The Progressive Era, at its most progressive time in history. 1900-1918 The Progressive came from a long tradition of middle-class people with a strong sense of social duty to the poor. The social high-ups wherein blue-blooded, native stock was at the top and the poor along with the darker skinned were at the bottom, was accepted by the group. But enacted in their role as privileged members of society was a certain degree of responsibility for the less fortunate (Txt Wikipedia Encyclopedia Progressive area).
Growing up in this social class, Eleanor Roosevelt remarked, “In that society you were kind of poor, you didn’t philanthropic duties, you assisted the hospitals and did something for the needy.” The progressive era is unique in that this impulse spread to foster an all-encompassing mood and effect for reform. From farmers to politicians, the need for change and for direct responsibility for the country’s ills became paramount and spread from social service to journalism. During his presidency Theodore Roosevelt commented on the need: “No hard-and-fast rule can be laid down as to the way in which such work [Reform] must be done. But most certainly everyman, whatever his position should strive to do it in some way and to some degree.” (Theodor Roosevelt)
The Progressive Era
The Progressive Era consisted of important movements of our time, these movements challenged traditional relationships and attitudes involving working conditions, unregulated industrial developments to name a few. Rather than rely on traditional Partisan Politics progressive reform began at the local and state levels. They believe that industrialization and urbanization had produced serious social disorders; they sought to achieve social order through organization.
The Term Paper on Social Security Reform Benefits Government Budget
Social Security Reform A little over sixty years ago the nation struggled through what was, up to then, the most dramatic crisis since the Civil War. The economy was uprooted after the crash of the stock market and the country's financial stability destroyed. One of the many steps taken to alleviate the burden on the American people was that of the passing of Social Security Act of 1935 and its ...
Industrial growth affected factory workers directly, 60 percent of male bread winners made less than a living wage, survival required women and children to work in lowest paid and exploited positions. The United States had the highest rate of industrial accidents. Half a million workers were injured and 30,000 killed each year at work.
Reform-minded Protestant ministers introduced religious ethics into industrial relations, Known as the Social Gospel movement, to appeal to churches in a way to meet their religious social responsibility. By linking the Gospel movement it gave progressivism a powerful moral drive. Economists rejected larssez-faire principles in favor of State action to accomplish social evolution (page 581).
Journalists also spread reform ideas by developing a new form of investigative reporting known as “muckraking.”
President Theodore Roosevelt praised the “Gospel of efficiency.” He admired the corporations in applying management techniques to guide economic growth (page 582).
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) claimed 4 million members by 1920, recruiting skilled workers native-born white males. A more radical union tried to organize miners, lumberjacks, Mexican and Japanese farm workers in the West. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) known as “wobbies” used sit-down strikes, sit-ins, and mass rallies, these tactics where adopted by other industrial unions in the 1930’s and the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.
Women reformers and their organizations played a key role in progressivism. They responded not merely to human suffering but also to related changes to their own status and role. Women also joined or created other organizations that pushed beyond the limits of traditions.
The spearheads for social reform were settlement houses. Soon settlement workers saw that the root of the problem for immigrants was widespread poverty. Crusades for sanitation and housing reform demonstrated the impact that social reformers often had on urban life. Settlement workers initially undertook private efforts to improve society eventually they concluded that
The Term Paper on The Role Of The Health And Social Care Worker 4
Usually the care plan. The aim of the care plan is to assess the needs and risks of the person concerned and make appropriate plans Reviewing/ Evaluating Skills Is a continual process as people’s needs and wants change. You will be able to check / measure that the care plan objectives are being met by setting target dates to evaluate what the person has been able to achieve and what needs to be ...
only government intervention could achieve social justice. Social reformers also lobbied for laws regulating wages, hours, and working conditions of women and succeeded in having states from New York to Oregon pass maximum-hours legislation.
The National Child Labor Committee was organized in 1904 to curtail child labor, most had no minimum working age till 1914. Protective legislation for women posed a troubling issue for reformers. Progressive Era lawmakers adopted limited protective legislation which measures reflecting belief that women needed paternalist protection, this excluded them from certain occupations, established a minimum wage for women which was usually below level subsistence rates, this was to reinforce women’s subordinate place in the labor force. Social Justice Reformers forged the beginnings of the welfare state in further legislation. Compared to the social insurance programs in the Western Europe, however, these were feeble responses to the social consequences of industrialization. Proposals for health insurance, unemployment insurance, and old age pension programs went nowhere. Between 1880 and 1920 things like kindergartens, age-graded elementary schools, professional training for teachers, vocational education, parent-teacher associations and school nurses became standard elements in American education. Public education in the South lagged behind the North. Northern philanthropy and southern reformers brought some improvements after 1900.
Although most progressives focused on the city, others sought to reform rural life, both to modernize its social and economic conditions and to integrate it more fully into the larger society. Agricultural scientists, government officials, and many business interest also sought to promote efficient, scientific, and commercial agriculture. Rural people were drawn into the larger urban-industrial society during the Progressive Era. Government agencies, agricultural colleges, and railroads and banks steadily tied farmers to urban markets. Telephones and rural free delivery of mail lessened countryside isolation.
The Essay on Social Inequalities Woman Suffrage
Social Inequality: Women suffrage in the United States 19 th century America was not a friendly place for women of all ages and colors. Laws in the U. S did not recognize women as equals to men. It was widely believed that women weren't capable to do the same things that men could do. In that sense women were not allowed to vote on the most important things going on in their country. Women were ...
Moral reform movements such as controlling immigrants, prohibition, suppressing prostitution, black activism to name a few, often appearing misguided or unduly coercive today, reflected the progressive hope to protect people in a debilitating environment. These efforts to shape society tended toward social control, these efforts often meshed with the restrictive attitudes that conservative Americans held about race, religion, immigration, and morality.
Progressivism had its ironies and paradoxes it called for democratic reforms but helped disfranchise black southerners and northern immigrants, advocating social justice but often enforced social control, it endorsed regulation of business in the public interest but forged regulatory laws and commissions that tended to aid business. The success and failure of progressivism revealed that the nature of politics and government had changed significantly. The Great War would expose many of the limitations of progressivism and the naiveté of the progressives’ optimism. The emergence of an activist presidency, capable of developing programs, mobilizing public opinion, and directing Congress, and taking forceful action, epitomized this key development, these important features would be crucial when the nation fought World War 1.