The Policies of the Populists and Progressives in Post-Civil War America
In the period between 1870 and 1930, the populist movement concentrated on righting the wrongs of industry and economy, while the progressive movement strove for a fairer, more moral social aspect of America. Populists “regarded individuals’ selfish, private interests asâÂ?¦barriers to the attainment of public goodâÂ?¦” and stressed that farmers, and other collective workers in the industry rise up and demand their rights. Progressives viewed reform as “social control.” They supported prohibition, Fundamental religious attitudes, and tried to regulate women’s clothing and women’s rights. Both movements attempted reform and progression, but in different aspects of American life.
Throughout the 1880s local political action groups known as Farmers’ Alliances sprang up among Middle Westerners and Southerners, who were discontented because of crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and credit facilities. Although it won some significant regional victories, the alliances generally proved politically ineffective on a national scale. Thus in 1892 their leaders organized the Populist, or People’s, Party, and the Farmers’ Alliances melted away. While trying to broaden their base to include labor and other groups, the Populists remained almost entirely agrarian-oriented.
They demanded an increase in the circulating currency (to be achieved by the unlimited coinage of silver), a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, a tariff for revenue only, the direct election of U.S. senators, and other measures designed to strengthen political democracy and give farmers economic parity with business and industry. Despite the brevity of its existence, the Populist movement exercised a profound influence on subsequent U.S. political life; almost all the original Populist demands, which at one time were widely viewed as radical and contradictory to America’s free enterprise system, were eventually enacted into law.
There was not, either in the 1890s or later, any single Progressive movement. The numerous movements for reform on the local, state, and national levels were too diverse, and sometimes too mutually antagonistic, ever to coalesce into a national crusade. A new school of social workers was establishing settlement houses and going into the slums to discover the extent of human degradation. Allied with them was a growing body of ministers, priests, and rabbis – proponents of what was called the social Gospel – who struggled to arouse the social concerns and consciences of their parishioners. These supported prohibition because this, in their opinion was the direct cause for “the vast disorder of American life.”
They wrote manuals teaching girls how to behave “appropriately”, required uniforms that came to the floor, had elbows covered, and other such conservatism. Despite the conflict between fundamental Christians and modernists, a majority of Americans still strived for religious content in American schools and resented any scientific involvement. A deep paradox existed during the Progressive era between those who wanted to “save” America from the evils of alcohol, partying and other freedoms.
Many reforms occurred in the period between 1870 and 1930, but they were geared towards different ideals. In the late 1800’s, the populist movement concerned itself with bettering the working conditions for farmers and industrial workers. In the early 1900, the progressive party concentrated on ‘saving America’ by establishing prohibition and other morally correct ideas. These two movements helped develop America after the Civil war.
