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Recommended: Topic on child labour
In the 1890-1920s, America went through rapid urbanization and industrialization. This was called the Progressive Era. This Era advanced in technology, science, and economic development. This fast development led to Child Labor. Children at the age of 5 are forced to start work in unsafe conditions like factories, and mining, to support their families. Another problem was the Meat Industry, Since America is rapidly growing fast cities demanded large quantities of food. Food manufacturers would prepare their food poorly and hire chemist’s to hide to preserve food or the smell of freshness with unsafe chemicals. Child Labor and Meat Industry issues led to people to the progressive movement and to fight for the sake of their people.
In the Progressive Era child labor helped the process of development. Children in the ages of 5 were forced to work jobs. Children played a big part of the Progressive Era. They worked in mines, factories, to support their families. The problem was children was to young to work especially in unsafe conditions. In Document B the Breaker Boys working in
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Since food was shipped from long distances from farm to cities in larger quantities for the first time, Food manufacturers had to change to preserve the larger amount of food. Food manufactures hired chemist’s to put chemicals on food to make it preserve longer or make it smell fresh which it actually isn't. The problem was people didn't know what the effects of the chemicals would happen after a human would eat the meat. Also in Document D Meat packing industry was bad due to packing healthy good meat. Meat would come from diseased animals or filthy floors with rodents on the meat. The Progressive Era change this for the better of America when the Federal Government started checking packaged meat for inspection. These inspections caused America to eat healthier and edible meat
By the time period of 1900-1920 America was almost fully industrialized. At this time, America was going through a Gilded Age where everything looked good on the outer perspective however on the inside, there were many issues within society. The Progressive Era consisted of people who wanted to reform society politically, socially, and economically. Progressive reformers and the federal government were successful in bringing about reform at the national level by gaining some women's rights as well as African Americans trying to better their reputation in society, improving working conditions, and fixing the American economy.
The Progressive Era ( 1890’s- 1920’s) was a period of political reforms and social activism within politicians, and radical groups. Some politicians were also known as “Political Progressives”, this group made great changes in the effort to sooth the anger of many industrial workers, and to make their jobs a little less rigorous, however the changes put into effort by political progressives would do little to aid the concerns such as those of the radicals groups (women, blacks, Mexican-Americans).
The early twentieth century acted as the Progressive Era, when Americans found solutions to resolve problems that were engendered by industrialization. Predicated on the documents, Progressive Era was effective because of child labor, working conditions, and women's suffrage. Factories were utilizing children to do the hard work. They employed children as young as five or six to work as many as twenty hours a day. According to Document C, children worked in factories to build up muscles and have good intellect in working rather than getting an education.
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
In 1883, the Pendleton Act establishing a federal civil service gave an end to government patronage. The federal workers were then hired on competitive exams rather than political influence. Government jobs would now be based on merit, calling for a Progressivism Era. The Populist and Socialists soon emerged then declined. Farmers rose to form the Populist Party, which advocated for shorter workdays and government loans to farmers as well as election reforms. Once their party leader lost in the election, there causes washed-out. Next, the Socialist party formed to put an end to capitalism. The Socialist believed that capitalism was the reason for the large gap between the working poor and rich. Middle and upper class Americans rejected this view and instead formed the movement of progressivism. Progressives made their way on to the scene with a not so extreme approach. Progressives called to reform government and business to have better working conditions. These conditions can be seen in a excerpt form John Spargo in The Bitter Cry of the Children, “Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. Clouds of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for asthma and miners’ consumption” (Reading 12: p. 2). The coal industry was no place for a child, especially in conditions where death is at stake for such a young boy who has the rest of his life ahead of him. Spargo documented just one example of the conditions that Americans were facing and progressivism was called in to fix. In a 1903 speech before the Western Federation of Miners by Eugene V. Debs, he calls for “Th...
During the New Industrial Age in America, many aspects of American life were in flux. People were moving from rural areas to large population centres and factories were booming. This was also when America started to become an extremely capitalist country, with values to match. The economy was set up in a way that lower class Americans struggled to make a living, and as such child labour came into play. Children would work in factories that had conditions barely suitable for adults, let alone still developing children. They had to do this because it was necessary for their families to have whatever extra money they could get their hands on. All the while, upper class Americans were profiting off of the children’s suffering and amassing wealth
First of all, the Progressives attempted to raise the living standard of the people. For instance, they made endeavors to resolve the problems from the industrial growth such as child labor. Increasing need of workers from the factories gave rise to the massive hiring of child labors because of the low cost. Starting at around age five or six, many children worked more than 18 hours everyday. The children were often injured
Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.
During the Progressive era, consumer safety was a hot issue. In Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, there were many disturbing things the American people learned about the meat packing industry. After people saw that their meat had dead rats and tuberculosis many did not want to buy any meat. People were disgusted by the things that they could buy without knowing what it was. This brought about stricter health codes and made the consumers have a little more peace of mind.
The period immediately following the American Civil War is a period often associated with industrialization and sweeping reforms. It is also a period where millions of immigrants made their way to the United States in search for a better life. However, after being pushed to accept poor living conditions and low wages, some families, both domestic and immigrant, were forced to send their children into the workforce just to be able to have enough income to survive. With the presence of children becoming increasingly common in the workforce during this time, things began to decline as far as the conditions they were forced to work in, as well as the rights that they were allowed as workers. Children during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era
Working conditions in the Progressive Era were corrupt. This cartoon shows that a worker is suffering and has to pay high rent but earns low wages. From our perspective, this means that workers had to work long hours, had poor working conditions, and factories were unsafe and unhealthy. Conditions in this era was very difficult, but they endured it anyway.
In the beginning of the progressive era was when america was trying to solve problems that were caused by industrialization. Durring this time, The issue was the unsanitary foods and the poor working conditions the Meat packing plants. Upton Sinclair exposed the problem by writing a book called “The Jungle”. The result that came from him writing this book was 2 new laws The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug act. Altho Sinclair was an effective in getting a law passed about the unsanitary meat, he did not get much attention to the working conditions of the workers.
These pro-consumer actions were held up as a bastion of progressivism. After so many years at the mercy of large corporations, the country was finally shifting to be much more consumer friendly. Consumer protections were set up to combat the few protections that were in place which did little to prevent food provoked illnesses. The meat inspection Act (1906) was passed and federal officers were sent to meat industries to check the quality of the meat. Conservation of the environment and its natural resources became a national issue.
The time of industrialization and the progressive era consisted of a lot of unhealthy and dangerous home and work conditions. The progressive era changes had been brought up by urbanization. During that time the environment moved from rural to grimy and polluted. Some changes through this period included the food and drug act which prohibited the processing of contaminated foods.The Anti child labor law which was an attempt to eliminate children working.Finally the Clayton Antitrust act which was a law to regulate control.
A young child dies from exhaustion, their limp body has been pushed to the very limit and they finally give in to death and another child has just become a statistic. This child was not even eleven years old. They had just completed their twenty hour day and then stumbled home 6 miles from where they were working. They saw their house in the distance which gave them hope to keep on walking. They dragged their feet towards the corner where they slept; their eyes are drooping not just from physical tiredness but from the pain of living this way. The last thing this little child saw was darkness, the last thing this weak child felt was coldness and the last thing this unfortunate child could do, was give up. At last this child is able to rest. This child was a victim of child labour. So, I ask you; is child labour morally right? I will argue that the exploitation of children is always wrong but that sometimes child labour is a necessary evil. I will also distinguish between child labour and child work.