Changes During The Presidents Of The Progressive Era

Presidents of Progressive Era During the Progressive Era, America society experienced immense changes in regards to business, politics, ethnic. Taking on the huge responsibilities, the presidents of that period, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, actively worked toward equality and social justice. Following by the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, at his middle age with an exuberant personality, succeeded to the office. He was a preservationist, a trustbuster, promoting “Square Deal” and food safety policies. However, his major contribution to the era was on railroad regulation which eliminated corruption in interstate commerce. “The Hepburn Act makes it unlawful for any railroad company
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Chosen by Roosevelt, Taft easily proceeded to the office as the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was an enthusiastic lawyer, but not as prominent as other great presidents. His legislation like Payne-Aldrich Tariff did little change to the society. However, he made a brilliant decision in his administration, passing the Mann Act which “a man who ‘ships’ a women across the lines of a state—making it ‘interstate commerce’ —for immoral purpose is guilty of felony” (The Evening Telegram 7). This act reflected another field of reform during the Progressive Era. The business, politics, municipality were the central area of reform, but morality was also being given adequate amounts of emphasis during the Progressive Era. Mann Act is the one piece of legislation that marked it. Despite its good intends, the ambiguous wording of Mann Act caused a significant problem in execution. Therefore, it was debated “that a fair interpretation of the Act was that it was intended solely to stamp out organized or unorganized traffic in women for immoral purposes by prohibiting their interstate transportation” (Albuquerque Journal 3). However, the law has been used to prosecute many unmarried couples participating in premarital or extramarital activities, deviating from its original intent. Therefore, I believe it was not a perfect attempt, and it was eventually amended in
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As a Democratic governor of New Jersey, he ran the president election in 1912 and got elected because of a split in Republican Party. His Clayton Antitrust Act made him a progressive president. When the Sherman Antitrust Act was ratified, there were still many problems yet to be solved due to the insufficiency of the policy. The unfair competitiveness was still ubiquitous in business. However, with the Clayton Act plastered over the crucial cracks of the Sherman Act, serving as a barrier to a broad range of anti-competitiveness issues like price discrimination, price fixing, and exclusive sales contract. It was highly remarked by the time, “The Clayton Bill is now law, and marks the beginning of a new epoch” (The Macon Daily Telegraph 4). Personally, I believe Clayton Act was an amazing decision in business history. It eliminated the unfair competition and crashed the monopolies, but at the same time promoted healthy competition between companies, contributing to the economic