Political Movements That Fought Again High Taxes Speed Limit

Propelled by a Second Industrial Revolution, the United States arose from the ashes of the Civil War to go ane of the world's leading economical powers by the turn of the 20th century. Corporate titans such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan clustered spectacular fortunes and engaged in the most conspicuous of consumptions. Beneath this gilt veneer, yet, American society was tarnished by poverty and corruption, which acquired this period of American history to exist chosen the "Gilded Age," derived from the championship of an 1873 novel co-authored past Mark Twain.

Protected from foreign competition by loftier tariffs, American industrialists colluded to drive competitors out of concern by creating monopolies and trusts in which groups of companies were controlled by single corporate boards. Political abuse ran amok during the Aureate Age as corporations bribed politicians to ensure regime policies favored big businesses over workers. Graft fueled urban political machines, such equally New York'due south Tammany Hall, and the Whiskey Ring and Crédit Mobilier scandals revealed collusion by public officials and business leaders to defraud the federal authorities.

As the rich grew richer during the Gold Age, the poor grew poorer. The neat wealth accumulated by the "robber barons" came at the expense of the masses. Past 1890, the wealthiest ane percent of American families owned 51 percent of the country'southward existent and personal holding, while the 44 pct at the bottom owned merely ane.2 per centum.

READ More than: How the Gilded Age'due south Summit ane Percentage Thrived on Corruption

The Populist Political party Pushes for Reforms

A coming together held by the Granges, a populist farmer's clan organized in the western United States, c. 1867.

Photoquest/Getty Images

Many Gilded Historic period workers toiled in dangerous jobs for low pay. Approximately xl percentage of industrial laborers in the 1880s earned below the poverty line of $500 a year. With such a yawning chasm between "haves" and "have-nots," workers fought back confronting the inequality past forming labor unions. Industrial strikes occurred with greater frequency—and greater violence—post-obit the Slap-up Railroad Strike of 1877. During the 1880s alone, there were almost 10,000 labor strikes and lockouts.

The belief that big businesses had too much power in the United States led to a backlash. The passage of the Tariff Act of 1890, which hiked import duties to nigh l percent and raised consumer prices, sparked an agrarian political rebellion that gave rise to the People's Party, known every bit the "Populists." The political party advocated for government buying of railroad and telephone companies, a graduated income tax, shorter workdays and the direct ballot of senators. In the 1892 presidential election, Populist candidate James Weaver won 22 electoral votes.

When the Panic of 1893 launched what was at the time the worst economic downturn in American history, President Grover Cleveland was forced to borrow $65 million in gold from financiers including Morgan to keep the federal authorities adrift, further highlighting corporate ability in American order.

"Information technology is no longer a authorities of the people, by the people and for the people," proclaimed Populist leader Mary Elizabeth Charter, "simply a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall Street." The victory of Tariff Act of 1890 sponsor William McKinley in the 1896 presidential election marked the constructive end of the People's Political party, merely it foreshadowed the Progressive Era to come.

READ More than: The Contentious 1896 Election That Started the Rural-Urban Voter Separate

Theodore Roosevelt Ushers in the Progressive Era

A pendant for the Progressive Party picturing President Theodore Roosevelt.

David J. & Janice 50. Frent/Corbis/Getty Images

Scroll to Continue

Some historians betoken to the 1890s as the start of the Progressive Era, but the rising of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency after McKinley'south assassination marked its definitive arrival. Similar the Populists, Progressives advocated democratic reforms and greater governmental regulation of the economic system to temper the capitalistic excesses of the Gilded Age. Historian Richard Hofstadter wrote that the Progressive movement sought to "restore a blazon of economic individualism and political democracy that was widely believed to have existed earlier in America and to have been destroyed by the corking corporation and the corrupt political machine."

Unlike previous presidents, Roosevelt vigorously enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up industrial behemoths. The "trust buster" was also the first president to threaten to use the army on behalf of labor in a 1902 coal miners' strike. Roosevelt hands won re-ballot in 1904 campaigning on a "Square Bargain" platform to control corporations, conserve natural resources and protect consumers.

Investigative journalists, writers and photographers spurred Progressive reforms by exposing corporate malfeasance and social injustice. These "muckrakers" included Ida Tarbell, whose investigation of Rockefeller led to the breakup of the Standard Oil Company monopoly. Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle about working conditions in the meatpacking industry sparked the passage of the Meat Inspection Human activity and Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.

READ MORE: How Presidential Assassinations Changed United states of america Politics

Progressive Political Reforms Expand Voting Rights

WATCH: The 19th Amendment

In states across the country, Progressives pushed for greater democratization of government and the expansion of voting rights in gild to reduce the ability of political machines.

In 1903, Wisconsin became the first state to implement direct chief elections, and the country's governor, Robert La Follette, was among Progressives championing the enactment of initiatives and referendums, which allowed citizens to advise and vote direct on legislation.

Progressive reforms continued under Roosevelt'southward successor, William Howard Taft, who combined tariff reduction legislation with back up for the 16th Amendment to the U.Due south. Constitution, which established a federal income revenue enhancement. Fifty-fifty though Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeated both Taft and Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election, he enacted a Progressive agenda that included the creation of the Federal Reserve Lath and the Federal Merchandise Committee as well as the passage of the Clayton Antitrust Deed, which further express the ability of companies to form monopolies.

Boosted democratic reforms came into strength with the 17th Amendment, which required the direct ballot of senators, and the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. Many Progressives also supported the temperance motility and pushed for the enactment of Prohibition, which came into effect with the 18th Amendment. World State of war I marked the decline of the Progressive Era, which came to an end with the start of the Roaring Twenties.

PHOTOS: Come across All the Ways Americans Hid Alcohol During Prohibition

stclairreaked.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.history.com/news/gilded-age-progressive-era-reforms

Share this post