The progressive era was a time... free essay sample

The progressive era was a time of political and social change.The American people came together in unity to overcome some of the corruption in the government system, most progressives being middle class fought for gender equality and equal rights, Some of the accomplishments include the regulation of child workers in factories and sweatshops, regulating the sale of alcohol and determining whether to let immigrants become citizens or stop immigration as a whole. More importantly, though, reformers sought to stop the corrupted views of the government that were going on at the time, not only to improve working condition but to take power from the government and instead giving more control and say to the people. Reformers succeeded in changing major things,like giving women the right to vote, replacing the city council, introducement of the political machine, and the passing of other amendments that were very important in the 19th and 20th century , some which include the 17th amendment which was ratified to counter the corruption in the Senate, and the 18th amendment that prohibited the selling and manufacturing of all types of alcohol. Other laws were also passed to protect the environment and to raise awareness to pollution levels. The Progressives were sick and tired of the inefficiency and injustices of the previous age, the gilded age, where the rich and powerful took advantage over the economy and the government. They were determined to completely change and reform the stubbornness of the state and improve the connections between what the people wanted and what the government did. A lot of the things enacted, would change things nationally, including the income tax (16th amendment) which would be a tax imposed on people that varied with their respective income and profit yearly, the most being companies and business.In summary, Congress would have the power to lay down and collect taxes depending on incomes, from multiple types of sources. Representatives and direct taxes are appointed in the respective states which depends on their population numbers, Congress also has the power to pay debts and provide for the common defense and welfare of the united states as long as everything is uniform throughout all states. Also, directly electing senators(17th amendment), would establish the popular election of senators by the people of the united states. It also changes the procedure of taking jobs i n the Senate, known as vacancies, allowing the governors to make temporary adjustments until another election can be held. Another change the people were fighting for was prohibition, of alcoholic beverages by making the production, transportation and the selling of liquor illegal, There were multiple ways they used to enforce this, one of them being the Volstead act. Eventually, the eighteenth amendment was repealed in 1933 by the twenty-first amendment, being ratified on December 5th, the twenty-first amendment is the only amendment to the constitution made just for repealing a prior amendment.Womens suffrage was also used to stop fraud and corruption through the nineteenth amendment. This amendment gave women the voting right like everyone else, in 1920 this amendment was ratified and created a domino effect on other countries that also gave women more power before world war II. By doing this, the nineteenth amendment overruled minor v happersett which was a court case in missouri that denied specifically females the right to vote,even the supreme court went against it and stated that the fourteenth amendment did not give females that liberty, and insisted on upholding and refusing to register a woman as a lawful voter because it held that the constitutionally protected privileges of citizenship did not include the right to vote meaning that o nly men were allowed to vote in all history of the united states until 1910 when the womens movements started. At the time the movements for change had started, magazines were a very popular source of media, some even had subscriptions of over a hundred thousand people . Thanks to the rapid expansion of advertising, there was a ton of coverage over the latest news about corruption in politics, big business and the biggest companies. The journalists who wrote for the popular magazines just to expose the political scandals were known as muckrakers, which investigated on their own and even reported on other social issues like poverty, and working conditions such as child labor. Thanks to these types of journalists, like ray baker, George Creel, and Lincoln Steffens brought to the public much frauds that were involved in the selling of medical treatments and medicine. Upton Sinclair wrote a novel called The Jungle which talked about the horrific way meat was packaged and shipped.All over the country, mainly middle class women, got together on behalf of reforms during this era. Using the idea of municipal housekeeping women were able to push some reforms including Prohibition, womens suffrage, child saving and public health. These women also made clubs and groups locally which led to the 1890 general federation of womens clubs, which was a federation of over a thousand clubs in the united states which helped promote civic improvements through services like volunteering, and although most of the activities and projects of the federation were independent in local communities the federation maintained over 100,000 members.During the progressive era, the number of rich families climbed rapidly. From barely around 100 millionaires in the 1860s to over five thousand in 1890 and sixteen thousand in 1916. Many followed the views of Andrew Carnegies which were that the rich owed a duty to society, that called for philanthropic giving money to colleges, medical establishments like hospitals and to further medical research, but also to libraries, museums and even to religious and social places to better the environment overall.During the progressive era, a lot of middle class voters, teachers and professors, and reformers were also hostile towards the political machines. It started in detroit michigan during the 1890s where a series of reforms were introduced in urban america, normally created to decrease pollution, inefficiency and corruption. When mayor Hazen pingree started the reform many nearby cities quickly caught on and set up offices to study the budgets and structures of the local government. Many reformers took the lead in the most important cities like los angeles, cleveland, new jersey, and many more, especially in the western states. During the progressive era, there were a lot of changes to the population as well. In 1920 half the overall population lived in the countryside rather than in cities, but even they were affected by the progressive reforms believe it or not. Most of the changes improved the lives of the people in rural areas, by 1910 over half of all farmers were subscribed or followed a farm related newspaper or magazine, where editors from urban areas gave the latest news and advances to increase the efficiency when it applied to farming, although life in the country was improving, there was still a big demand for better forms of transportation, the railroad system was already fully complete but there was still a need for better roads to other places. With the popularization of the car in 1910 there were a lot of urgent efforts to upgrade the dirt roads and modernize them to more fitting streets and highways made to fit the modern cars instead of roads for horses and wagons. In 1916 around 2.4 million miles of dirt roads in rural areas were improved with rading and gravel, while 3000 miles were given a full change into quality surfaces.Another big change in the rural areas during the progressive era were schools. Most of the schools w ere poorly funded and the teachers / supervisors werent official or at a professional level, usually they were young local women who were unmarried. The progressives had the solution to modernize schools through making the children attend modern schools where they could be taught by actual professional teachers who were certified by the states and colleges while being monitored by the state. The countrymen didnt agree with it at first because of all the extra spending but later realized that it would be more beneficial for their children to get a proper education than to work underage. As a result many other programs were starting to be created aimed at the youth, including 4-h, a program set up by the united states department of agriculture created to aid the youth by teaching them how to become active and productive citizens while instructing them in useful life skills like farming, animal care, and even carpentry. Other groups include boys and girl scouts and even country fairs where prizes were given for the most productive agricultural practices and were later amplified to reach more audiences. In the south, black communities came up with their own progressive reformative projects. Many included upgrading schools, churches and expanding business opportunities