Progressive Movement Dbq Essay

The Progressive movement was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States. This period of time focused on improving society in the United States—who needed to see change after the negative nation that was brought forth by the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution shifted the United States to a manufacturing economy where products were no longer made solely by hand but by machines, which introduced pollution and hardships for workers. Workers frequently suffered from health problems due to malnutrition, and as cities grew during this period of time there wasn’t enough housing for all the new inhabitants, which affected living conditions for workers. In the workplace, vast quantities of pollution

Political corruption, especially, was uncontrollable at this time as corporations bribed politicians to ensure that certain government policies favored businesses over their workers. Lincoln Steffens, an American journalist and a highlighted muckraker from the Progressive Era, defines corruption in several of America’s largest cities in his book The Shame of the Cities. Steffens (Doc. 1) criticized the corruption and illegal activities of political machines, but also called out Americans for ignoring politics and allowing this corruption to continue. Similarly, Walker Percy—an American writer in the 20th century—discussed corruption in large cities and businesses in his article “Birmingham under the Commission Plan.” Percy (Doc. 6) shared that workers are aware that the businesses that they are working for are corrupt, but also mentioned that these workers want to improve these corrupt

There were good and bad trusts; bad trusts inflated rates and caused corruption, good trusts benefited the people. Clifford Berryman, a Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist with The Washington Star newspaper, designed a picture of Theodore Roosevelt hunting two bears—one bear labeled “BAD TRUSTS” who Roosevelt has destroyed and is stepping on, one bear labeled “GOOD TRUSTS” who Roosevelt has in control and on a leash—in his cartoon “Cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt.” Berryman (Doc. 2) illustrated Theodore Roosevelt as he set out to destroy and control bad trusts, which also scared good trusts and caused them to reform themselves. Louis Brandeis, former American lawyer who served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, discusses the destruction that trusts have done to our country in his book “Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It.” Brandeis (Doc. 7) states that financial independence was destroyed as each and every trust was created, but also identifies specific trusts that led to this