1890-1930

**THE PROGRESSIVE ERA :)**
By: Meghan Hoodhood

The reformers of the Progressive Era inforced efficiency. Progressives assumed that anything old was encrusted with inefficient and useless practices. A scientific study of the problem would enable experts to discover the "one best solution." Progressives strongly opposed waste and corruption, and they tended to assume that opponents were motivated by ignorance or corruption. Significant changes achieved at the national levels included Prohibition with the 18th Amendment and women's suffrage through to the Nineteenth Amendment. Muckrakers were journalists who exposed waste, corruption and scandal in the highly influential new medium of national magazines. Progressives shared a common belief in the ability of science, technology and disinterested expertise to identify all problems and come up with the one best solution
 * __Historical Period:__**

The theme for this era, would have to be __"Increasing Laws and Regulation".__ During this time, there was a big move forward, hence the name Progressive. President Teddy Roosevelt supported the Progressive movement most importantly by embracing environmental conservation, with ideas of land and forest conservation. The following acts and reforms or what I personally believe to be huge steps forward, in the Progressing Era.
 * __Major Themes:__**

Number One: The national forest system was created by the Forest Reserve Act of 1891and the Land Revision Act of 1891. It was the result of many businessmen and property owners in LA who were concerned by the harm being done to the watershed of the San Gabriel Mountains by ranchers and miners. The U.S. Land Revision Act of 1891 gave the president the authority to "set aside and reserve...any part of the public lands wholly or partly covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not." However, it did not explicitly authorize the use or development of resources on the reserved lands. Future legislation was passed for the development and maintenance of the reserved land. Number Two: Wildlife conservation was a big thing in the Progressive Era. Exploitation of wild populations has been a characteristic of modern man since 130,000 – 70,000 years ago. The rate of extinctions of entire species of plants and animals across the planet has been so high in the last few hundred years it is widely considered that we are in the sixth great extinction event on this planet. The Lacy Act in 1900 helped protect wildlife and was a great start to conservation. Number Three: Public health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on a population health analysis. Health is defined and promoted differently by many organizations. The World Health Organization in the United Nation sets standards and provides global surveillance of disease. The Public Health Act in 1926 helped regulate disease and pollution. Number Four: Smog is a problem in a number of cities and continues to harm human health. Ground level pollution is especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma. It can inflame breathing passages, decreasing the lungs' working capacity, and causing shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing. It can cause eye and nose irritation and it dries out the protective membranes of the nose and throat and interferes with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness. Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are high. To show the effects of air pollution, I choose a instance where it has harmed the public.
 * The Forest Reserve Act in 1891. This act was passed by congress in order to set aside 17.5 million acres of forest by the year 1893. This was obviously a big step towards environmental conservation.
 * The Lacey Act in 1900. This act regulates interstate traffic in wild birds in order to stop importation of birds where they have become endangered. The act is a reaction to lobbying by the Womens Clubs. The birds were used and slaughtered on a mass scale to provide elegant plums for ladies hats. At the turn of the century, illegal commercial hunting threatened many game species in the U.S. The law prohibited the transportation of illegally captured or prohibited animals across state lines. It was the first federal law protecting wildlife, and is still in effect, though it has been revised several times.
 * The Public Health Act in 1926. This act controls any chemical processes that are considered to cause serious pollution. It was established in the UK to combat filthy urban living conditions, which caused the spread of many diseases such as cholera and typhus. Reformers wanted to resolve sanitary problems, including the presence of sewage in living quarters. The act required all new residential construction to include running water and an internal drainage system. This act also led to the government prohibiting the construction of shoddy housing by building contractors.
 * A wake up call in 1930. In Meuse River Valley, a killer smog incident killed 63 people and caused 6,000 people to become ill. There was a three day weather inversion in the industrial valled and the killer smoke took over Belgium.