopolies. While Wilson's reforms were the radical changes most American's desired, Wilson did little to help those who were second classs citizens like African Americans. Wilson offered no help to them and actually resegregated the national government in Washington D.C. Wilson's most major accomplishments had to deal with America's money. He passed an amendment for income tax, allowing tarrifs to be lowered and more money to come to the government. Along with it, Wilson allowed for the federal reserve system to be placed. Wilson's work with money would last to be his legacy under the proggresive area.