Among the factors that led to the progressive movement were the abuses of big businesses, particularly the business trusts, and political corruption from machine politics. Progressive reformers wanted more government regulation of business, even suggesting at one point that the railroads should be nationalized. They also promoted better working conditions for women and the abolition of child labor. The Triangle Shirt Waist Company fire led to new workmen's compensation laws and improved safety conditions. A famous Progressive statement was that the cure for the ills of democracy was more democracy.
There were many factors that stimulated the reforms of the Progressive Era. Some examples are:
- Increasing number of immigrants. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the US received huge numbers of immigrants. The poverty of those immigrants and their somewhat foreign attitudes led many to want to reform them.
- Rise of the middle class. Most progressives came from the middle class. For example, the women who started the settlement house movement were middle class women who were educated and who wanted to do something to improve society. This would not have been so possible a generation before when there were fewer middle class people with the leisure to take on charitable work.
- Rise of big business. This led to harsh working conditions in the factories of the Progressive Era. These conditions upset many when they became known (partly through muckrakers) and led to many of the attempts at regulation of the economy.
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