Beginning with the birth of the twentieth century, the United States was in a dilemma. America needed amelioration; the country had a tremendous amount of potential but was unable to put forth the necessary actions without the correct guidance. It was vital that the United States was pointed in the right direction or more problems would occur. America required political reform and the elimination of corruption caused by the government, thus, the time prevailed for the Progressive Presidents. The first progressive president was Republican Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy was already well-known for his heroic actions in the Spanish-American War by leading the “Rough Riders” and his belief on Foreign Policy of “speaking softly and carrying a big stick”. …show more content…
The Square Deal was imposed on three essential ideas, known as the 3 C’s: control of corporations, consumer protection, and conservation. Roosevelt strived to make certain that corporations wouldn’t have complete control over their workers; the corporations needed to offer protection and basic rights to their workers. Although, corporations wished to stay cheap and maximize their profits, Roosevelt wouldn’t stand for it and forced changes using his “big stick”. This lead to Roosevelt’s reputation of being a “trust buster”, ignoring the fact that Taft and Wilson actually disbanded more trusts. Roosevelt’s second element of the square deal was consumer protection. Roosevelt’s first matter was involved with the regulation of food and drugs that were available to the public. Roosevelt read a book by Upton Sinclair, known as “The Jungle” which exposed Chicago’s slaughterhouse industry. As a result, Roosevelt influenced the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. The passing of these acts helped prevent the adulteration and the mislabeling …show more content…
William Taft was picked by his successor, Roosevelt. Taft, the secretary of war was chosen as the Republican candidate for 1908. Taft easily defeated the other candidates thanks to Roosevelt’s “good words”. However, Taft did not live up to Roosevelt’s expectations. He lacked the strength of personality and cared more about his dealings with congress. In fact, Taft didn’t share the same progressive ideas and polices that Roosevelt backed. The first major catastrophe to the Progressives that occurred during Taft’s presidency was the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909. Taft called on Congress to address what many people thought of as excessive tariffs. After which the House of Representatives passed a bill that slightly restricted tariffs, but their legislation was strictly modified when it arrived to the Senate. Taft signed the bill and stated that it was “the best bill that the Republican Party ever passed.” This astounded and confused the Progressives and began the internal struggle for the command of the Republican Party. Another issue was Taft’s conservation problems. Taft was a conservationist much like Roosevelt but a large chunk of his work was undone by the Ballinager-Pinchot dispute. This was where Pinchot the leader of the Department of Forestry attacked Secretary of the Interior, Ballianger, for his handling of public lands. Furthermore, Ballinager opened up millions of acres for public use which angered Pinchot, in
However, that was not the case. When The Jungle was presented to the public, readers were astonished by the disgusting and unsanitary state in which the meat was being processed in. The community was more concerned with the meat conditions than they were with the horrific conditions the workers were faced with. So while the popularity of Sinclair’s work was not his original intentions, it still accomplished stages of reform. It can be assumed that Roosevelts initial reluctance to accept Sinclair’s novel was in part, directly connected to his disbelief that the Federal government had become so disconnected and oblivious to American industry and the complete lack of Federal oversight. This “disconnect” did not last long as The Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as, the Meat Inspection Act were both directly set in to place mere months after Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle was published. This type of reform supported progressive philosophy by preventing corporate owners from remaining above government regulation and started a trend in the way government regulators began to deal with corporate monopolies and trusts. The Jungle, along with other “muckrakers” began a series of Federal oversight reforms and regulatory guidance that soon began to take hold in other industries. Big industry would soon realize that they were not above the
The numerous problems that the US faced paved way for an era of reform that was directed at enforcing direction and integrity on a society in crisis – The Progressive Movement.
Hoover’s nation was coming out of a war and was facing an economy plummeting into an unknown Great Depression. Hoover proclaimed a need for reform of the criminal justice system, the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, cooperation of government and businesses, the development of education, organization of the public health services, and maintaining the integrity of the He called for restoration with action, and promised solutions to the economic crisis, unemployment, world policy. He however, does remind the people, “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed.”
