The Conservatives Vs. Radicals During The Progressive Era

992 Words4 Pages

Throughout the Progressive Era, there were many thoughts and ideas on ways that the federal government could change how the system worked. Almost everyone agreed change was necessary within the government to further regulate business growth, ensure political and economic rights, and the way that the federal government should address social problems. That said, during this time the country was also divided regarding how to implement such changes. Looking back, all Americans can be placed in one of two groups, known as either conservatives and radicals, but during this time period there were big controversial differences between two specific groups; the conservatives and the radicals. This was a time period of major advancement in technology …show more content…

As previously mentioned, industrialization significantly altered how work was done in the United States. At this time, large corporations began popping up and taking over the industry. By this I mean, they either bought out smaller family business’ or ran them out of business due to the power and control they had over the United States economy. Moreover, because large corporations tend to be much less “personal” and much more “profit,” working conditions were often not to code, or plain outright illegal; nonetheless, the exploitation of cheap work was possible because Americans had few choices. Former president, Theodore Roosevelt (TR), was one of the most important important Progressives; especially in relation with business. TR’s involvement with the Progressives came in the form of his “New Nationalism” plan or campaign. He knew the direction of business practices in the United States, monopolies in each sector of industry, was bad. Therefore, in office TR created many new agencies to regulate business. On another note, during the Progressive Era, politicians also created laws to regulate the sale of harmful goods. One prime example of such was the creation of the 18th Amendment; which prohibited the sale, transportation, or manufacturing of alcohol. This Amendment was put into place under the notion that alcohol is evil, thus by outlawing it, social, economic, and political problems would take care of themselves. This was obviously not the case; in fact, this was such a failure it was repealed merely years