Progressivism
Times were changing rapidly while industrialization and modernization became a huge problem at the start of the new century. The people of this time were determined to achieve social justice and stability. Most American classes began to consider themselves as "progressives", and were ready to fight any social problem that captured their attention. The Progressive's believed that it was time for a change and were willing to fight over anything if it could improve the status of our country. The goals of the reform party were to become and orderly and harmonious society. They wanted improvement on better morals, order, elitism and efficiency. The goals of progressivism were to seek improvement in many areas: social welfare which would improve the health care, child labor laws, loans to the poor so they would be able to attend college, and education. They also wanted to work with the immigrants so their American background could develop as well. Social regulation was another important goal they wanted to reach this would improve the drug laws, alcohol laws and prohibition. These were the main motivates and goals that the progressive were seeking improvement on. One good example was when the reformers dem
Another good example of the progressive reform came on the city level. The "Machine System" became a big concern with the people. Even though the machine opened more job opportunities and gave the chance of the poor to support their families it was hurting our society. The machine system stole the taxpayer money and caused corruption provision of services to immigrants and the working class. The anti-machine reformers were offended by the way things were being run and the people controlling the city. These reformers wanted the machine gone because our country wasn't seeking any benefits from the machines, and the machines were stealing the taxpayer's money, which made many people upset. They found these machines too inefficient and corrupt to our society. This is one of the many progressive reforms that the believed in. I find Progressive Reform to be one of the successful reforms in our history. This reform party made our society an orderly and harmonious society. It improved our social welfare, working with the immigrants, and social regulation issues. It gave the women the right to vote, and most importantly gave the chance of the citizen's voices to be heard even more. This reform party also laid the future for us in reserving natural resources such as coal that president Roosevelt accomplished, this reform party also helped us in international relations which is important for trading. So in my overall opinion, the progressive reform party was the most idealistic reform party that America had at this time period. One of the most important significant pieces of historical evidence was when entering the Hull-House Labor Museum. She saw an "old Italian woman, her distaff against her homesick face, patiently spinning a thread by the simple stick spindle so reminiscent of all southern Europe" (Addams, pg. 161). Her home sick face indicates that in a progressivism state, life has been hard, she had to work hard all of her life and more than likely, things will never change. She was able to see what the immigrants work was like and was able to express her feelings on the issue. After 1912, President Roosevelt became the spokesperson for federal regulation of big businesses. Roosevelt looked at white manhood as violence, and honor. When reading the Muncy essay, you can get a good sense that Governor Pingree is arguing his fact on the nation was undermining the foundation of American manhood. He spoke only fighting against blacks, and arguing over "the shape that white manhood should take in the twentieth-century United States" (Muncy, pg. 140). It was a time of "shifting coalitions" which caused many problems such as Prohibition, woman's suffrage, a graduated income tax and mothers pensions, workmen's compensation and the direct election of senators. Even Richard Hofstadter, said it well in his statement; "big businesses was the ultimate enemy of the progressives" (Muncy, pg. 140). All in all, the most concern was with how to preserve local autonomy, a competitive economic system, and how to distribute wealth accordingly. However, some may have looked at it as a battle over gender identities, which was integr
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2139
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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