The Progressive

Era (1890–1920)The American Dream began as the sense that anyone in

this country could get rich because hard work and a little

bit of luck could turn anyone into a billionaire. This era

was called “the Gilded Age” by people like Mark Twain

because that dream was nothing more than a gold-plated

dream, as just beneath the surface lied a world of

extreme poverty, deplorable living conditions, child labor

and workers losing their lives to unsafe conditions.

These problems sparked an era of unprecedented reforms

often called “The Progressive Era” which outlawed

monopolies, child labor and unsafe working conditions

while improving sanitation, schools, election laws and

created the 8 hour work day.

The early 20th century …….• A time when rapid

industrialization, immigration, and urbanization in the early 1900’s led to national growth and prosperity.

• Industrialization: The process in which a society transforms itself from a primarily agricultural society into one based on the manufacturing of goods and services.

• Urbanization: the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more and more people begin living and working in central areas

The Progressive Era• Progressivism was a U.S. reform movement of the late 19th and early

20th centuries.

• Newspaper journalists, artists of various mediums, historians, health

care professionals, and middle class citizens were some of the

participants.

• They acted on the belief that society could make progress against the

abuses of the Industrial Revolution.

• Urban poverty and slums, child labor, dangerous working conditions

and low wages, unsanitary factory food processing, and immigrant

ghetto conditions were several of the most prominent concerns.

• Many “Progressives” (people who favored CHANGE and

PROGRESS) believed that political action and reform were the

methods to bring about progress in society.

Child Labor

In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for the making of most manufactured items. This is called Industrialization. Factories began to spring up everywhere. The owners of these factories found a new source of labor to run their machines — children. Operating the power-driven machines did not require adult strength, and children could be hired more cheaply than adults. By the mid-1800's, child labor was a major problem.

Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard. A child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, to earn a dollar. Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground, in coal mines. The working children had no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest. They often became ill.

By 1810, about 2,000,000 school-age children were working 50- to 70-hour weeks. Most of them came from poor families. When parents could not support their children, they sometimes turned them over to a mill or factory owner. One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire "to keep the young imps inside." The "young imps" were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.

In the Progressive Era ,Church and labor groups, teachers, and many other people were outraged by such cruelty. They began to press for reforms.

Some children worked long hours in this country's coal mines and the most

common jobs they performed before child labor laws were passed.

The coal was crushed, washed, and sorted according to size at the breaker. Boys,

some as young as eight, worked in the picking room. They worked hunched over

10 to 11 hours a day, six days a week, sorting rock, slate and other refuse from the

coal with their bare hands. If the boy did not pay attention, he might lose fingers in

the machinery.

The dust was so dense at times that the view was obscured. This dust penetrated the utmost recesses of the boys lungs. A kind of slave driver sometimes stood over

the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience.

OwlTeacher.com

Faces of Lost Youth

A moment’s glimpse of the outer world. 11 year-old girl. Said she has been working for over a

year.

Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty

bobbins.

One of the spinners in Whitnel Cotton Mill. She was 51 inches high. Has been in the mill one year. Sometimes works at night.

Runs 4 sides - 48 cents a day. When asked how old she was, she hesitated, then said, "I don't remember," then added

confidentially, "I'm not old enough to work, but do just the same."

Jo Bodeon, a back-roper in the mule room at

Chace Cotton Mill. Burlington, Vt.

Furman Owens, 12 years old. Can’t read, doesn’t know his

ABC’s. Said, “Yes, I want to learn, but can’t when I work all the time.”

The Newsies

Tony Casale, age 11, been selling 4 years. Sells sometimes until 10 p.m. Saw the marks on his arm where his father had

bitten him for not selling more papers. He (the boy) said,

"Drunken men say bad words to us." Hartford, Conn.

Out after midnight selling extras. There were many young boys selling very late. Youngest boy in the group is 9 years old. Harry,

age 11, Eugene and the rest were a little older.

Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory. All but the very smallest babies work. Began work at 3:30 a.m. and

expected to work until 5 p.m. The little girl in the center was

working. Her mother said she is "a real help to me."

From 1802 to 1878, a series of laws gradually shortened the working hours,

improved the conditions, and raised the age at which children could work.

In the United States it took many years to outlaw child labor.

In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It fixed minimum ages of

16 for work during school hours, 14 for certain jobs after school, and 18 for

dangerous work. The first Federal Child Labor Law was signed by President

Woodrow Wilson on September 1, 1916. 

Today all the states and the U.S. Government have laws regulating child labor.

These laws have cured the worst evils of children's working in factories. But some

kinds of work are not regulated. Children of migrant workers, for example, have no

legal protection. Farmers may legally employ them outside of school hours. The

children pick crops in the fields and move from place to place, so they get little

schooling.

Once he had a monopoly, a business owner changed prices, which increased, andquality, which often declined. The monopoly owners also increased profit by payingworkers lower wages for longer hours, and by not spending money to keep factories clean and safe. They even corrupted government. They bribed politicians to stay out

of the way and not protect customers or workers.

During the Progressive Era, government did not referee business activities. Government leaders thought competition would create the best situation for

everyone. Unfortunately, business leaders knew competition limited how rich they could get. So some businessmen schemed to put their competitors out of business.

They created monopolies by lowering sale prices until they put small, local companies out of business. Then they could raise prices high and pay low wages

because they were the only provider of a particular good or service.

We’ve found out a hundred years ago some companies formed monopolies.

Having no competition a monopoly would gouge consumers, treat workers

badly, and drive small business owners out of business. What else have we

learned about this era? There were poor work conditions and low wages. That

children were forced into cheap labor and worked long hours. So far, the

progressive era isn’t looking very progressive. Progressive means Advancing or

Improving. … PROGRESSING!

Muckrakers• Fortunately, in the United States we have a free press. This means when

something bad is happening in the country, newspaper people and other writers can make us all aware of the problem.

• Thanks to the First Amendment, certain journalists (writers) 100 years ago called the attention of the general public and politicians to the abuses of their time. Like cruel child labor practices. They wrote books and magazine articles about harsh conditions in American life.

• Their nickname was “muckrakers” because the president at the time, Teddy Roosevelt, said they raked up the muck when they illustrated so well the hold that monopolies had on the people, the living conditions of the tenements, and the hard facts of child labor.

• A huge number of people were involved in progressive reforms. All three

presidents during this time period, including Theodore Roosevelt, Howard

Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, implemented some progressive reforms.

• Reformers were successful in implementing reform legislation at all levels of

government.

• At the federal level, progressives were successful in passing the Sixteenth

Amendment (1913), which allowed for an income tax, the Seventeenth

Amendment (1913), which allowed citizens to elect Senators directly, the

Eighteenth Amendment (1919), which prohibited the sale of alcohol, and the

Nineteenth Amendment (1920), which prohibits any United States citizen

from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.