The Progressive Movement that occurred during the early 20th century was a time of major reform in the United States of America. During this time, there was a group of activists that referred to themselves as the Progressives, and they sought to change society for the people. The way that they intended to do this was change through their ideals of democracy, efficiency, regulation, and social justice. With this movement came the election that changed the course of America’s history “…demonstrating a victory for progressive reforms as both Progressive candidates accounted for 75 percent of all the votes” (Bowles). The candidates in this election were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
One of his accomplishments was when he went down in of the United States’ first submarines to show officers and men who were enlisted that he was not going to ask them to try something that he was not willing to try himself. Other successes for President T. Roosevelt was his involvement in the Alaskan-Canadian border dispute and his involvement in the Algeciras Conference – which avoided a war. Roosevelt’s main accomplishments during his second term were the Hepburn Bill, the Pure Food and Drug Act, The Panic of 1907, and creating the first wildlife refuge. Toward the end of his second term, Teddy started thinking about who would be the best fit for the next president. He had it between William Howard Taft and Elihu Root, but in the end thought that Taft would be the best bet and America agreed with him when Taft was up against William Jennings Bryan in the
Within the period of 1900-1920, many national reforms were rising to the top as Progressive Era reformers and the federal government heard the voices of the people. The effectiveness of Progressivism is a controversial subject for some, but the future was changed through the events of any actions a president made, the rights of people, and unfair treatment and conditions. This era brings changes to our society that also changes the future of it. These two decades brought forth successful times in bettering America.
Theodore Roosevelt-type liberals thus created a supportive environment for big business. In his 1905 Fifth Annual Message to Congress, Roosevelt emphasized that large corporations were here to stay and claimed that his regulation legislation “frees the corporation that wishes to do well from being driven into doing ill, in order to compete with its rival, which prefers to do ill…[b]usiness success, whether for the individual or for the Nation, is a good thing only so far as it is accompanied by and develops a high standard of conduct—honor, integrity, civic courage” (Roosevelt 1905). Roosevelt understood that big business was here to stay and he did not want to break up monopolies, simply push them in the direction of the public interest. He regulated the destructive cost-cutting habits of the railroads that were destabilizing the economy and helped improve workers rights. He also regulated insurance corporations, the meat packing industry, and the drug industry to protect consumers and improve the practices of producers. Thus, Roosevelt’s policies were more to aid big businesses in returning to their roots in public foundations. Wilson’s form of liberalism, however, was even more
In his first term in 1901, Roosevelt installed the “Square Deal” as his new domestic policy, which promised consumer protection and control of corporations through a series of measures and acts; and the “Big Stick Diplomacy” as his new foreign policy, which he famously explained it as: “speak softly, and carry a big stick.” In regards to labor, trusts and foreign policy, the role of the federal government under the Roosevelt administration changed drastically— the newly established labor, trust, and foreign policies included into the federal government pushed the United States towards a progressive era that saw an increase in government power over domestic and foreign affairs; yet had its limitations— Roosevelt created very ambiguous methods to control trusts and foreign affairs that was quickly obscured as soon as William Howard Taft came to power, and Taft’s reversed decisions produced a major division in the Republican party split between the Progressives and the Taft-supporters.
Along with reforms by citizens the presidents of the Progressive era also fought to make things right. President Roosevelt was a war hero, and a great leader of the United States. During his role as...
Preamble As we look back upon the 20th Century, we see the birth of American prominence. The century is marked by glorious American achievements ranging from the birth of the Space Age to the development of the Information Age. Now, as we venture through the new millennium, the potential for further American prosperity is enormous. At times this journey will be a perilous quest, but with valiant leadership this nation shall flourish.
The Progressive Era lasted from the 1890s until the 1920s during World War 1. However, its legacy continued subsequently, spreading the philosophy and the policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR was elected president during a major economic depression known as the Great Depression. He issued the New Deal, which was a series of domestic reforms to battle the depression by enacting numerous social insurance measures and use the government spending to stimulate the economy. While, the Progressive Era was a reform movement seeking to return control of the government to people, to restore economic opportunities and amend the injustices in American life.
Thesis The Progressive Era and the New Deal Era had a significant amount of similarities with policies and programs to reform the American society and improve lives and fight poverty in America. Although the Progressive and New Deal Era had many similarities, there were still differences between them. Both the Progressive and the New Deal Era’s main goal was to improve American society. Both of the Progressive and New Deal’s accomplishments were rooted in the economic depression and the need for change before the era, the Guilded age in the 19th century for the Progressive era, and the Great Depression for the New Deal era. As the Guilded Age was ending, and the Progressive Era was emerging, most American families had to live with the harsh reality of sweatshops, slums, child labor, corruption in government and businesses, disease, and racial prejudice.
In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream. These two people, although they had different principles in mind, had one goal: to make changes to the nation for the better of the people and the country. Setting out to reach this goal, Roosevelt came to be a president of the common man while Wilson became the “better” progressive president.
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.