The Causes And Impacts Of The Progressive Era
At the turn of the 19th century a tidal wave of moral conscience swept across
America, and the desire for social, and eventually political, reform gripped the nation.
The opening two decades of the 20th century became known as the Progressive era.
During this time period, the citizens of America grappled with the consequences of
rapid urbanization and industrialization. Progressives soon sought to solve social
issues through refreshing government policies. Three presidents, Theodor Teddy
Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, respectively, spear headed
the progressive movement within the government. While Taft and Wilson played
their part in the reformation of the nation, it was Roosevelt who championed the era.
Roosevelt s... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Roosevelt also ventured to institute a number of social reforms aimed at improving
living standards. One of Roosevelt s first opportunities to impose his progressive
style of leadership occurred when miners went on strike in Pennsylvania, and the
mine owners refused to accept the complaints being made. Roosevelt stepped in,
and threatened to annex the mines and replace the corporation s owners with
federal employees. This resulted in the corporations increasing the miners wages
and lowering their working hours, marking the first time the government had
aided workers in a labor dispute. By 1903 Roosevelt had established the
Department of Commerce and Labor, which kept capitalists from abusing their
power. Next, Roosevelt aimed to solve the issue with railroads, and their impact on
food production. By pushing congress to pass the Elkins act of 1903, and the
Hepburn Act of 1906, Roosevelt enabled the government to set limits to shipping
costs, and effectively terminating the railroad corporations from increasing the
costs of shipping. While many progressives called for the banning of all trusts,
Roosevelt saw the value in them. By 1904, Roosevelt had earned the reputation of a
trustbuster ; however, Roosevelt felt that a trust only breached the Sherman Anti
Trust policy, deeming it an illegal entity, if it bullied smaller businesses out of the
market and/or wronged consumers. Slowly, as illegal trusts and monopolies were
shut down, city life began to improve; however, not fast enough for Roosevelt s
progressive mind. Inspired by Upton Sinclair s novel The Jungle, which exposed the
appalling sanitation standards of meat storing facilities, Roosevelt established the
Meat Inspection and the Pure Food and Drug Acts, which required federal agents to
inspect all meat, medicine and general foods, sold within