Progressivism As A Forward Looking Movement essays

Progressivism As A Forward Looking Movement essays Progressives were optimistic and forward-looking. Progressives sought to correct the evils of their present time in the hopes of creating a promising future for America. They looked at modern problems and sought to correct them so that the future Americans would never have to deal with them. Utopians like Edward Bellamy and his followers are evidence of the forward-looking progressives. They envisioned a new America in the future that would no longer have any problems. Progressives believed that Americas laissez-faire, or let-alone policy, was ineffective. They believed that it was time to fix the problems that America faced before they got even more out of control. Muckrakers, like Ida M. Tarbell and Upton Sinclair, wrote to show the American public that reform was needed. The reaction of the public was so great that the progressives became a majority rather than a minority. There were also reform movements with longer histories - for example prohibition and womens suffrage - that took on new force and eventually achieved their goals by capitalizing on the widespread sentiment for change at this time. Prohibition and womens suffrage movements did not achieve instant success but continued to move forward and look ahead. Progressivism was an ongoing movement, which made it always forward-looking. Works such as Edward Bellamys Looking Backward: 2000 - 1887, showed a forward-looking progressive view. He was known as a utopian, someone who envisioned a perfect society in the future in which political, social, and economic problems did not exist. The moment the nation assumed the responsibilities of capital those difficulties vanished...The national organization of labor under one direction was the complete solution of what was, in your day and under your system, justly regarded as the insoluble labor problem. When the nation became the sole employer, all the cit...