The Progressive Movement In The 19th Century

The crisis of the 19th century brought about a movement known as Progressivism. The progressive movement in the South was urban and middle class in nature. Western progressives supported humanitarianism and regulation. Just like in the North and the East black and white women made important contributions to progressive causes. Progressives wanted to end abuses of power, replace corrupt power with humane institutions and apply specific principles and efficient management to economic, social, and political institutions. The new middle class formed the lead of the Progressive movement. Journalists who wrote articles exposing urban political corruption and corporate wrongdoing called "muckrakers", raised interest in reform. (Book, Page 521)

(Book, 521) Before 1910, those who wanted women to move out of the home into social activities, higher education, and paid labor called themselves “the woman movement”. (Book 533) Educators believed that learning should focus on real life problems and that children should learn to use their intelligence to control their environment. Excluded from holding political office, women joined clubs that showed more interest in improving society than in reforming government. (Book 533) Many women later began to use the term “feminism” to describe their reform efforts that stressed social justice, economic equality, and sexual freedom. (Book, 533) Margaret Sanger is a woman that pushed for widespread use of contraception. Early advocates of women’s rights thought that only educated women should vote, but progressive reformers wanted all women to have that right. The nineteenth amendment gave women the vote to in national

In economic affairs he believed that government should act as an umpire by deciding when big business was good and when it was bad. Roosevelt first turned his attentions to big business. (Book, 535) With the publication of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” in 1906, Roosevelt supported the Meat Inspection Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act addressed abuses in the patent-medicine industry. (Book 536) Roosevelt also favored conservation over preservation. He tripled the number of acreage of national forests and supported the creation of the U.S. Forest Service. As chief forester with the U.S. Forest Service, Pinchot advanced his belief in scientific management of the nation’s woodlands to prevent overuse. When it became apparent the Taft’s supporters controlled the Republican convention, Roosevelts supporters walked out of the convention and formed the Progressive Party who nominated Roosevelt for presidency. Roosevelts New Nationalist sought national unity with government coordinating and regulating, not destroying big business. Wilsons, New Freedom warned that concentrated economic power threated liberty and insisted that monopolies should be broken up. Woodrow Wilson’s election in 1912 ushered in a second wave of reforms in the nation level. Wilson expanded the government’s regulatory powers over business through the Clayton Antitrust Act and a bill creating the Federal Trade Commission. Through the