The Pendleton Act

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In 1883, the Pendleton Act establishing a federal civil service gave an end to government patronage. The federal workers were then hired on competitive exams rather than political influence. Government jobs would now be based on merit, calling for a Progressivism Era. The Populist and Socialists soon emerged then declined. Farmers rose to form the Populist Party, which advocated for shorter workdays and government loans to farmers as well as election reforms. Once their party leader lost in the election, there causes washed-out. Next, the Socialist party formed to put an end to capitalism. The Socialist believed that capitalism was the reason for the large gap between the working poor and rich. Middle and upper class Americans rejected this view and instead formed the movement of progressivism. Progressives made their way on to the scene with a not so extreme approach. Progressives called to reform government and business to have better working conditions. These conditions can be seen in a excerpt form John Spargo in The Bitter Cry of the Children, “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. Clouds of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for asthma and miners’ consumption” (Reading 12: p. 2). The coal industry was no place for a child, especially in conditions where death is at stake for such a young boy who has the rest of his life ahead of him. Spargo documented just one example of the conditions that Americans were facing and progressivism was called in to fix. In a 1903 speech before the Western Federation of Miners by Eugene V. Debs, he calls for “Th... ... middle of paper ... ...ame into office, tariff rates were reduces and a private banking system was created. He continued to stop unfair business practices. However Wilson had downfalls when he failed to support anti-lynching legislation and did support the practice of segregation. Ray Stannard Baker wrote The Conditions of a Negro where he states, “They murdered the Negro in cold blood in the jail doorway...Easy people imagine that, having hanged a Negro, the mob goes quietly about its business...but once released, the spirit of anarchy spreads and spreads, not subsiding until it has accomplished its full measure of evil” (Reading 12, p. 4). The African American community was facing harsher conditions of their own and needed the government to stop this evil. Unemployment rate was growing and few trusts were dissolved compared to other Progressive presidents, while Wilson was in office.

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