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February Progressivism History Blk. 6 February 12, 1998 Progressivism Who were the Progressives and how did they propose to reform America? Can we speak of a single? Progressive Movement? ? The? Progressive Movement? was very complex and had many different areas of reform including, social, economical, and political.
The Progressive Movement was a combination of reforms and cannot be restricted to one transition. The Progressives were made up of middle and upper class idealists who were concerned about the welfare of those below them, as well as the world they lived in. For the first time in American history the United States citizens felt that it was their moral obligation to help others around them. Women played a major role in the Progressive Movement. Moving into the twentieth century women stopped depending on their husband? s wages and began to develop more self-worth and move out of the house into the workplace.
Along with their fight into the business world, women were busy campaigning for their voting rights. Domestic science, which had previously isolated women, was being replaced with scientific management which helped employers find the best and easiest way to complete a job. At this time the Progressives were also trying to help the hourly wage worker and increase support for organized labor. Through? muckraking?
journalists the public became aware of the unsafe working conditions in mills, fought for a standardized minimum wage, and lobbied for a decrease in hours. The Progressive Movement was lead by a strong leader called Theodore Roosevelt. He tried to improve America? s economy by dissolving many monopolies and trusts.
Roosevelt also tried to concentrate his progressive efforts on consumer care. With the corruption in American cities and the bad working conditions came bad products. Upton Sinclair? s novel The Jungle was written to illustrate the common worker? s daily strife, but ended up turning most people away from meat. This novel?
s gruesome description of meat production and packaging turned people? s stomachs instead of their feelings on capitalism. The Progressive government passed many laws to secure the rights of consumers including, the Meat Act and the Pure Food Act. During the Progressive era America had problems, but to an outsider living in rural Europe, the United States was still considered the land of opportunity. Because America was considered luxurious the immigrants kept pouring in. Many of these foreign people could not speak English and had very little experience with democracy.
Many reformers, such as Jane Addams, established settlement houses to help Americanize these immigrants. Another Progressive idea that came about at this time was to rationalize spelling. They wanted to spell everything phonetically because they felt that the English language was too chaotic with silent letters and weird combinations. With this new invention the Progressives thought that they could save money on dictionaries.
This idea was thrown out when they realized that there was too many acceptable phonetic spellings of the words. This was just another example of how radical the Progressives were. Environmental concerns were also on the Progressives list of reforms. Gifford Pinchot, a middle-of-the-road conservationist helped to establish many new laws and acts to protect our environment. With urbanization in full swing the United States government had to enact new laws to prevent the rapid decrease in natural resources. One of the Progressive reforms was the New Lands Reservation Act, which established national and state parks.
This had a profound effect on the United States because it was the first time government actually got involved in protecting natural resources, providing adequate irrigation, and forest preservation. The Progressive Movement had a extreme effect on America and it included various reforms focused on bettering the America life. The Progressive Movement was exactly what it is called. It was a progression, in which a majority of the people wanted to help others to move forward and change for the good of the country. Some of the Progressive ideals are still relevant in today? s society.
Women are still gaining more equality in the workplace and the government is still working for the people.
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Research essay sample on Progressive Movement Working Conditions
