Muckrakers During The Progressive Era

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After flexing its power abroad, the United States initiated to strengthen domestic policies back in its homeland. The visual inequalities existed in businesses and society have pressured the government to take actions in essential reforms. This time period was called the Progressive Era, where progressives guided the nation to a better life with better living and working conditions. Indeed, it marked a significant adjustment in society of the U.S., which was best demonstrated through the enhancement on social welfare programs, the big businesses reform and the women’s suffrage movement.

In the Progressive Era, muckrakers had together raised their powerful voices to capture lives of Americans in its poorest conditions. Undoubtedly, they had put a gigantic impact on progressives, which later explained the presence of some social welfare programs carried out during this time. Most influential muckrakers were looked upon included Upton Sinclair with his novel The Jungle exposing the actual aspect in the meatpacking industry, and Jacob Riis, who witnessed the arduous life of immigrants in his book How the
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In responding to unfair business practices that hurt the public interests, Roosevelt filed a lawsuit against Northern Securities Company, considering that they had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. In addition, he convinced Congress to create the Bureau of Corporations to monitor big businesses without destroying its economic efficiency. Under the years of Wilson, he carried on Roosevelt’s work with the Federal Trade Commision, which has the power to investigate and issue “cease and desist” commands against any unfair trade practices. Likewise, the Clayton Antitrust Act passed afterward supplemented the ideas of unjust existed in this field. For the first time, labor unions were declared to be not unlawful, as the act granted them the right to