Progressivism Under Theodore Roosevelt

Mary had a little lamb,

And when she saw it sicken,

She shipped it off to Packingtown

And now it's labeled chicken. (Bailey, 690)

This common rhyme summarizes the everyday occurrences of the age of industrialization. It is a time when children collapse from exhaustion and tumble into machines to be torn to shreds. It is the age when many values have been lost and the law has nearly disappeared. Once a boy of twelve was asked if he knew of God. In response the boy stared vacantly at his questioner and said, "God? No, I don't. He must be in some other mine." (American History Online, Spargo, 1) America desperately needs to control the power that corporations wield, which puts power into the hands of the few and creates poor working conditions. The effects that corporate control has had on the people and government makes reform necessary. The original system of capitalism remains the base of American economy but it must be reformed so that human life comes before property.

America's need for reform is due to the lack of control of America's corporations and poor working conditions. The erecting of skyscrapers, factories and sprawling cities has been both beneficial and harmful to America. It has brought packaged food, pre-made clothing and many other material possessions. The owners of the gigantic monopolies have undue influence over the government and the people. They play the roles of congressmen and local officials. (Heffner, 269) John Blum said, "He (Theodore Roosevelt) feared not the size, but the policies of big businesses". (Burns 332) The heads of the corporations control the lives of the people because there is little competition between businesses. The fares for a train can be as high as the Northern Securities wants them to be. This has resulted in many exploited workers and urban poor. "The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead." (American History Online, Spargo, 1) Men work, women work, and children barely old enough to walk work. If they do not work, they stand outside of the factories calling for work, because they need to survive. The conditions in the factories are atrocious. There is no heat in the factories and the machines that the workers use are extremely dangerous. (Whitman, 702) Miners work twelve-hour shifts, six days a week, and barely earn enough to survive. (PBS video) The processed food is more rot than food. "…where men welcomed tuberculosis in the cattle they were feeding, because it made them fatten more quickly…" (Sinclair, 97) This is everyday life for the working class. There is no escaping it. Reforming the system is necessary because power is concentrated in the hands of a few industrialists whose workers labor under poor working conditions.

The system must be reformed because of the effects that power held in the hands of the few and poor working conditions have had on society. It is necessary for industrialization to occur because it makes this nation prosper and grow. It increases the wealth of the nation. Without industrialization the economy would stagnate which would eventually cause the nation to deteriorate. (Miller, 365) The most harmful effect that industrialization has caused is to concentrate power in the hands of the few. The gigantic monopolies, such as the Standard Oil Company, nearly control the government and the people. These companies have gotten so powerful from their excessive wealth that they use it to buy off police, government officials and the people. "All of these agencies of corruption were banded together, and leagued in blood brotherhood with the politician and the police; more often then not they were one and the same person…" (Sinclair, 254) Votes are collected by graft or fraud. Not only do the corporations control the government; they fix the price of coal that people use to heat their houses and the wages they earn. These companies, such as Northern Securities or Standard Oil, have unlawfully stolen their power by breaking anti-trust laws. "In our day it appears as the struggle of free men to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will." (Heffner, 269) Finally, the status quo has given rise to people being hurt and killed every day. Only half of the children live past the age of five. One twelve-year-old boy works for forty cents a day, in the same mine where his father died, to pay off his father's debts. (Miller, 370) Many people die from a small cut because there is no sanitation in the factories. The concentration of power in the hands of the few and the horrible working conditions cause people to beg, steal, and commit other crimes. Reform is needed in this nation because of the ruinous effects that the large companies and poor working conditions have on the government and the people.

The system must be reformed so that human life comes before property and power is shared by the people. The current conditions and the effects those conditions have had on the government and people have taken the power out of the hands of the people and has oppressed them. The Socialists would agree that there are poor conditions, but the way to change the conditions is through reform, not revolution. The Socialist utopia is unrealistic and would cause America's economy to become stagnant. Without the growth of industry the country would begin to deteriorate and the people would start to die with it. There would be no incentive to create, imagine or strive for one's goals because one could not ever get higher in the system. People from all over the world have come to America because they want to be capitalists and have the freedoms and opportunities that Americans have today. All that would be taken away from them if this country became a Socialist nation. Reform is the only solution to current problems.

"First, every man will have a fair chance to make of himself all that in him lies; to reach the highest point to which his capacities, unassisted by special privilege of his own and unhampered by the special privileges of others, can carry him, and to get for himself and his family what he has earned. Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable." (Heffner, 270) If this nation is to be reformed, it is the responsibility of every person in America to follow the laws and to enforce the laws. As it is said in Chaucer, "if the gold rusts, what then is iron to do." Due to the power that the corporations hold, it is extremely difficult to enforce the laws. Therefore, the primary reform that must be made is activating the anti-trust laws, which prohibit the formation of large-scale monopolies. This means that action must take place against Carnegie, Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, to name a few. Big businesses should not be eliminated or broken down completely through trust busting. Instead it is necessary that these companies should be regulated. (Miller, 364) "… we must have government supervision of the capitalization, not only of public service corporations, including, particularly, railways, but of all corporations doing an interstate business." (Heffner, 271) With government regulation the laws will be enforced and the power controlled. "The constitution was made for the people, and not the people for the constitution" (Miller, 375) More importantly, there will be competition and corporations will have to offer more benefits to the workers because the workers will have other options of places to work. This means that wages will be raised. Instead of working twelve-hour days, a worker will only have to work eight-hour days with a required break for lunch. A company will also be required to provide protection for its workers. Sanitation measures will have to be bettered and if there is an accident, the company will have to compensate the worker. By regulating the corporations and forcing the corporations to follow the laws not only will the conditions be better for the people, but also much of the corruption will be eradicated. "There must remain no neutral ground to serve as a refuge for the lawbreakers, and especially for lawbreakers of great wealth, who can hire the vulpine legal cunning which will teach them how to avoid both jurisdictions." (Heffner, 273) Essentially, the basic structure of capitalism will remain, but the value of people will be placed ahead of the value of property. With this reformed system, life will be easier for the average worker and individualism and imagination will be nurtured so that there is increased incentive to work and achieve one's goals. "The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all citizens." (Heffner, 274) As a result of the poor working conditions, the concentration of power in the hands of the few and the effects these have had on society, reform is needed so that the original system of capitalism is preserved, but is reformed so that human life is a priority.

The concentration of power in the hands of the few, the poor working conditions and the effects they have had on the government and people requires that the original system of capitalism remains the basis of American economy but is reformed so that human life comes before property. Each day more and more people die and it is time for that to end. There is no reason for people to die from a single cut, or freeze to death on the street. Reforming the system will make a successful difference in the lives of the people. "We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children's children. To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln."

© by Madeleine