What is the significance of the progressive era

Yet the Progressive movement was divided over which of the following solutions should be used to regulate corporations:. Pro-labor Progressives such as Samuel Gompers argued that industrial monopolies were unnatural economic institutions that suppressed the competition necessary for progress and improvement. Progressives such as Benjamin Parke DeWitt argued that in a modern economy, large corporations and even monopolies were both inevitable and desirable. With their massive resources and economies of scale, large corporations offered the United States advantages that smaller companies could not offer.

Yet, these large corporations might abuse their great power. The federal government should allow these companies to exist but regulate them for the public interest. The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early twentieth century United States and Canada. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as excessive wealth, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war.

Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Social Gospel leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the Progressive movement, and most were theologically liberal, although they were typically conservative when it came to their views on social issues. Important Social Gospel leaders include Richard T. In the United States prior to World War I, the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the Progressive movement, which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering, and poverty in society.

Denver, Colorado, was a center of Social Gospel activism. He established a free dispensary for medical emergencies, an employment bureau for job seekers, a summer camp for children, night schools for extended learning, and English language classes. His middle-class congregation encouraged Reed to move on when he became a Socialist, and he organized a nondenominational church.

The Baptist minister Jim Goodhart set up an employment bureau, and provided food and lodging for tramps and hobos at the mission he ran. He became city chaplain and director of public welfare of Denver in The Reverend Mark A. With 10, members, his church was the largest Presbyterian Church in the country, and he was selected the national moderator in Matthews was the most influential clergymen in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the most active Social Gospellers in America.

The South had its own version of the Social Gospel that focused especially on prohibition. Other reforms included outlawing public swearing, boxing, dogfights, and similar affronts to their moral sensibilities. The Social Gospel affected much of Protestant America. In , the Salvation Army denomination arrived in America.

Although its theology was based on ideals expressed during the Second Great Awakening, it also focused on poverty and social improvement. The s and early s witnessed a profound social and political reaction to the excesses and corruption of the Gilded Age. Journalists and other writers began bringing social issues to the attention of the American public.

The muckrakers appeared at a moment when journalism was undergoing changes in style and practice. In response to the exaggerated facts and sensationalism of yellow journalism, objective journalism, as exemplified by The New York Times under Adolph Ochs after , reported facts with the intention of being impartial and a newspaper of record.

The growth of wire services also had contributed to the spread of the objective reporting style. Muckraking publishers, such as Samuel S. In contrast with objective reporting, muckrakers saw themselves primarily as reformers and were politically engaged.

Journalists of the previous eras were not linked to a single political, populist movement, whereas the muckrakers were associated with Progressive reforms.

Muckrakers continued some of the investigative exposures and sensational traditions of yellow journalism, but instead wrote to change society. Julius Chambers of the New York Tribune is considered by many to be the original muckraker. His intent was to obtain information about the alleged abuse of inmates. The publication of articles and accounts of the experience in the Tribune led to the release of 12 patients who were not mentally ill, to a reorganization of the staff and administration of the institution, and eventually, to a change in the lunacy laws.

From this point onward, Chambers was frequently invited to speak about the rights of the mentally ill and the need for proper facilities for their accommodation, care, and treatment. Children : Jacob Riis documented the hard life encountered by many immigrants and the poor in the city. Journalists began to respond to the excesses of the Gilded Age toward the end of the period. Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, muckraker, and social documentary photographer.

Barnett an early leader in the civil-rights movement. Wells was a skilled, persuasive rhetorician who traveled internationally on lecture tours. She wrote an article that suggested that despite the myth that white women were sexually at risk for attacks by black men, most liaisons between black men and white women were consensual.

Early efforts in urban reform were driven by poor conditions exposed by tragedies such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, , was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City and resulted in the fourth-highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U. The fire caused the deaths of garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths.

Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits—a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks—many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped to the streets below from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors.

It was largely spontaneous, sparked by a short walkout of workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, involving only about 20 percent of the workforce. That, however, only prompted the rest of the workers to seek help from the union. The firm locked out its employees when it learned what was happening. The news of the strike spread quickly to all of the New York garment workers. Progressivism was a group of different ideas concerning how to fix the problem that affected the American society.

The major goals of the progressives were to promote the ides of morality, economic reform , efficiency and social welfare. The Progressives had many different methods and ideas on how to solve social problems. The Muckrakers were a group of people that informed about wrongdoings in the face of society. The most important Muckrakers were Upton Sinclair and Jacob Riis, they were writers who exposed the corrupt politicians and also pressured them into introducing new reforms.

Some of the differences that the progressive era had was that they wanted to government to become more efficient by applying many basic principles of the scientific management methods.

Many others wanted much more democracy in the society. One man Robert M. Others removed themselves from society and attempted to establish utopian communities in which reforms were limited to their participants. The focal point of the early reform period was Abolitionism , the drive to remove what in the eyes of many was the great moral wrong of slavery. The second reform era began during Reconstruction and lasted until the American entry into World War I.

A farm movement also emerged to compensate for the declining importance of rural areas in an increasingly urbanized America.

As part of the second reform period, progressivism was rooted in the belief, certainly not shared by all, that man was capable of improving the lot of all within society. As such, it was a rejection of Social Darwinism , the position taken by many rich and powerful figures of the day. Progressivism also was imbued with strong political overtones, and it rejected the church as the driving force for change.

Many Progressives also supported the temperance movement and pushed for the enactment of Prohibition , which came into effect with the 18th Amendment. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you.

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