During the time of the Progressive Era in 1900s-1920s, the majority of the American believed that the industrialization, immigration, and the urbanization had produced critical social disorders and believes that reforms were needed to reshaped America. They also believed that it was time to eliminate the problem caused by the corruption in the government and promote the improvement in order to address the social and economic problems. People like Theodore Roosevelt and W.E.B.Du Bois also accepted that change was needed to improve and grow.The major changes were made in social, economic and political reforms. But, was the Progressive Era a success? Progressive Era was both failure and success in economic, political and social reforms.
Before the social reforms began, the society was in a state of chaos. The
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There was major gap between the rich and the poor which cause conflicts between social classes. The majority of the population were living in poverty, unemployment, and the increase in crimes. The labor leader, George E, McNeil says, “ the railroad president is a railroad king… He can discharge any employee without cause… he can withhold their lawful; wages…. In his rights hand he holds the government; in his left the people” (Doc. A). Only wealthy people were getting the benefits of getting rich and the poor get poorer. The wealthy people were also taking advantage of the labors because they have more money and the poverty people did not have any support, unlike the wealthy people. However, in 1909, the 16th Amendment was pass which allows the Congress to collect income taxes so that the government could help the poor. Federal Reserve Act was also passed in 1913 which created a banking system to regulate nation money supply. Lots of economic reforms were made to close the gap between the rich and the poor. As a result, the poverty was started to decrease and more decent jobs and