During the Gilded Age, the time after the Civil War, large corporations and trusts controlled much of the economy and most of the government. Monopolies sprouted from every corner of the U.S. economy including the Vanderbilts, Rockafellers, Carnagies, and etc. The Progressive Era, the response to the Gilded Age and its exploitation, was a widespread reform of economics and social and political aspects of America. The movements during the Progressive Era succeeded tremendously, in the categories of Presidential leadership, political reform, business and labor reform and urban and social reform.
Muckrakers were the first of the Progressives, average citizens pushing for change to better the American people, and were a group of reporters who dug up the dirt or muck of the monopolies and the harsh practices of trusts, such muckrakers as Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Lincoln Steffens. Presidential leadership was first put into practice by Teddy Roosevelt who with William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson who fought for business and labor reform. Urban and social reform was a major focus of the Progressives, including women’s suffrage, and the conservation of natural beauties such as Yosemite.
Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft and Woodrow Wilson are credited with having immense Presidential leadership. Roosevelt saw much danger to competition and the welfare of the American people in trusts that monopolize an industry and therefore pushed for business and labor reform. He ordered his first antitrust suit of forty-four, under his policy, the Sherman Act to dissolve Northern Securities Company. William Taft followed Roosevelt with business and labor reform, in his term as President. He broke up over 60 trusts with the Sherman Act, believing that small business should not be intimidated by big business. Although Taft was not considered as strong a President as Teddy, because of Taft’s belief in Presidential restraint and his inability to keep the Republican Party together during his term.
The Essay on Theodore Roosevelt And Progressivism
Despite the criticism of their reform efforts, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilsons commitment to and success in achieving national reform made them successful progressive presidents. There hasnt yet been a presidency that didnt receive criticism, with or without justification. Roosevelt in particular, received a lot of praise and criticism for his successes and failures. Overall, ...
Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, came into power through the split in the Republican Party between Theodore Roosevelt and his progressives and William Taft and his conservatives. Woodrow Wilson, a professor of Princeton continued with Business and labor reform policies by enacting a more aggressive antitrust act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, which declared certain business practices illegal such as business’s buying other business’s stocks if doing so would create a monopoly. Wilson also enacted the Federal Trade Act, which set up the Federal Trade Commission, which would serve as a watchdog to industries participating in trade with or located within America. Although Wilson was confronted with World War I, he still urged Senate to cut tariffs and to create the sixteenth amendment, which allowed for the Federal Income tax.
Teddy Roosevelt not only became the trust-buster, but also was one of the first Presidents to believe in conserving the environment. Many Progressives did not believe in the preservation of land entirely, including one of which Roosevelt himself, and to allow it for future use, whereas the Preservationalists pushed for total preservation of the land. The most notable clash between Progressives and Preservationalists came with John Muir and the Hetch Hetchy Valley. John Muir a nature-loving man pushed for eight years to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley, located directly next to the Yosemite National Park. The importance of Hetch Hetchy was that it was a water source, and could be used as a back up water supply to San Francisco in case of an emergency. John Muir’s adamant feelings towards daming the valley led to the Preservationalist movement today in California to preserve California’s and other places’ natural beauty.
The Essay on Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas
What role did the Women’s Suffrage Movement Play during the “Quiet Revolution” in the Bahamas? Notable women such as Dame Doris Johnson, Mary Ingraham, Eugenia Lockhart, Mabel Walker and Georgianna Symonette has made countless triumphs toward the equal rights of all women in the Bahamas. In particular all of these women mentioned before were major persons in the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the ...
Women’s suffrage was one of the most famous Urban and Social reforms and also political reforms because the suffragists inspired a Constitutional Law. Established in 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) became the largest organizer and promoter of women’s suffrage. Prominent women in America became leaders of the NAWSA such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Candy Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Julia Ward Howe, the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Although the first two Progressive Presidents did not have much to do with the Suffrage Movement, Woodrow Wilson was confronted with women pushing for a Constitutional amendment and saw him as a major force to help their cause through. Women persisted calling him “Kaiser Wilson” after Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany during World War I. Women went from state to state appealing to men to allow women to vote, finally the nineteenth amendment was made in the Constitution.
The Progressive Era was marked by the success of movements of people who incited change, some ordinary citizens traveling from state to state to gain the right to vote, and some Presidents using their leadership and utilizing their power in the bully pulpit, or the white house as a persuasive force, to break up monopolies and trusts. Others were people just enjoying nature and wanting to preserve the land that they enjoy. But every one of the Progressive movements did not just stop with the Progressive Era, but for years to come, Presidents would use Theodore Roosevelt’s bully pulpit, and people would march in the streets to be united and not segregated, and people would go so far as to handcuff themselves together in order to protect a certain place of wondrous beauty.
