Ethics and civics of Populist and progressive reformers
There is no doubt the industrialization period raised the standards of living for the people of the United States. However, there were several dark sides to this industrialization. Most corporate bosses at the time practiced both unfair and unethical business deals that were aimed to increase profit while eliminating competition. Factory workers were subjected to dangerous and brutal living and working conditions. Politicians were enriched through corruption at the expense of the working and lower class citizens. The rise of the progressive movement was aimed to respond to such negative impacts of industrialization. Populists and progressive reformers worked to expose corruption in business and government, regulate industries, protect workers, and bring an improvement to society.
Although most noteworthy goals were achieved during the progressive era, these reformers, however, promoted policies that were discriminatory, and they also espoused intolerant ideas. For instance, when President Woodrow Wilson was in power, his administration pursued racial agenda that was evidenced right from the federal government. This was in spite of the fact that the administration was known to embrace progress and modernity. During his time, there were vicious racial and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan backlash against both the political and economic gain of Blacks in the post-reconstruction era.
During the progressive era, the labor unions that were most active restricted immigration to the US. Moreover, these unions also expelled ethnocentrism rhetoric that accused immigrants of unfavorable working environs and the low wages in factories across the country. The 1921 national quota law, the 1917 Immigration Act, among other federal immigration policies during this progressive era were known to exclude all Asian immigrants.
In line with the view these populist and progressive reformers had of humanity being able to be manipulated and engineered, most of them advocated for eugenics or selective breeding. Eugenics is the scientific term used to describe the development of better breeding. The aim of this exercise is to improve human genetic quality through the implementation of policies that promote elements that are more ‘desirable’ to the society, have more children while at the same time prevent the ‘undesirable’ elements from further reproduction. These reformers based eugenics only on racial and class hierarchy, and as a result, they placed whites at the top. The lower ranks were occupied by the recent immigrants, blacks, the mentally ill, ethnic minorities, the developmentally disabled, and the lower classes. The compulsory sterilization law was first passed in the United States, making America the first country to have such a law. Although this science of eugenics was discredited by Nazi Germany through the genocidal policies, more than 6000 Americans had already been forced to sterilize hence preventing them from having children.
The general view of both populist and progressive reformers has been based on some two major assumptions. The first assumption is that it was possible to harness the powers of the federal government in order to transform society and improve the individual. The second primary assumption is that it is possible to enhance human nature through the application of punishments, enlighten regulations, and incentives. Political conservatives of the time did not share all these assumptions believed human nature could not be changed and that the federal government needed to remain limited in both scope and size. The reformers managed to pass the most substantive legislation, which included amending the constitution.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/age-of-empire/a/the-progressive-era