Progressive Era

The Progressive Era was a defining period in American History. It is obvious at this point that America has become a great power and government leaders struggled to judge just how much the government should intervene in public affairs. There is a fine line that government treads when it comes to regulation, and the political leaders during the Progressive Era trod on both sides of that line.
The Progressive Era introduced many reforms that gave government necessary control over many aspects of American life. It was apparent that the Railroad Industry was accumulating too much power. They were offering fee exemptions to powerful corporate leaders and their companies while charging minorities and many others high fares. Roosevelt started quickly trying to fix these problems. The Elkins Act was the first push towards railroad regulation. This prohibited railway rates that were unfairly favoring powerful customers. A few years later the Hepburn Act followed the Elkins Act. It allowed the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the prices of shipping and helped lead to the stoppage of free passes to the loyal users of the railways. This was a very big economic regulation during the Progressive Era that started to make things more equal for the people of America.
The Food and Drug Act of 1906 was another positive regulation that arose during this period of time. Speculation began looking into the meat packing industry because of a book called “The Jungle” published from a muckraker known by the name of Upton Sinclair. His book had vivid descriptions of poor conditions and rotten meat of a meat packing plant in Chicago. The meat packing industries were cutting corners in order to increase production, thus causing unsatisfactory food for an established country such as America. This is where the Food and Drug Act came in. This act provided inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products. This led to a new... [continues]

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