Ten Leading Reform Movements: The Progressive Movement

The Progressive Era, which lasted from 1900 to 1918, was a time in which the American government and its people aimed to improve their economic status and to correct injustices of their country. Here are the ten leading reform movements:
1. Civil Rights
After the Civil War, some would have expected that racism would have stopped but unfortunately, that didn’t happened. Racism still existed in the American society in the stated era therefore civil rights organizations, most made for African-Americans and Women (which would be furtherly discussed later), were founded. This is an example of the organizations: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The NAACP was founded by the Niagara Movement (another organization
Conservation
In the late 19th century, Americans paid little attention on how the importance of their environment. Lumber companies would cut trees and never replaced them; people would dump their wastes into rivers, poisoning it.
Fortunately, Roosevelt noticed the importance of their land and reserved forests and bodies of water by the influence of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. John Muir persuaded Roosevelt that he should set aside 148 million acres of land and explained the importance of it, therefore Roosevelt then kept 1.5 million acres of water-power sites and another 80 million acres of land for mineral and water resources and also established 50 wildlife sanctuaries and several national parks.
By Gifford Pinchot’s words, The Newlands Act was established to make the federal government in charge of water resources of the west.

3. Socialism
The Socialist Party was formed in 1900. In 1912, Eugene Debs received 900,000 votes, which was six percent of the presidential votes cast that year. Debs attracted blue collar workers’ craving for better working conditions and higher wages. The party dealt with the country’s problems while having the views of the citizens.
4. Government
5. Health and Medicine
“The Jungle”, which is Upton Sinclair’s book, portrayed the disgusting conditions in the industry. After reading it, Roosevelt immediately went into action and ordered the commission to have an investigation in the meatpacking industry and therefore the Meat Inspection Act, which stated that there would be strict cleanliness policies for meatpacking businesses.
Also, through the findings of Dr. Harvey Washington, it was proved that there were harmful preservatives in foods and medicines and it alarmed the public. Therefore the Pure Food and Drug Act was formed; it basically prevented the contamination of foods and medicines and false advertising.

6. Labor Reform
One of the most concerning issues back in the progressive era was Child Labor. In 1890 to 1910, it was revealed there were two million children that had experience of working in America. Industries would hire children to work eighteen to twenty hours a