Reply #10: Here's a short list-

[asdjrocky]

If you are a woman, and you like to vote, thank a Progressive.

If you like electing your own Senator, thank a Progressive.

If you like not getting sick when you drink from our water supply, or eating from our food supply, for that you can thank a Progressive.

If you like the roads, bridges and dams across our great country, for most of that, you can thank a Progressive.

And who are some of those Progressives you need to thank? Here's a short list:

Jane Addams - Pioneer in the field of social work who founded the settlement house movement through the establishment of Hull House in Chicago, Illinois.

Margaret Sanger - Educated urban poor about the benefits of family planning through birth control. She founded the organization that became Planned Parenthood.

W.E.B. DuBois - Founder of the NAACP, and a Harvard-educated professor who focused on the need for a traditional liberal arts education for African-Americans who could then insist upon equal treatment and rights from white society.

Ida Tarbell - She was a great muckraker, much like the OP. She wrote: "History of Standard Oil Company" She exposed the ruthless tactics of the Standard Oil Company and because of this, in Standard Oil v. U.S. (1911), the company was declared a monopoly and broken up.

Lincoln Steffans - Wrote The Shame of the Cities, published in 1904. His book examined political corruption in cities across the United States, and because of him cities began to use city commissions and city managers.

Upton Sinclair - Author of The Jungle, he investigated dangerous working conditions and unsanitary procedures in the meat-packing industry. And we can thank this great Progressive writer for the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

We can also, of course, thank a Progressive for things like the Secret Ballot, the ability to Recall bad officials, and one of my personal favorites, Direct Primaries, and what would we all be fighting about with out that last one?