During the Progressive Era, the election of 1912 included three presidents who each had agendas to fix problems created by the rapid urbanization. These problems include the control caused by big business, bad laborer conditions, and the need for conservation. While all of the presidents worked to correct problems during the Progressive Era, Theodore Roosevelt was the most progressive president because he regulated business, supported labor reform, and strongly supported the conservation of natural resources. Each Progressive Era president accomplished their goals to better regulate business, however Theodore Roosevelt created the most change. During the Progressive Era a large problem facing the U.S. was the …show more content…
The act disabled companies and industry leaders from selling foods and drugs that are unfit, contaminated, or unproven and are falsely marketed. This act also allows for the protection of consumers, as before companies were enabled to falsely market products that could be unsafe. The change was significant as before, people were getting sick off of the rotten meats, weakening the nation. These illnesses and most things corrupt about the meatpacking industry are shown by the important Muckraker, Upton Sinclair in her book “The Jungle” which aimed to reveal the bad practices of the meatpacking industry. Sinclair once said, “I aimed for the public's heart, and hit it in the stomach,” Sinclair changed what she had before seen by changing how America saw the meat industry.Roosevelt ordered for Northern Securities to be dissolved, one of the largest railroad companies across the United States. The problem of big business and monopolies affected everyone in the United States as they controlled to much. Roosevelt recognized this issue and ordered Northern Securities to be dissolved, pushing forward a movement to end monopolies and the complete control over business. Before, Northern …show more content…
During the Anthracite Coal Strike, 140,000 workers went on strike, and the mine owners failed to cooperate. When the companies failed to cooperate, Roosevelt threatened to take of the mine with the military, giving no benefit to either the workers or the owners, the owners went on to make a settlement with their workers. As Roosevelt was the first president to support laborers over the big businesses, he was able to achieve a 10% pay increase and limit their workdays to just 9 hours for miners. Roosevelt signed the Federal Employer Liability Act to protect workers hurt on the job. This act makes the employer at fault for any injury attained on the job, this set up what we know now as workers compensation which supports workers all across America when they are hurt on the job. In 1903, Roosevelt helped establish the Bureau of Corporations, a part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, in order to study the industry, they were later used in part to break up Standard Oil. Standard Oil had affected the jobs of many Americans and had cut down on the number of oil businesses by undercutting prices until smaller businesses are shut down, disallowing the smaller businesses and the people to make a substantial