Reform Of Politics During The Progressive Era

During the progressive era the United States was caught in a forward thinking fever. During this historic time the United States had to progress in social and business settings to keep up with its booming population. During this time people were taking advantage of everyone they could, even committing atrocities towards other human beings. The persecutors of such crimes included everyone from politicians, to businessmen, to everyday people. The progressive leaders of the United States were able to successfully address these social and economic problems through new policies and a contagious progressive attitude. They were able to bring about the reform of politics through a strong public opinion, change the labor laws to make business fair and protect the workers, and change the view of the other half of society.
People were getting high up jobs in government solely based on the fact that they had connections. This led to the inexperienced people being bought out and swayed to certain sides that shouldn’t be in power. All of this corruption led to poorly managed cities, overtly lackadaisical regulation of business and the economy. The effects of these issues were so widespread that huge amounts of people began calling for reforms. Joseph L. Bristow a republican senator from Kansas proposed the final draft of an amendment to require all senators to be elected by popular vote. This amendment was eventual ratified by 36 states and became adopted as the 17th amendment in which it explicitly stated “The Senate of the United States shall be comprised of two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years…” This amendment sparked the fire of reform not only in the nation’s political system but also that of our economic