The Progressive Reform Movement was actually a series of movements operating at the local, state, and national levels of government and society (Grob, Billias 230). This was a time for expansion and progressive reform. Throughout all of the historian's interpretations of the progressive movement, each knew the different social groups were an important representation of this period. By understanding the articles from Joseph Huthmacher, Gabriel Kolko, and George Mowry it is easier to answer who the progressives were, what they represented, and what the progressive reformers were looking for.
According to, Enotes The Progressive Movement, the Progressives were groups of reformers that worked to …show more content…
They were the main point for the progressive's undecided feelings about the mass democracy. Huthmacher described that progressivism was much more broadly based and that lower-class groups played an important role in the movement (Huthmacher 243). He argued that progressivism was an attempt to adapt to the hard everyday problems of an urban-industrial society. Kolko concluded that the progressive era was characterized by a paucity of alternatives to the status quo, a vacuum that permitted political capitalism to direct the growth of industrialism in America, to shape its politics, to determine the ground rules for American civilization in the twentieth century, and to set the stage for what was to follow (Huthmacher 242). Mowry describes the progressives as an economically secure, well-educated, middle-class group. Men were specifically shown worshiped if they were strong and willing to word …show more content…
The growth in the size of many corporations, the tendency in the American economy and the beginning of the century was headed towards growth in competition. When new competitors came up, and economic power was diffused throughout the growing nation, it became common to many businessmen that the government could rationalize the economy. It wasn't the presence of monopoly that caused the federal government to interact with the economy, but the loss of it. According to George Mowry, money ceased to be a major part of a person's character and became a positive evil force. The new ethical standards for a distribution of national wealth were very hard. Progressives felt that Unions blocking the production was a different form of industrial monopoly. Huthmacher states the progressive era was looked upon as one phase in the continuing struggle against special privilege and business. Many of the Progressives were directed not at making the government more democratic and responsive to the wishes of the American people, but to making it and the economy more efficient (Huthmacher