The Pros And Cons Of Progressivism

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In the early part of the twentieth century American citizens were demanding the federal government to better their lives. There were many different and opposing ideas that the people gave out. One side would say that big corporations were what this country needed the other side would say that the federal government should break up these big corporations. This was called the Progressive Era because progressivism was widely popular. Progressivism is a political party or ideas and thoughts that strongly believed that social reform was needed and that the federal government could help. While progressivism had many controversial stances, there were some common arguments that people tend to agree on like anti-monopolism, expertise, and social justice.…show more content…
In this platform instead of busting big trusts, Roosevelt felt that strong regulations would help control these big companies. Roosevelt however, did bust 43 trusts. Trusts are another way to say large corporations or businesses. New Nationalism also focused more on expanding the welfare state. This would include having federal child labor laws, having federal workmen’s compensation, and creating a national minimum wage for women workers. To sum New Nationalism up, Roosevelt would only bust corporations he did not approve, and the other corporations would be strongly regulated. This platform’s focus on regulating large businesses was the opposite of Woodrow Wilson’s platform, the New Freedom. The New Freedom platform did not believe regulating these large corporations would help the country. Wilson strongly believed big business was not natural and therefore all big trusts should be broken up. Wilson would help create even more anti-trust laws, this meaning creating laws that would help stop businesses from becoming too large. Although these platforms had some opposing ideas about trusts, they were both progressivism. New Nationalism was what some people preferred, people like Walter Lippmann and Frederick Winslow

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