How Successful Was The Progressive Era Essay
The Progressives success in achieving major reform in American Society in 1880 to 1920 was a long hard struggle. They fought for labor rights, better working conditions and condensed the monopolies, mainly the railroad that strong armed farmers due to unfair shipping costs. They fought for laborers rights to assembly and bargain, they gave women the right to vote and created governing bodies that promoted free and open markets as well as health. One downside was prohibition. And actually many progressives supported the amendment not on moral grounds, as the moral majority did, but as a way to crush party bosses and political corruption. Many bosses ran saloons. The Progressives sought to enable a purer form of government by eliminating the corruption often found in seats of power. They supported prohibition, women's suffrage and efficiency in the hope of bringing more purity and transparency into political power. Efforts to better American Society through reform, expanded democracy, science, and government regulation.
The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drinking …show more content…
among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe was spreading. For many social reformers, alcohol was a social evil that caused the breakdown of marriages, violence and abuse. There were many in the country who wanted to prohibit liquor. Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The prohibition movement's strength grew, especially after the formation of the Anti-Saloon League in 1893. The League, and other organizations that supported prohibition such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, soon began to succeed in enacting local prohibition laws and eventually the prohibition campaign was a national effort. The prohibition leaders believed that once the license to do business was removed from the liquor movement, the churches and reform organizations would enjoy an opportunity to persuade Americans to give up drinking.
During the 1800s, children were often forced to work long hours in back breaking jobs. The National Child Labor Committee campaigned for tougher state and federal laws against the abuse of industrial child labor. Children worked in hard places and in very bad conditions in places like garment factories, firecracker factories carpet and much more. They worked in cold places and that were very unsanitary. They worked for many hours and they received no pay or not the amount of money they should be receiving. They worked for 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week. Many of the kids began to work before the age of seven years old. Some of the kids died from all the chemicals they inhaled and some of them suffered lung and kidney diseases. Kids that worked where, kids that didn't came from a healthy family and had to help their parents by working. By the 1830's laws prohibited children to work in factories yet child labor continued in rural communities.
When the U.S. was founded, only white men were allowed to vote and elect representatives to government. Woman had no voting rights and were not important in the roll of politics. Woman like Mary Dreier, Rheta Childe Dorr, Leonora O'Reilly, and others form the Women's Trade Union League of New York, an organization of middle and working class women dedicated to unionization for working women and to woman suffrage. This group later became an important organization called International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized and led by Mrs. Arthur Dodge. Its members included wealthy, influential women and some Catholic clergymen including Cardinal Gibbons who, in 1916, sent an address to NAOWS's convention in Washington, D.C. Southern congressmen, and corporate capitalists like railroad industrialists and meatpackers who supported the "antis" by contributing to their "war chests." Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize the Congressional Union, later known as the National Women's Party in 1916. Borrowing the tactics of the radical, militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in England, members of the Woman's Party participate in hunger strikes, picket the White House, and engage in other forms of civil rebellion to publicize the suffrage cause. The National Federation of Women's Clubs which by this time included more than two million white women and women of color throughout the United States formally endorses the suffrage campaign. The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified in the late 1900’s and its victory accomplished. NAWSA ceases to exist, but its organization becomes the center of the League of Women Voters. The National Woman's Party first proposes the Equal Rights Amendment to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender.
The problems arising from industrialization, immigration, and inequality and social injustice in the United States led to the Progressive Movement in 1895 to 1917. The Movement was a response to political and corporate abuse. Religious groups, members of the press, and radical political groups all cried out for reform, with solutions ranging from subtle reforms of the American capitalist economy, to a call for the creation of a socialist government. Reforms were initiated by individuals at the city, state, and national levels of government. A number of social reformers also worked to reform what they viewed as the evils negatively impacting United States society.
Urbanization was the period between the Civil War and the Great Depression it was the most rapid period of urbanization in the nation's history.
