United States History

Workforce Skills Pretest

The Progressive Era was a period characterized by widespread social and political reforms
directed by the most prominent personalities as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and
Woodrow Wilson, where each of them leads U.S. to a new path of development.
Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first who destroyed the thought of governments hands off
from market economy also through supporting the idea that government can use all powers to
accomplish its goals he succeeded to reform completely the executive office and the
government's relationship to big businesses. In the international affairs, he played a crucial role
in the building of Panama Canal and establishing control other Western Hemisphere through his
Monroe Doctrine. He was the first who used the media to appeal directly to the people, and
through his leadership and an endless energy he gained their support in obtaining the passage of
his reforms. William Howard Taft was one of the presidents who received his position, not at the
right time. Being the successor of Roosevelt, his presidency period was viewed as a failure, due
to his limited political experience and skills, self-criticism and insecurity which dont represent
the quality of a true leader. Taft spoiled almost all the principles of Roosevelt, all his
unaccomplished promises made him a liar in front of the population, he seldom took any
initiative in legislative matters, and how Roosevelt stated: Taft is utterly hopeless as a leader.
After the Tafts failure Woodrow Wilson was perceived as a new hope, that will bring freedom
and democracy in which the U. S. would be secure and American goods and services would be
welcomed everywhere. Under his aggressive style of leadership, Congress enacted several
reforms as Federal Reserve System, tariff reduction, federal regulation of business, support for
labor and collective bargaining which helped the U.S. to move from isolation politic to
internationalism.
In my opinion, Woodrow Wilson was most successful in achieving his goals, managing the
economy and ensuring the security of citizens. In comparison with Roosevelt which was more
concerned with international affairs, Wilson played a bigger role regarding the domestic,
establishing a series of acts which roles were to ensure fair and equitable economic activity.
Also, his political movement of internationalism established a new vision of America's role in the
world, and he contributed in making White House the center of power in Washington.
In comparison with the Gilded Age that supported the concept of laissez-faire, and the
domination of big corporations, Progressive Era is characterized by government intervention in
the market economy and through the support for small business, small farmers, and labor unions.
Also, progressives pushed through reforms for a wide range of economic, political, social, and
moral issues for example as the sale of alcohol, regulate child labor, improving womens
working conditions and the fight for women suffrage and so on.
Progressives believed that government has the responsibility to intervene in economic, social
issues in order to improve the peoples conditions of life. Their main goals included purification
of government from corruption and elimination of unfair trade between the businesses. An

influential movement against this issues was led by muckrakers, the journalists that published
corruption and scandals that were happening in the government and business.
The national political leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover on the Republican
side, and William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson on the Democratic side. Significant changes
were the ability to establish an income tax with the 16th Amendment, setting of railroad rates
through Hepburn Act and direct election of Senators with the 17th Amendment. Moreover, an
important movement during this era was the formation of women coalitions like WCTU that
fight against social diseases like alcohol, prostitution, or NAWSA which goal were to ensure
women suffrage at least at the state level.
Generally speaking, progressives believed in scientific, technologic and educational progress
which they thought were a solution against societys weakness. The Progressive Era may be
considered as an effort to cure American society of all diseases that had developed during the
industrial growth of the 19th century.
During the Progressive Era the U.S. faced with several problems that affected its social and
economic development for example inequality in the distribution of wealth, corruption in
government, the labor problem, womens rights, monopolies and business excess, drug abuse and
alcoholism, immigration, prostitution and white slavery, etc.
The stringent problems that were characteristic of this Era were drug abuse and alcoholism. So
the main anti-alcohol movement was called Temperance Movement which was devoted to
convince people that alcoholic drink slowly but inevitably destroyed the moral character,
physical and mental health of whole society. Moreover, the anti-alcohol movement was
supported by the Womens Trade Union League that considered it as a disease that causes the
vulnerability, prostitution, family violence. So one the government actions was passing The
Harrison Act that banned the distribution of heroine, morphine, cocaine and other addictive
drugs. Next one was The Eighteenth Amendment that declared the production, transport and sale
of alcohol illegal and Volstead Act that defined as intoxicating liquor any beverage containing
more than 0.5%. In the Progressive Era, drinks were like cures for people, so the effect of all that
Acts was not so successful as it was expected but, at least, people started to realize what alcohol
is doing to their society and that they should not give up and continue to fight against this
disease.
With the industrial growth in the U.S. American businessmen began to join together forming
large companies that lead to monopoly and business excess. During the Progressive Era, main
monopolies were such industries as oil, steel, railroads, sugar refining, mean packing, chemicals,
etc. So the issue was that this large company gained so much power that they could raise prices
on the market and even manipulate government to pass laws favorable to their interests. In this
way, the government solutions for solving this problem was passing by the Roosevelt of The
Elkins Act that authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to impose heavy fines
on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates. Because this
Act had not worked later was passed the Hepburn Act federal law that gave the ICC the power
to set maximum railroad rates and extend its jurisdiction. I think that elaboration of all these

policies was in vein because big businesses continued their activity, Roosevelt accepted the
inevitability of monopolies and instead of offering the possibility for small companies to
develop, he demanded the cooperation between government and big businesses. Even Wilson
who has promised in his campaign to use antitrust act havent accomplished it, limiting only to
regulation activity.
The item that I have selected regarding the World War I is Annika Mombauer, The debate on the
origins of World War One, Open Learning (December 19, 2013): The Web. March 21, 2016.
The following article shows us how debatable can be the origins of the World War I through
exposing the ideas of great historians from over 100 years. According to some researchers, they
deducted that Treaty of Versailles was wrong, proving in this way Germanys innocence and
responsibility of the Alliance system for this failure. Also, another idea was that Austria-Hungary
used the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as an opportunity to try and defeat a ring of
enemies that eventually led to a war. However, after 100 years of arguing about the causes of
war, this long debate between historians is still ongoing.
Overall this article isnt very straightforward in the beginning but for the most part it is well
written and organized. In order to have more reviews the whole article needs to be a little more
developed because for people who havent studied about World War I it will not be clear, also, it
needs a more concise introduction. Overall it is a good article with different interesting theories
that put you to reflect about it, and I would recommend to others to spend some time on reading
it.
Wilsons Fourteen Points were a good attempt at peace and restitution after Great War, however
Europeans perceived him as being too naive through believing that his points that were just
empty theories will solve all the problems. In this way, the Fourteen Points mainly
concentrated on the things that were important to the Allied powers: France was hungry for
revenge, Great Britain was looking further its power, and America was hoping to become even
more powerful trade nation.
Although Wilson elaborated his points in order to create a peace with Germany, the Treaty of
Versailles twisted them into forms of punishment and revenge against Germany. Wilson wished
that all big powers will reduce their arms but the treaty required that only Germany has to reduce
its army, leaving them with almost no defense forces of their own. He had also wished to create a
League of Nations to conduct mutual guarantees of politics and territory and to maintain
international peace. He could not convince his own country to join this, and the League itself,
because U.S. felt that Treaty was unfair to Germany and that they are not going to help Britain
and France to get rich at Germanys expense. Also, they believed that the League of Nations will
drag the U.S. into international disputes that were not their concern. So thats why the Congress
rejected the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
The main purpose of America was to ensure peace and stability in Europe, the process of
destroying the economic life of Germany did not enter into these plans. One of the main issue I
think was that Wilson adapted his points to the desire of Allied Power and instead of being fair

the Treaty of Versailles just blamed Germany for everything which hurt their pride and cultivated
the desire to revenge that eventually lead to Second World War.