Industrial Revolution Dbq

During the Industrial Revolution, the public addressed their problems by working to improve the way that the cities cares for their citizens and environment. The Industrial Revolution is a time of great change in America; as the nation grows and expands, problems do arise, along with solutions for them. The public would tire of these problems and look for ways to fix them on their own. To combat the problems, they focused on bettering the living conditions of the working class, making factories safer and cleaner places to work, and by promoting equality for all people. Altogether, the public worked hard to create a fair and honest country.
From 1859 into the 1920’s the living conditions of the working class was extremely poor. Most of the

working class lived together in special buildings called tenements that housed two or more families per apartment. Many people had to live in the streets because they did not have money for food, clothing, or necessities. Life on the streets could be extremely horrid; trash accumulated in the streets and nobody did anything to clean it off the roads and with the factories dumping their excess waste into the rivers and lakes many people got sick. With all the horrible conditions in the cities, sickness rose extremely fast. Sicknesses such as cholera, pneumonia, and common colds increased the amount of people who died. To fight this, Jane Addams took over the leadership of the garbage committee and proceeded to clean up the streets. The placement of sewer systems helped to lower the spread of deadly bacteria and helped protect the drinking water. Addam’s also created schools for immigrants so that they could adjust to American culture. Both immigrants and Americans worked together to build America and make it a great place to live. The government began to establish colleges and universities, so that people could further their education and receive better employment. This did help to raise the unemployment rate by a little bit. This also helped to make better opportunities for people, but it did not completely clean up the environment so that they could be healthy.
The environment during the Industrial Revolution did not help with keeping the citizens healthy; the factories caused a lot of pollution, they dirtied the water with waste, and helped destroy the natural world. The quality of the air during the Industrial Revolution made many people sick because of the amount of pollution; this is due to the constant use of soft coal in homes, stores, and the most common factories. The pollution from the factories caused an endless smoke that hung in the air; the reason for this is that the factories used coal to heat their furnaces in many of the steel and iron plants. This continued until the discovery that electric could do the exact same job, but with a whole lot less pollution. Slaughter houses would dump the excess animal parts into the rivers, but when people realized that it caused sickness they passed laws to stop them from dumping their garbage into the water supply.
The cause of pollution did not fall on the factories alone; transportation played its part in this problem.

When the railroad first began, steam engines ran on coal; coal creates smoke which leads to even more pollution. Thankfully, railroad companies started using steam to power their trains. The same happened with the street cars that ran throughout the cities; originally, the only way people traveled to different locations by either walking or by horse and carriage. The horse and carriage ended up being replaced because of the amount of care the horses and the streets needed. Construction played its part in creating new and exciting moments; with the creation of skyscrapers, which contained about four to five levels, these buildings helped lower the amount of people in the streets. Sadly, any construction that took place left dust particles and medal shavings hanging in the air; this led to health problems in those who walked or lived close by. Some more problems that are caused by the factories and other large corporations, mostly affected the workers themselves; the reason for this is that the factory owners began to incorporate new and upgraded machinery to increase production and they themselves came with many new

dangers.
During the course of the industrial revolution, the environment of a factory included many dangerous machines which could kill a person very easily and the rules that the factory owners put into effect really limited the freedom that a worker could have. Fire escapes came into use around the end of the 18th century and allowed for the workers on the upper floors to escape any fires that may occur. When first installed, the fire escapes had no rules; anybody could use them how they liked. This all changed after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught on fire and killed 149 employees, mostly women. The death total accumulated to this amount because the owner decided to lock their workers in the factory so they had no choose but to work. For this reason, the public demanded that rules be placed upon businessmen. The owners could no longer lock escape doors for fear of more tragedies. Another problem that workers faced every single day and occasionally lost a limb or two to includes all the heavy machinery that built and made everything from clothing to vehicles. The invention of the assembly made work much easier for the workers. Unfortunately, these machines came with even more rules and regulations which increased the amount of unions that formed in America. Many workers did not receive equal treatment at work due to different genders, ages, and the most common is skin colors.
Men and women, black or white, rich or poor, they all fought for equality.

Men worked hard to earn better wages for themselves and to accomplish this they created unions and formed protests until changes were made. The wages of the workers are so low that it is under the poverty level. The wages women and children made did not even compare to the males; they made barely anything. To combat the low wages, they formed and joined with unions. Once in a while these unions decided to execute strikes and not always did they accomplish anything. In 1869, with the creation of the first union named the Knights of Labor; this union came together so that they could fight hard for the working class; whether the worker be male, female, or even a small child, they had a right to be protected. The knights fought to abolish children as workers and advocated for shorter work hours. Unfortunately, a couple of years after 1890 the union ceased to exist. More unions popped up here and there, but none of them lasted for very long. These unions sometimes had specific workers in mind; some advocated for those of color and others stood primarily for women. The longest running union is the American Federation of Labor or the AFL; the members that joined with this organization represented only the whites and those who are skilled workers. This organization refused to allow those that varied in skin color, ethnic origins, age, and they did not let females join. A few special unions that came to be

stood for women, all had the idea that females should have the same rights are men.
The issue of equal rights had both men and women fighting to correct is women’s rights. It ended up being mostly women who fought for the right to vote and have a say in how their lives are run, but a few men did take up the fight as well. A couple famous leaders in the suffrage movement included Anna Howard Shaw and Lillian Wald are just a couple of the females who tried to better the lives of women in America. Susan B. Anthony created an organization for women of color. As the 19th century progressed, there came more freedom for women; this freedom came with new job openings. Originally, the most common jobs for women included being a mother, a seamstress, and nursing. They eventually gained the opportunities to become doctors, lawyers, and the door opened to even more of the professions that are often occupied by men. Freedom of the press is something that we are given and Ida Tarbell helped to expose corruption within large businesses and corporations. She is responsible for uncovering and exposing the corruption within the Standard Oil Company. Women did come out victorious on many occasions, one way is gaining the right to attend college. The single most important and the largest victory for females came in August of 1920, women finally earned the right to vote in political elections which opened the door for more change. Regrettably, not all women saw this as an end of the suffrage movement. Alice Paul tried to further the results by pushing for a constitutional amendment, which did not happen.