Progresivism
By: Jack • Essay • 663 Words • January 5, 2010 • 820 Views
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Progressivism was a period of American history in which
improving working conditions, improving the way of life, exposing
corruption, expanding democracy and making reforms was the main idea
of this period. Many of the citizens granted and demanded a change in
numerous areas such as business, labor, economy, consumers and an
increase of democracy. The progressive period was marked with the
arrival of three great presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson all
three of these presidents fought for the common good of the people.
Teddy Roosevelt was known as the "trust buster" and that is
exactly what he did to help control big business. Many large
corporations had complete control of the services that they were
selling. Roosevelt went in to these companies and helped to stop this
type of monopoly. The biggest trust that Roosevelt busted was the one
involving Northern Securities and J.P. Morgan.
Roosevelt was also a big supporter of labor he tried almost
everything and anything to help the citizens of the United States.
Teddy set up child protection laws, which were used to prevent
children to work in factories, and it also reduced the amount of time
they worked. Roosevelt also set up workman's compensation, which is a
payment that employers had to pay employees who get injured on the
job. President Wilson also tried to help and improve the conditions
for workers he did this by adding and income tax. This type of income
tax is called a progressive or graduated which would rise with the
amount of money that a person makes. This really helped the poor
because they were taxed less than big business men were.
Wilson helped the economy by instituting a Federal Reserve
Bank. This bank was a system in which there would be twelve federal
reserve banks all throughout the country. All national banks were
required to join this system. This bank system made a compromise
between private and public control. Wilson also added a tariff called
the Underwood Tariff, which lowered the