Four times as many people lived in rural as in urban areas and the rural population had basically doubled, but urban population had increased more than ten times that. Industrial expansion and population growth radically changed the face of the nation's cities. Noise, traffic jams, slums, air pollution, sanitation and health problems became common. Mass transit, in the form of trolleys, cable cars, and subways, were built, and skyscrapers began to take over city skylines. New communities, known as suburbs, began to be built just beyond the city. Commuters who lived in the suburbs and traveled in and out of the city for work, began to increase in
number.
Industrialization of the cities created many job opportunities. Factories required hard work. Workers worked most of their lives, and got little pay they were not very educated. Working class is the lowest class and lived in a tenement with other families. Tenements were built to maximize the use of space. Working class shared tenements because they were cheaper and close to their workplace due to the lack of transportation and money. Women and children are put to work, everyone in the family needed to work for living.
Because of the growth of the industry people started to get paid more and improved on their living and the rapid urbanization caused transportation improvements. Subways and electric streetcars were created. Public transportation allowed workers to move away from the city. The cost of living was cheaper in the rural areas than it was in the city. Middle class workers got higher wages than the working class. Middle class can allow women and children to stay home and get educated, whereas working class needs everyone to work just to pay tor live. The middle class also worked less hours and worked in better places. Children got toys, education and they also taught their children manners.
Muckrakers were members of the press who investigated corruption in order to expose problems to the American people. They had a great amount of influence, often resulting in the passage of laws designed to reform the abuse that they reported. Some of these muckrakers were people like Thomas Nast a Political Cartoons was the first American celebrity cartoonist, famous for helping to turn out New York's corrupt politicians and for creating persistent iconic images of Santa Claus. Jacob August Riis, a Danish-born American journalist and slum reformer, created new standards in civic responsibility regarding the poor and homeless in his reports of New York City slum conditions. Lewis Hine an American photographer who followed several years as a factory worker in Oshkosh, and a short period at the University of Chicago, he went to New York to teach at the Ethical Culture School. There he acquired a camera as a teaching tool and soon set up a club and ran classes at the school, while improving his own skills as a self-taught photographer who began documenting the abuse of child labor.
In conclusion the Progressive Era was a turning point for America, not only for achieving major reform in American Society. It was also a turning point for children, woman, politics, industrialization, immigration, and inequality. This era had many changes that took place and it was a long and difficult challenge for America. Many great people had a hand in making changes that made things better for everyone everywhere. People no longer had to live in close quarters and their children did not have to work for the survival of their families. Woman had a voice and could make a difference in society with the way things were done. Laws were created to protect children and abolish alcohol abuse, which slowed down other types of abuse. Considering there was not a lot done with social injustice it was a starting point for future events to come.
The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drinking …show more content…
among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe was spreading. For many social reformers, alcohol was a social evil that caused the breakdown of marriages, violence and abuse. There were many in the country who wanted to prohibit liquor. Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The prohibition movement's strength grew, especially after the formation of the Anti-Saloon League in 1893. The League, and other organizations that supported prohibition such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, soon began to succeed in enacting local prohibition laws and eventually the prohibition campaign was a national effort. The prohibition leaders believed that once the license to do business was removed from the liquor movement, the churches and reform organizations would enjoy an opportunity to persuade Americans to give up drinking.
During the 1800s, children were often forced to work long hours in back breaking jobs. The National Child Labor Committee campaigned for tougher state and federal laws against the abuse of industrial child labor. Children worked in hard places and in very bad conditions in places like garment factories, firecracker factories carpet and much more. They worked in cold places and that were very unsanitary. They worked for many hours and they received no pay or not the amount of money they should be receiving. They worked for 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week. Many of the kids began to work before the age of seven years old. Some of the kids died from all the chemicals they inhaled and some of them suffered lung and kidney diseases. Kids that worked where, kids that didn't came from a healthy family and had to help their parents by working. By the 1830's laws prohibited children to work in factories yet child labor continued in rural communities.
