Progressive Era Dbq

Benny Panklang
DBQ #1
Progressives are American people who are convulsed by the reform movement and the group is ethnically and racially diverse. Progressives would wage war on monopolies, corruption, and inefficiency and the injustice of social life. Progressives do not want to remedy the systems rather that destroy it. Reformers of the progressive era and the federal government during this era are effective in bringing about reform at the national level due to the establishment of many Amendments and acts along with the presidential decisions in favor of the progressive movement. Although there are some hindrance during the reform movement, the successes overcomes the hindrance. Progressives thrive for reform, and President Roosevelt
supported much of the progressive movement. One main issue that America had during that time was fraud. There were numerous rich men within the senate that it was nicknamed “The Millionaire Club.” Thus, direct election of US senators became a popular subject for progressives. As President Roosevelt wrote in his stump speech, “Senators should be elected by direct vote of the people Instead of indirectly through the various legislatures,” (Document D). This established the 17th Amendment which provided for direct election of US senators. This would eliminate fraud and the scandalous activities occurring between big corporations and congress. This is one of the many successful political reforms that progressives have established, both by the federal government’s aid and the reformers. Progressives rejected social Darwinism, in which they believe that the government is responsible of social welfare of their citizens.
The the Neill – Reynolds Report describes the conditions of a meat factory. “Meat shoveled from filthy wooden floors . . . pushed from room to room in rotten box carts . . . gathering dirt and floor filth” (Document B). This describes the need for inspections within the meat industry. The novel written by Upton Sinclair titled The Jungle also supports this claim. Published in 1906, the novel described the filthy and ill damped slaughterhouses in Chicago. President Roosevelt read the novel, and disgusted, passed a bill through congress calling for Meat Inspection Act. Source B also shows the progressives aiming for the Pure Foods and Drug Inspection Act. Again Progressives like Upton Sinclair and those who wrote the Neill – Reynolds Report, stated that there are problems within the social welfare of the Nation and thus, putting pressure on the government to be responsible for these problems, which in turn established the two acts mentioned earlier. The Document also calls for better working conditions, “gathering of dirt, floor splints, floor filth and the expectoration of tuberculosis and other diseased workers,” (Source B) Mainly progressive women lead the movement for improved working conditions and labor laws. Mentioned in a novel written by James Adams, “It is hard to understand the apathy in regard to youth’s inevitable experience in modern industry,” (Source C). This passage states that children shall not work in factories and there should be laws that regulate this issue. Thus Children’s Bureau and the Women’s Bureau was established to improve working conditions for factory workers. Progressive women were known to take care of children and family and they would use this to their advantage, by keeping children out of factories and workshops, another success of the progressive
reformers. Economic reform is important to progressives as well. The federal government has established many reforms for money, consumer protection and federal funds to help the nation and supporting progressive ideologies. (Source A) depicts president Roosevelt breaking trusts that is the bear. The federal government fought for economic reform by trust busting and trust regulating. One act is the Elkins Act, which would enforce expensive fines to railroads who would offer rebates and would fine those shippers who accepted them. Roosevelt believed in good trusts, which had public consciences, and bad trusts in which was greedy for power. As depicted in Source A, Roosevelt got rid of bad trusts while regulating the good trusts and not getting rid of the trusts completely since he believed that success should not be punished but regulated by the federal government and in the end the federal government will have to ultimate power not big corporations. Roosevelt proved this by attacking the North Securities company, controlled by railroading company of JP Morgan and James J Hill. Even though the company appealed to the Supreme Court, it was ordered to be dissolved, thus the Northern Securities decision, is depicted in source A as taking down “bad trusts”. Roosevelt also kept “swinging his big stick” at big monopolies and monopolists controlling sugar, fertilizer, etc fell. Within source A, Roosevelt is shown to regulate trusts and not fragmenting and destroying them. Along with Roosevelt’s actions the Clayton Antitrust Act also pushed for economic reform. This act prohibited price discrimination and worker’s labor will not be a commodity within the business as stated, “. . . To discriminate in price between different purchasers of commodities . . . labor of human being is not a commodity of commerce.” Examples of this would be the strike of hat makers in Connecticut who were charged triples the amount. The Clayton Antitrust Act also extended the list of business malpractices that will be punished under the Sherman Act. The act of the federal government showed the successes that progressives had in economic reform, which appealed to their common belief; Democracy and the individual. Progressives also thrived to make the government honest and support the citizen’s needs. Within the court case of Hammer v. Dagenhart, the suit is suing the court that he has the freedom to let his son work at a textile mill, and the main question is whether the court is violating the commerce clause. “. . . To stop the enforcement of the act of congress intended to prevent interstate commerce in the products of child labor,” (Source G). This shows that state, control the labor laws in which will relate back to (Source C) where children are allowed to work no more than 6 days a week and 8 hours per day. Also, age restrictions in specific factory. In conclusion Progressive reformers were effective by pushing through acts and helping creating commissions and groups. The federal government is also effective in pushing progressive reforms and ideas through, examples of this would be President Roosevelt and passing amendments such as 17th Amendment. Progressive era reformers and the federal government are effective in bringing about reform at a national level.