The Main Reason for the Growth of the Progressive Movement in the Years 1890-1912 Was Because of the Need to Regulate Big Business

‘The main reason for the growth of the Progressive Movement in the years 1890-1912 was because of the need to regulate big business’.

At the start of the 1890’s, America was still recovering from post war effects after then Civil War ended in 1865. One of the main problems the almost effected everyone in the country was Big Businesses who were monopolies making so much money they began influencing the country with their own decisions. Such as they bribed Judges and statesmen. This period was called the progressive movement as the presidents at the time tried to reform the country to become more progressive. Theodore Roosevelt was the first progressive president and he focused on improving society for the people. He realised the big business problem and introduced bills like the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and more. Taft followed him and continued his predecessor’s ways. The Acts they introduced helped regulate big business as they banned monopolistic companies from dominating the markets. This stopped constant flows of money gained by these companies.

It was important that Big Businesses had to be regulated as Large Businesses established monopolies in particular industries, such as Rockefeller and the Oil industry in America. He did not produce the Oil but bought crude Oil for cheap, refined it and distributed the pure oil for expensive prices. This undercut his rivals, spent less money on the oil and made more money out of the product. This helped him create a Monopoly in the Oil market. Monopolies fixed prices without fear of competition. This made them very powerful and in some cases were only watched by the president who is meant to be the most powerful man in the world.

I agree with this as big businessmen should be able to have that much power. Otherwise there is nothing stopping them from being able to overthrow countries. Another reason for this is that big businessmen were buying out and bribing influential people to do their bidding such as judges, politicians and generals. This meant that they could do what they wanted as the people who are meant to stop these things wont charge them as they are on their pay role. This meant there was a growing dissatisfaction with the two main political parties by the people. This was why in the presidential election of 1912, there were 4 parties who came close to winning. Most notably, previous president, Theodore Roosevelt’s new Progressive Party shortly after splitting with the Republican Party. There were also growing hostility toward the Big Businessmen like Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie who seemed to put their own profits before the interests of the masses. This made some people upset as they could have contributed more than just providing revolutionary services to the country, such as helping the country recover after the recession of 1893.

During this period there were many reforms introduced by both presidents, Roosevelt and Taft. In 1890, Theodore Roosevelt passed a series of anti-trust measures which included the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices such as Carnegie and his steel industry. However, some disagree with this as what big businessmen invested in the country was to help improve it in some way. An example of this was Vanderbuilt and his son, who invested in the railroads. They improved the system for passengers for it to be quicker and more professional.