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Essay on Progressive Movement
In 1905 American Social reformers began to call themselves Progressives. The philosophy of progressivism welcomed innovations and reforms in government to alleviate ills of society and wanted people to have more control over the government. The Progressives and, this movement, to get away from problems such as business monopolies, dishonest politics, city slums, and poor working conditions in factories and mines. From 1890 to 1900 reformers helped bring about laws aimed at relieving these problems. The Progressive Movement had three reforms which included economic, political, and social.
At the beginning of the Progressive Movement, many goals were set. The goals consisted of economic, social, and political reforms. The economic reforms were going to be pointed more in the direction of taxes and Big Business. The Progressives wanted more government control of business and tax reform. Economic reform that the Progressives pushed was having taxes based on income rather than property holdings. To avoid high taxes people would put there property into bonds so that it would not be taxed. The third economic reform goal was to get the government responsible for the social welfare of its citizens.
During the "Gilded Age," every man was a potential Andrew Carnegie, and Americans who achieved wealth celebrated it as never before. While the rich wore diamonds, many wore rags. In 1890, 11 million of the nation's 12 million families earned less than $1200 per year; of this group, the average annual income was $380, well below the poverty line. Rural Americans and new immigrants crowded into urban areas.
Tenements spread across city landscapes, teeming with crime and filth. Americans had sewing machines, phonographs, skyscrapers, and even electric lights, yet most people labored in the shadow of poverty (Samuel, 1999). To those who worked in Carnegie's mills and in the nation's factories and sweatshops, the lives of the millionaires seemed immodest indeed.........
