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Life in the Fast Lane

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Life in the Fast Lane
Study Guide:Gabby Fernandez
Ms. Skacan
US History Period 3
6 May 2013
Progressive Era Reform

The beginning of the twentieth century verified a desperate need for political, social and economic reform. The Progressive Era called for movements due to the reactions affecting the ever growing nation's industrialization, immigration and urbanization. Journalists known as the “muckrakers” highlighted the malpractices in politics and business which also demanded eradication after society realized the poor conditions and recognized improvements that needed to be made. The Progressives pursued improving the quality of life to make “even, equal, fair progress.” The Progressive Era ushered in a time of recognition within the United States when citizens no longer accepted the conditions they lived in and strove for change, where the federal government took notice and evolved into a more responsible system that brought aid to the country in forms of economic stimulation and regulation to ensure that all had the opportunity to rise up and create progress for themselves through the concerns and successes under the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt steered the United States into an unambiguous state of prosperity through his prolonged effort and support for The Progressive Movement by reinforcing his executive powers to demonstrate his use of arbitration, regulate control of “big business”, guide environmental conservation, and making it his duty to seek reforms for the greater good of the common man. When the United Mine Workers called a strike to protest their minimal compensation, mine owners refused to negotiate with them causing a dip in the nation's source of heating fuel. To resolve the problem, Roosevelt decided on arbitration while warning to use the army to take control of the mines. This famous so called “square deal” became the name of his domestic program, which assured that each side of a

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