This paper provides a concise overview of two defining eras in American history: the Gilded Age and the Progressive Movement. It examines how rapid industrialization after the Civil War generated enormous wealth while leaving industrial workers and farmers behind, fostering political corruption and social inequality. The paper then traces how growing public discontent gave rise to the Progressive Movement, which sought to cure these ills through labor protections, anti-trust regulation, constitutional amendments, and an expanded role for government. The reform agendas of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson are briefly reviewed.
The Gilded Age was a period of seemingly unbounded economic expansion in the United States that lasted roughly from the election of Ulysses S. Grant to the elevation of reformer Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency at the turn of the twentieth century. This period coincided with the expansion and emergence of the nation as the conquest of the West was completed and the country took the lead among other nations in industry and trade. The rapid transition from an agricultural and mercantile economy to industrialization presented unprecedented opportunities for speculators and entrepreneurs.
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner were the first to call the years after the Civil War the "Gilded Age." They were satirizing a society where they perceived rampant greed and wild speculation in the marketplace, which fostered corruption in national and local politics. The implication was that these serious problems had been veiled with a thin coating of gold.
Rapid economic growth during this time generated vast wealth, and new products and technologies improved the quality of life for the middle class. However, industrial workers and farmers did not share in this newfound prosperity. They worked long hours in dangerous conditions for low pay. Railroads and telephone lines stretched across the country, creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs and cheaper goods for customers. These developments resulted in a society that became increasingly divided between the haves and the have-nots. Many poor workers struggled just to survive, while an emerging industrial and financial aristocracy lived in ornate homes and indulged in opulent pastimes. The governments of the period were dominated by corruption as politicians took bribes and rewarded supporters with cushy government jobs. Most Americans wanted political and social reforms, but they disagreed strongly on what kind of reform was needed.
Corruption was rampant at every level of government. At the national level, the Grant presidency was inundated with graft and unethical administrators. Succeeding administrations were less corrupt, but the influence of America's expanding wealth pushed many politicians to accept a governing philosophy based on the assumption that the economic elite should be allowed to pursue its endeavors with minimal government interference.
At the local level, this was the era of the political machine. Politics were run by powerful organizations that exchanged jobs and contracts for political loyalty. Graft was common, with such bosses as Tammany Hall in New York, Boss Ruef in San Francisco, and Tom Dennison in Omaha wielding enormous influence over civic life.
Industrial workers struggled to survive bleak working conditions, low wages, and long hours. These conditions gave rise to a budding labor movement in which workers banded together to try to improve their circumstances. These efforts led to prolonged strikes that shook the economy and raised the prospect of outright class warfare. Farmers also suffered during this period, as saturated markets and falling prices for their produce diminished their share of the national wealth.
At the turn of the century, a shift in public consciousness began to emerge. A growing belief surfaced that the earlier confidence that industrial leaders would build a prosperous and equitable society may have been misplaced. While strikes multiplied and grew more violent and farmers bolted from the traditional political parties, political machines began to break down. A large portion of America's middle class began to embrace a new understanding of government. The reform they ushered in became known as the Progressive Movement, and it recast the role of government in the modern industrial state.
The Progressive Movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The frontier had been tamed, great cities and businesses had developed, and an overseas empire had been established — but not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige, and optimism. The movement was rooted in the belief that human beings were capable of improving the lot of all within society, and it represented a rejection of Social Darwinism. It rejected the church as the primary driving force for change and strove to remove corruption and undue influence from government, include more people directly in the political process, and task the government with solving social problems and establishing fairness in economic matters.
The Progressive Movement encompassed a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms, including efforts to outlaw the sale of alcohol, regulate child labor and sweatshops, scientifically manage natural resources, restrict immigration, and break up and regulate trusts.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, muckraking journalists were calling attention to the exploitation of child labor, the corruption of city governments, and the ruthless business practices employed by industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller. Locally, Progressives worked to suppress red-light districts, expand high school education, construct playgrounds, and replace political machines with more efficient systems of municipal government. At the state level, minimum wage laws for women workers, industrial accident insurance, restricted child labor, and improved factory working conditions were enacted.
At the federal level, Congress passed laws establishing federal regulation of the meatpacking, drug, and railroad industries, and strengthened anti-trust laws. It also lowered the tariff, established federal control over the banking system, and enacted legislation to improve working conditions. Four constitutional amendments were adopted during the Progressive era: one authorized an income tax, another provided for the direct election of senators, a third extended the vote to women, and a fourth prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.
"Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson each advanced distinct reform agendas"
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