Labor Reform At The State Level example essay topic

The growth of industries and cities in the 20th century created many problems. There was a huge gap between the wealthy and destitute people. A small number of people held a large proportion of the nation's wealth while others fell into poverty. Workers faced long hours, dangerous conditions, poor pay, and an uncertain future. Big business became closely allied with government, and political machines, which offered services in return for votes, controlled some city governments. Progressive reformers sought to remedy the problems created by industrialization and urbanization.

To progressives, economic privilege and corrupt politics threatened democracy. The different types of reforms supported by progressives at the Municipal, State and National level were both similar and different. The progressive reforms were different in that the different levels of government focused on different topics. The municipal level of government focused on political machines run by corrupt bosses and monopolies and the social settlement movement. The state level of government campaigned for electoral reforms and focused on labor reforms. The national level of government focused on government regulation of businesses.

Even though the different levels of government had different focal points, every progressive movement had at least one of the following four goals. The four goals are protecting social welfare, promoting moral improvement, creating economic reform, and fostering efficiency. The type of reforms supported by progressives at the Municipal, State and National level were similar in that they had at least one of these goals, protecting social welfare, promoting moral improvement, creating economic reform, and fostering efficiency. Many social welfare reformers struggle to relieve urban problems. For example, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened libraries, sponsored classes, and built swimming pools and handball courts. The Salvation Army fed poor people in soup kitchens and cared for children in nurseries.

Other reformers felt that morality, not socially, was the main part in improving the lives of poor people. Reformers offered programs to encourage immigrants and poor city dwellers by improving personal behavior. Prohibition, the banning of alcoholic beverages, was one of the programs. As moral reformers sought to change individual behavior, other reformers create economic reforms after a severe economic panic in 1893.

Many Americans criticize the laissez-faire theory, the belief that government should leave the economy alone. While some people fought corporate and government corruption, other reformers tried to increase the efficiency of American society. Frederick Winslow Taylor made the concept of scientific management, the effort to improve efficiency in the work place by applying scientific principles to make tasks simpler and easier, popular. As a result, workers became more productive and the amount of goods and services available to the people increased. The different types of reforms supported by progressives at the Municipal, State and National level were different. Urban reformers attacked political machines run by corrupt bosses and monopolies in municipal services such as electricity or gas.

To address these problems, they promoted professional city managers and advocated public ownership of utilities. The social settlement movement, which originated in cities in the 1890's, also became a force for progressive reform at the local level. Settlement houses offered social services to the urban poor, especially immigrants. Progressives campaigned for electoral reforms to allow the people to play a more direct role in the political process.

Some Western states adopted practices that expanded voter rights, including the initiative, the referendum, and the recall. Under the initiative, citizens could sign petitions to force legislatures to vote on particular bills. With the referendum, a proposal could be placed on the ballot to be decided by a vote at election time. Using the recall, voters could petition to oust officials from their jobs. Progressives also supported the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, which provides for election of U.S. senators directly by vote of the people, rather than indirectly by state legislatures. Progressives also focused on labor reform at the state level.

They sought to eliminate child labor, to cut workers' hours, and to establish a minimum wage. Progressives also endorsed workmen's compensation, an insurance plan to aid workers injured on the job. When progressives began to work for reform at the national level, their major goal was government regulation of business. Seeking antitrust laws to eliminate monopolies, they also supported lower tariffs, a graduated income tax, and a system to control currency. They found a spokesperson in President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt believed that regulation was the only way to solve the problems caused by big businesses.

Roosevelt revived the Sherman Antitrust Act, vigorously enforcing it to break up large trusts that reduced competition and controlled prices. He also pursued a railroad monopoly, took on the meatpacking trust, and attacked oil, tobacco, and other monopolies. In 1906 Roosevelt helped push through a meat inspection act, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the Hepburn Act. This law expanded the regulatory powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the agency that regulated commercial activity crossing state lines. In the 20th century, there were many problems created by industries and cities.

Middle-class reformers addressed many of the problems that had contributed to the social disruption of the 1890's. Journalists and writers exposed the unsafe conditions that factory workers, including women and children, often faced. Political reformers struggled to make government more responsive to the people. These reform efforts formed the Progressive Movement. Each of the municipal, state and national levels of government had different and same view toward reforms.