American

Theodore Roosevelt is apprehending a Colombian officer while Uncle Sam is in the background holding a shovel. This cartoon illustrates the conflict over the Panama Canal, which at that time was a province of Colombia. Teddy Roosevelt has a bag over his shoulder label, "U S millions for a canal," because Colombia originally wanted a very large sum of money from the U.S to build the canal. T.R foils that plan by encouraging the Panama people to fight for their independence against Colombia, and Uncle Sam is in the back ready to start building the Canal as soon as the Colombians are apprehended, thus making Theodore Roosevelt look like a hero.

Progressivism in the 1900s was a political, social, and an economic movement. Politics before the Progressive Era were corrupt and inefficient due mainly to Political machines and the indirect voice of the people. Progressives tried to eliminate machine politicians and take down corrupt political bosses. As for reforming the U.S government to become more responsive directly to the American voice, they instituted multiple Government reforms. The Initiative reform allowed citizens to propose laws, Referendum let citizens vote to remove current laws, and recall was a process were citizens were could remove someone from office with a direct vote. Before the progressives, voters had their votes made public and many thought this was unfair and intimidating so the Secret Ballot was created. This made the voting process confidential. Women's suffrage took a step forward when the nineteenth amendment granted women the right to vote.

Progressives tried to regulate large corporations and monopolies that hurt the middle class consumer. Trust Busters like President Woodrow Wilson agreed with the theory that monopolies suppressed competition and that the federal government should step in to break up the monopolies into smaller companies. Large corporations had some advantages that

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