When the U.S. was founded, only white men were allowed to vote and elect representatives to government. Woman had no voting rights and were not important in the roll of politics. Woman like Mary Dreier, Rheta Childe Dorr, Leonora O'Reilly, and others form the Women's Trade Union League of New York, an organization of middle and working class women dedicated to unionization for working women and to woman suffrage. This group later became an important organization called International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized and led by Mrs. Arthur Dodge. Its members included wealthy, influential women and some Catholic clergymen including Cardinal Gibbons who, in 1916, sent an address to NAOWS's convention in Washington, D.C. Southern congressmen, and corporate capitalists like railroad industrialists and meatpackers who supported the "antis" by contributing to their "war chests." Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize the Congressional Union, later known as the National Women's Party in 1916. Borrowing the tactics of the radical, militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in England, members of the Woman's Party participate in hunger strikes, picket the White House, and engage in other forms of civil rebellion to publicize the suffrage cause. The National Federation of Women's Clubs which by this time included more than two million white women and women of color throughout the United States formally endorses the suffrage campaign. The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified in the late 1900’s and its victory accomplished. NAWSA ceases to exist, but its organization becomes the center of the League of Women Voters. The National Woman's Party first proposes the Equal Rights Amendment to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender.
The problems arising from industrialization, immigration, and inequality and social injustice in the United States led to the Progressive Movement in 1895 to 1917. The Movement was a response to political and corporate abuse. Religious groups, members of the press, and radical political groups all cried out for reform, with solutions ranging from subtle reforms of the American capitalist economy, to a call for the creation of a socialist government. Reforms were initiated by individuals at the city, state, and national levels of government. A number of social reformers also worked to reform what they viewed as the evils negatively impacting United States society.
Urbanization was the period between the Civil War and the Great Depression it was the most rapid period of urbanization in the nation's history.
Four times as many people lived in rural as in urban areas and the rural population had basically doubled, but urban population had increased more than ten times that. Industrial expansion and population growth radically changed the face of the nation's cities. Noise, traffic jams, slums, air pollution, sanitation and health problems became common. Mass transit, in the form of trolleys, cable cars, and subways, were built, and skyscrapers began to take over city skylines. New communities, known as suburbs, began to be built just beyond the city. Commuters who lived in the suburbs and traveled in and out of the city for work, began to increase in
number.
Industrialization of the cities created many job opportunities. Factories required hard work. Workers worked most of their lives, and got little pay they were not very educated. Working class is the lowest class and lived in a tenement with other families. Tenements were built to maximize the use of space. Working class shared tenements because they were cheaper and close to their workplace due to the lack of transportation and money. Women and children are put to work, everyone in the family needed to work for living.
Because of the growth of the industry people started to get paid more and improved on their living and the rapid urbanization caused transportation improvements. Subways and electric streetcars were created. Public transportation allowed workers to move away from the city. The cost of living was cheaper in the rural areas than it was in the city. Middle class workers got higher wages than the working class. Middle class can allow women and children to stay home and get educated, whereas working class needs everyone to work just to pay tor live. The middle class also worked less hours and worked in better places. Children got toys, education and they also taught their children manners.
Muckrakers were members of the press who investigated corruption in order to expose problems to the American people. They had a great amount of influence, often resulting in the passage of laws designed to reform the abuse that they reported. Some of these muckrakers were people like Thomas Nast a Political Cartoons was the first American celebrity cartoonist, famous for helping to turn out New York's corrupt politicians and for creating persistent iconic images of Santa Claus. Jacob August Riis, a Danish-born American journalist and slum reformer, created new standards in civic responsibility regarding the poor and homeless in his reports of New York City slum conditions. Lewis Hine an American photographer who followed several years as a factory worker in Oshkosh, and a short period at the University of Chicago, he went to New York to teach at the Ethical Culture School. There he acquired a camera as a teaching tool and soon set up a club and ran classes at the school, while improving his own skills as a self-taught photographer who began documenting the abuse of child labor.
In conclusion the Progressive Era was a turning point for America, not only for achieving major reform in American Society. It was also a turning point for children, woman, politics, industrialization, immigration, and inequality. This era had many changes that took place and it was a long and difficult challenge for America. Many great people had a hand in making changes that made things better for everyone everywhere. People no longer had to live in close quarters and their children did not have to work for the survival of their families. Woman had a voice and could make a difference in society with the way things were done. Laws were created to protect children and abolish alcohol abuse, which slowed down other types of abuse. Considering there was not a lot done with social injustice it was a starting point for future events to come.