Progressive Reform Essay

The Progressive reformers addressed problems of the social and economic aspect, The New Deal brought some relief from the Great Depression, and the economic problems brought by the government. America has succeeded in finding solutions for some of its issues, like the Social Security program, but failed in others such as the problem with discrimination among minorities. Major problems are rarely solved by one solution, in the case with the Great Depression, the programs were a series of solutions to one big problem.
Some solutions of the problems that progressive reformers addressed were rights of African Americas, regulations of the food industry, and women’s suffrage. Most of the solutions brought meager change to what was being addressed.
W.E.B DuBois founded the NAACP which helped out African Americans legally and combat the discrimination of African Americans (Brinkley page 566). DuBois also wrote The Crisis, which addressed how African Americans were discriminated against in America, even though they fought in the wars. Upton Sinclair wrote a novel, The Jungle, which described the horrors of the meat packing industry and lead to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act (Brinkley page 574). Sinclair aimed to address the issue of the meat packers dangerous working environment, but instead people focused on how the meat was being handled. Women pushed for their right to vote which they successfully achieved at the end of the era and for child labor laws. Jane Addams is a notable person who helped fight for the passing of the Child Labor Act of 1916. The government and reformers brought limited change to the problems being addressed. The changes were mostly not followed by corporations and individuals which made them powerless as in the instance of the child labor laws, which didn’t stop some factories from employing children in mines. Overall, the Progressive Era reformers exposed the problems on the surface, but didn’t make an actual effective change on the national level.
The New Deal consisted of many programs such as the Workers Progress Administration (WPA), Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), and social security. The WPA was effective at bringing relief to those who were unemployed causing unemployment to decrease due to it. It also helped out the people who were painters and writers to work on federal projects also for musicians and actors. The AAA was to aid farmers by paying them to produce a crop and leave land unseeded (Brinkley page 663). It was later declared unconstitutional despite it being favorable among farmers. The New Deals role in alleviating the Great Depression was establishment of the Social Security Act which was passed in 1935. This act made it possible for the elderly, unemployed, and employed Americans to have a financial cushion to fall back on. It also put the pension system into works which enables employers to have retirement income for workers (Brinkley page 672). Social Security helped those who were disables, poor, or lost their job. Since many elderly workers joined the Social Security program, it caused more jobs to be open for the youth. These of many programs provided some aid in combatting the Great Depression, but didn’t solve it. The federal government does transform from a laissez-faire approach to a hands on one which is different from how the government acted passively during the Progressive Era.
The financial impact of the New Deal on the Great Depression which dealt with how banks were closing and people had no money due to not paying back what some bought on margin.
As soon as Franklin D. Roosevelt entered office he closed down all the banks to stop them from closing down. He began to shift the economy to have a stable dollar value that could be inflated or deflated if needed. After, the Glass-Steagall Act enabled the government to regulate banks, and give money to those whose banks failed through the Federal Deposit Insurance (Brinkley page 668). The Securities and Exchange Commission was established to regulate the stock market, so it wouldn’t crash again (Brinkley page 668). The regulations made the financial sector stable and promoted the public to participate in the stock market. The government’s role in the economy had increased, but it wasn’t very effective in relieving the conditions of the Great Depression. The policies helped more to prevent this from happening again, but did little to overall solve the Great Depressions problems.
The Progressive Era seen little improvement in overall conditions, similar to how the New Deal was semi-effective in attempting at alleviating the Great Depression. Unlike the Progressive Era, the New Deal shifted the government to be more involved in the economy and other areas. The federal government was no longer stagnant in the affairs of the people. The problems of both these eras mostly remained unsolved. There is a pattern
of a temporary fix to the issues addressed and rarely they are fully resolved. This contributes the responses of these issues weren’t fixed as much as they could have been.
America did not achieve in successfully resolving the major issues in the country. As seen in the Progressive era, even though the reformers addressed what the problems where it was difficult to get national reform or have corporations follow the laws. With the Great Depression, a crisis erupted which Roosevelt attempted to relief with the New Deal, but only succeeded in temporary relief until the war came. Despite the successes in the programs, it made America more in debt and unemployment was still high. Therefore, there was success in attempting to solve the major issues, but they still ended up unsolved.