eliminate the patronage of the spoils system and breaking up industrial trusts.   Expanding political voice to Women in the form of the Suffragists resulted in the 19th Amendment.  Thinkers who voiced Progressivist ideas such as Washington and DuBois were critical architects in framing the paradigms for African Americans and people of color to articulate their conceptions of freedom and their role in America. The most important element that come out of the Progressivist Movement is the idea that America does not only exist for the wealthy and powerful.  Rather, for each industrialist such as a Carnegie, there are thousands of individual who toil in his factories and must have their voices heard and their experiences validated, as well.   In the final analysis, the Progressivists have to be deemed as somewhat successful as they helped to transform America as a nation comprised of multiple dialogues that strive to develop the tapestry known as "America."

The proposed to do this in a number of ways.

First, they wanted to open politics to more people.  They did this by pushing secret ballot laws as well as by implementing recalls, initiatives, and referendums.

Second, they wanted to help all people have more of what you might call life chances.  To accomplish this, they wanted to improve the lives of the poor and of immigrants.  They wanted to improve their educations, get their parents to stop drinking, and generally make them more like "native" Americans from the middle class.

Finally, they wanted to improve economic opportunities directly by regulating businesses.  They wanted people to have a better chance at good working conditions and good wages so that their lives could be improved.

The primary idea that enabled Progressives to extend opportunities to all was the notion that power comes from the bottom up.  Progressive thinkers were really animated by the idea that power can be seen as something that emerges from the smallest aspect of society and radiate through it.  They were not thinkers that believed that power needed to be consolidated in the hands of the few, or the select.  In this, the progressive thinkers believed that power could be shared and distributed equally and as thoroughly as power.  This idea helped to bring forth the idea that all citizens could have a part in the political process.  This translated into extending political and social opportunities to women, people of color, as well as those who were economically challenged.  It is here where the Progressive idea of wealth sharing and reconfiguring political power to include more voices in the discourse helped to mark it asd a significant reform movement.  In doing so, the Progressives made their movement distinctive as one that sought to include more voices, towards a more equal vision and away from one that believed that power should rest with an elite few.