The early progressives did not agree with Social Darwinism in which William Graham Sumner supported. The early progressives were people who believed that the problems that society faced (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could be best addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace. They believed that government could be tool for change, but most progressives thought of fixing social problems in different ways.

William Graham Sumner believed that the industrial movement was a natural thing and that we as humans could have not done anything from preventing it, which is called Darwinism. Sumner states that the turmoil of heterogeneous and antagonistic social whims and speculations in which we live is due to the failure to understand what the industrial organization is and its all pervading control over human life, while the traditions of our school of philosophy lead us always to approach the industrial organization, not from the side of objective study, but from that of philosophical doctrine. He states that our society has made great achievements based on some great force and as we build an organization around these great forces

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our discoveries were not under our control, but under the control of the great force of the earth itself (natural).

to the problems that the industrial movement had introduced ,therefore, wanting to change the government to improve society.

You see how different progressives see the different problems in society? They have their own set issues and they do not see eye to eye in how to fix society’s problems. Progressives were what Croly and Riis were called because progress meant to change. The early progressives did not agree in Social Darwinism like Sumner, instead Croly and Riis thought they had the answers

Herbert Croly is another progressive who believes that public opinion brought forth progressiveness and a great influence in American political life. He said that before the progressive movement if you were active in a politics you were either a Republican or a Democrat. Now, he states that even though Democrats and Republicans are still strong, where you stand in the political world is often determined on where you stand in the progressive movement. He states that our political values have changed because long ago when the government thought of something to be unconstitutional is now constitutional. For example, if social legislation had been then passed at the solicitation of the labor unions, it would have been declared unconstitutional by the courts, and now it is a necessity and was placed in the state constitution. He states that conservatives are being threatened by progressivism and it must not last and there is the difference between modern progressivism and old reform. Unlike Sumner, Croly thought that something needed to be done. He argued that the old system must be confronted by a new system

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