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The Progressive Era Essay

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The United States has been influenced by many conflicts, movements, and people. Every single movement or conflict has developed the nation in one way or another. From Westward Expansion to World War One the United States has developed immensely but one prominent time period that influenced the United States greatly was the progressive era.The progressive era was the most influential time period between 1870 and 1935 because it increased conservation in the United States, encouraged more rights for women, and attacked child labor. Overall progressivism had a great role to play in constructing a fair and just society.
The progressive era had a prominent effect on the conservation of the natural wonders around the nation. The progressive era …show more content…

Many women took part in advocating, by creating the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the National Woman's Suffrage Association, the American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Women’s Party. Alice Paul who led the National Women’s Party advocated for women’s rights by leading her group to picket in front of the white house. Paul and her group were arrested and she was force fed, which got out to the press and many citizens were in support of rights for women. Ultimately Alice Paul secured the passage of the 19th amendment leading women to victory (Women’s Suffrage). In addition many political cartoons and newspapers were created which reflected how the progressive era impacted women’s rights. In particular the cartoon “The Awakening'' depicted a woman holding a torch marching towards the West of the nation towards the outreaching arms of women in eastern states begging for the right to vote (Mayer). Overall the progressive era awakened many women to stand together and fight for their rights, developing the United States into a society that treats women …show more content…

Child labor was a prominent issue that stole many children's childhoods and health due to the extremely long hours they had to work. The progressive era brought about many individuals willing to fight for change, for example a clergyman in Arkansas named Edgar Garden Murphy formed the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) which was a nationwide organization that supported state based efforts to pass legislation. The organization drew up a model child bill copying the best features found in progressive states. The bill contained a minimum working age of 14 for manufacturing and 16 for mining. Moreover the bill contained a maximum workday of 8 hours, required proof of age, and outlawed nightwork (History of child labor in the United States). Many political cartoons were designed during the progressive era to stir up support for child labor laws. In particular the political cartoon “Happy Childhood Days” a big business owner is shown in a cart labeled “Child Labor Exploiter” while tired children are pushing the cart. In addition below the cartoon there is another cartoon in which a big business owner is seen holding a whip while he watches a little girl tirelessly sew (Richards). The reformers and organizations that emerged during the progressive era ultimately helped children obtain their lives and gave them the opportunity to get an

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Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.

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As Adams noticed, in order to gain enough income to support their families, children at a young age were often forced to work full day as adults under terrible working conditions, operating unguarded machines. Although former acts banning or restricting child labor had been passed, they were usually not enforced or simply ignored until 7 years later, when Keating-Owen Child Labor Bill was passed. The act banned any products from companies that employed children under the age of 14. Although this first child labor bill was short-living, it did alert the people and drew attention to the national issue of child labor. The demand of women’s suffrage caused yet another major movement during the era.

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To continue, the experiences that also led workers to the Progressive Movement in Industrial America were because of the dangerous working conditions that workers faced and a big issue called child labor. For example, in Document 1, the author states that “young boys” were working “near coal mines” and “breathing in coal dust”. They were “two beaker boys of 15 years” (Document 1). One was “badly burned and the other smothered to death”, and they were just children working in dangerous conditions (Document 1). Also, in document 4, the author states that the building in which the workers were working has been reported as “unsafe in account of the insufficiency of its exits.”

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In the Progressive Era, ‘women reformers did not have faith in the traditional biased government. The women reform group adopted new political techniques. There techniques included marching, and demonstrating as unbiased pressure groups’. (Goldfield, ed., The American Journey: A History of the United State, pgs.

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As stated before, a main goal of the Progressives was to help the well-being of laborers and citizens of the United States. One way the Progressives wanted to help was by eliminating child labor, which led to the creation of the Keating-Owen Act from 1916, “An act to prevent interstate commerce in the products of child labor, and for other purposes” (Keating-Owen Child Labor Act). This act brought around change with trying to fix the problem of child labor in the United States. One of the main goals of the Progressives was to make life better for the citizens of the United States, which was accomplished by taking children out of factories and mines. The places the children worked were very dangerous, and taking the children out of those work situations made life a lot better and safer for them.

