The Age of Industry is one of the most influential times in the history of the United States. This was also aggravated by the concept of the progressivism in the society. Various political leaders have been involved in this concept of progressivism. The intention of the political labors was to transform the society into an industrial one so the lifestyles of the people could be changed and better facilities could be given to them because of more wealth flowing into the system. This is how the scenario began for the Age of Industry. this essay will focus on various contexts of the Age of Industry and how the working environment was changing slowly. The focus will be led on the changing work environments and treatment of laborers and overall extent of progressivism. The topic that will be focused in this paper is the impact of progressivism on the United States society and its working conditions throughout the country.
The progressivism is the time when the United States began to move forward by the weapon of industrialization. This was definitely a bright aspect for the future prosperities of the country but the thought of putting the lives of poor people under threat was not at all a good idea. When the 20th century ended, America was standing at the crossroads (Corbett et al., 2016).. The country had the bright prospects of developments through establishing the business industry. On the other hand, they had to sacrifice their culture and heritage of the communities. The healthy working environment had completely been ruined by these people since they only wanted the profits and they could do everything for that only. La Follette was considered as one of the most progressive politicians during that time. This is why he argued for the spread of the industry. The owners were safe and they could impose any decisions on their laborers.
The working environments in the United States during the ending of 20th century began to deteriorate continuously. The monopoly businesses created the utmost authority in these regions. The foreign policy approaches of Roosevelt were one of the landmark decisions of the time. He completely changed the policies from his predecessor McKinley. The two most important factors that helped McKinley to come to power were economic coercion and showing of the military strength. The big stick foreign policy of Roosevelt helped him a lot to design the foreign policies in the new manner. The transformations were very clear after the Civil War. In the beginning years of the 20th century, only 40% of the people lived in the rural areas (Corbett et al., 2016)..
The wages for the laborers in the factory were very low. Most of the profits were enjoyed by the factory owners. The annual salary of these people was only around six hundred US dollars. The average time of working in the factory was sixty hours per week. The workers in the steel mills had to work almost 12 hours every day and they had to work for all the 7 days of the week (Corbett et al., 2016). It clearly highlights the fact that factory conditions and lives of laborers were not so easy.
“In addition to making government more directly accountable to the voters, Progressives also fought to rid politics of inefficiency, waste, and corruption” (Corbett et al., 2016).
The issues had been brought to the attention of the public and Progressive politicians began their campaigns because of this. They wanted to establish the perfected democracy within the country that would also be very important for the growth of the country also (Chasse, 2017). The direct primary was the law that considered the development of the democracy within the country. Apart from all these developments within the United States, the growth of the women’s rights movements can also be discussed keeping in mind the extent of progressivism(Corbett et al., 2016).. Still, some critics have underlined the fact that average conditions of lifestyle had increased for the common people within the country (Leone & Knauf, 2015). The Federal Government had also made some plans through which these monopoly industries got the boost. They were keen to get the upper hand on all the workers. It must be kept in mind that the poor people like farmers and workers had already been tortured in the country lots of times during the times of slavery (Krzysztofik, Kantor-Pietraga & Kłosowski, 2019). These poor workers had to depend on the factory wage systems so they could live. The Big business monopolies had been running the business industries with the help of the industry owners. They had exploited the workers completely. The overall economic developments might have taken place during that time but the conditions of the workers were very poor indeed. The overworking on all the seven days a week cost them all their energy and some workers also lost their lives due to these torturous situations also. This is why the protests came through the voices of the workers to stop the big business monopolies (Corbett et al., 2016). However, progressive Federal Government looked at these issues as very crucial for the development of the country.
“Between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century, the American workforce underwent transformative shift. In 1865, nearly 60 percent of Americans still lived and worked on farms; by the early 1900s, that number had reversed itself, and only 40 percent still lived in rural areas, with the remainder living and working in urban and early suburban areas” (Corbett et al., 2016).
After the above discussions on the monopolies and big businesses it has been identified that the progressivism had a massive effect on the society of the United States. The business owners wanted to establish their complete control on the industries and they always wanted to show that they were the game changers in the industries. The support of the Federal Government was also a legitimate backup for the business owners to run their monopolies. The conditions of the working environments were worsening and it needed large modifications to ensure the safety and security of all the workers. This is how the scenario could be looked upon as progressivism dominated the fate of the United States during then.
“One result of the new breakdown of work processes was that factory owners were able to hire women and children to perform many of the tasks. From 1870 through 1900, the number of women working outside the home tripled”. (Corbett et al., 2016).
Through the overall discussion, it can be pointed out that there were mixed reactions from the Age of Industry and the concept of progressivism. The lifestyles of many people had improved. The owners of the industries had been highly benefitted through these events. On the other hand, overall conditions of the labors did not improve much. The working environments had gone down but the amount of production was going higher every time. This is how the progressivism had impacted on the society in a huge margin. The flow of wealth was there but the well being of the poor people had been ignored completely by progressive presidents and politicians.
References
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