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They organized marches, rallies, and other forms of activism to draw attention to their cause, and despite facing arrests and violence, they were eventually successful in their efforts. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which granted women the right to vote in 1920, was a significant victory for the suffrage movement. While the suffrage movement was primarily focused on gaining the right to vote for women, many women, particularly women of color, continued to advocate for both suffrage and civil rights. These women understood that the fight for suffrage was not just about the right to vote, but also about the right to live free from discrimination and racism. They were instrumental in laying the foundation for future civil rights movements, which would continue to push for greater rights and autonomy for marginalized

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Previously, there were little to no laws that protected children in the workplace. Children worked long hours in dangerous conditions for almost no pay. One example of a Progressive organization that pushed for reform was the National Child Labor Committee which hired photographers to raise awareness about working conditions for children. The committee inspired popular Americans, including President Theodore Roosevelt, who picked up the cause and made more people aware of child welfare. Not all child welfare problems were solved by the Progressives, but the National Child Labor Committee as well as other organizations were unarguably a step toward liberalism.

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During Progressive Era, there were many reforms that occurred, such as Child Labor Reform or Pure Food and Drug Act. Women Suffrage Movement was the last remarkable reform. This movement was fighting about the right of women to vote, which was basically about women’s right movement. Many great leaders – Elizabeth Cad Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - formed the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Although those influential leaders faced hardship during this movement, they never gave up and kept trying their best.

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At the National Women’s Party Headquarters in Washington, Alice Paul, the group’s leader, triumphantly unfurled a banner displaying 36 stars, one for each state that had voted to ratify the women’s suffrage amendment.” (Jones, 2020) Even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, women continued to fight for those final 12 states to give them the right to

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Forces such as immigration, industrialization, and the populist party during the time e=were the foundations that led to the progressive era reforms which impacted the American Government greatly in its democracy and in its activeness and involvement in businesses an so on. The progressive era reforms is quite similar to the New deal era in the 1930s, they each produced a record amount of programs and policies that worked to change the status of Americans living in poverty, which included their working

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Australia and Great Britain), and that these movements could in fact be linked to the United States movement in political ideology, the focus here is on the United States movement and its impact in the US. And at the time in the United States, the concept of women being included in the political process was a crazy idea. Due to the genius female minds pioneering the movement, however, the women’s suffrage movement was met with begrudging success on the part of the establishment. Even more shocking is that the movement happened entirely without violence. Cooney elaborates on the nonviolent nature of the movement, saying that women involved “didn’t take a single life,” despite facing “dead ends, discouragements, and immobility.”

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The post-World War I era sought plenty of events that impacted the lives of Americans in a way that most of the population had to modify their living to accommodate to the new laws being passed and inventions being created. Before the 1920s, the Progressive Era that began in 1890 and ended in 1920 was a period of time that sought to eliminate much of society’s problems, including the corruption within government. Famous progressives were muckrakers Upton Sinclair and Jacob Riis and social reformers like Jane Addams whom all solemnly wanted to make advancements in the world and progress as a whole. However, to attain their achievements, these progressives had to speak to the population and gain their trust. They exposed the evils of corporate

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The Progressive Era was the period in the history of the United States, that was dominated by reform ideals from 1890-1920. This era consisted of many changes to achieve the elimination of industrialization, urbanization, immigration and corruption in the government. Progressives were well known to have the goal of achieving the ultimate “American Dream”. The argument of whether or not progressivism and democracy go hand in hand is clear, their relationship needed to correlate for the United States to reach prosperity. The period of the 1890-1920s gave the United States of America room for a lot of radical change.

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The environment wasn’t helped with these new conservative ideas. The U.S, forest service tried new scientific principles to manage the health of forests. Some of these new scientific principles changed the ecosystem dynamics making the forest more susceptible to diseases. Game managers killed off predators so certain animals were now perdatorless. These animals populations skyrocketed, and a lack of food led to starvation and death.

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Wiebe displays the reforms of the Progressive Era and the changes they were seeking. Wiebe describes the progressive reformers as, “the new middle class” (Robert H. Wiebe 80). Ultimately, this new middle class was looking to reorder the government by themselves. A major reoccurring theme was the focus on the children based on Wiebe’s view of the progressives. This is shown when Wiebe writes, “He united the campaigns for health, education, and a richer city environment, and he dominated much of the interest in labor legislation” (Robert H. Wiebe 82).

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