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The Progressive Movement: Success or Not? The Progressive Movement was the time and period when they started using government and business to correct problems. It was actually quite successful because they were able to advocate for change and encounter solutions or reforms for the problems of society. Economically, the Progressive Movement succeeded in pushing for reforms. Upton Sinclair brought the sanitation issues in the meat-packing industry to the public’s attention through his writing of The Jungle. Document A says, “There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage.” Due to rapid growth and overcrowding in the cities, this was one of the negative effects. To prevent this horrible practice of sanitation, …show more content…
Jacob Riis was a photographer and writer who portrayed the terrible conditions of the lower class through his book How the Other Half Lives. Riis in Document E writes, “the suffering and the sins of the other half.” He exposes what the life of the poor was like since most people were unaware. He publicized their terrible living conditions through his meaningful pictures. People were shocked when they discovered the truth just like the wealthy, older women from the video America: The Story of Us. When they saw children struggling and living in the streets, they were horrified of the scenes that were displayed. The National Child Labor Committee was also aimed and towards setting laws against child labor. Document L says, “The future of the family demands on education that child labor can not give,” and “The workers show a greater tendency than the non-workers to go wrong.” They address the false beliefs and misconceptions people may have about this wrongdoing. Children had to work in factories with terrible working conditions and were often injured or even killed on the job. Document V states, “The boys working in the breaker are bent double. He continues to cough up the black coal dust.” It also includes, “fell or were carried by coal down into the car below. One was badly burned and the other was smothered to death.” This is an outrage to see that the business
The novel follows a family of immigrants from Lithuania working in a meatpacking factory, and as the novel progresses, the reader learns of the revolting conditions within the factories. Sinclair’s The Jungle illustrates the concept of Bitzer’s “Rhetorical Situation” and Emerson’s quote quite effectively. For instance, the horrendous safety and health conditions of the packing factories were the exigencies that Upton Sinclair was making clear to the reader. The rhetorical audience that Sinclair aimed to influence with his novel was Congress and the president, as both had to agree in order to establish health and safety bills to better the conditions within factories. Sinclair’s efforts did not go unnoticed as in 1906 both the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug act were approved by both Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt (Cherny,
However, that was not the case. When The Jungle was presented to the public, readers were astonished by the disgusting and unsanitary state in which the meat was being processed in. The community was more concerned with the meat conditions than they were with the horrific conditions the workers were faced with. So while the popularity of Sinclair’s work was not his original intentions, it still accomplished stages of reform. It can be assumed that Roosevelts initial reluctance to accept Sinclair’s novel was in part, directly connected to his disbelief that the Federal government had become so disconnected and oblivious to American industry and the complete lack of Federal oversight. This “disconnect” did not last long as The Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as, the Meat Inspection Act were both directly set in to place mere months after Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle was published. This type of reform supported progressive philosophy by preventing corporate owners from remaining above government regulation and started a trend in the way government regulators began to deal with corporate monopolies and trusts. The Jungle, along with other “muckrakers” began a series of Federal oversight reforms and regulatory guidance that soon began to take hold in other industries. Big industry would soon realize that they were not above the
Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, wrote this novel to unveil the atrocious working conditions and the contaminated meat in meat-packing workhouses. It was pathos that enabled his book to horrify hundreds of people and to encourage them to take a stand against these meat-packing companies. To obtain the awareness of people, he incorporated a descriptive style to his writing. Ample amounts of imagery, including active verbs, abstract and tangible nouns, and precise adjectives compelled readers to be appalled. Durham, the leading Chicago meat packer, was illustrated, “having piles of meat... handfuls of dried dung of rats...rivers of hot blood, and carloads of moist flesh, and soap caldrons, craters of hell.” ( Sinclair 139). His description
Roosevelt and Wilson were both strong believers in Progressivism. The Progressive movement was time of eliminating corruption and reform. Roosevelt wanted a stronger central government to help the people. He used his position as president as a “bully pulpit”, in that he would influence public opinion through his popularity. Roosevelt often took a more aggressive approach to domestic policy in that he would go against the Old Guard Republicans, whereas Wilson was one to speak directly in front of congress in order to gain their support. Roosevelt became president towards the beginning of the progressive movement, and so he had a harder time trying make reforms than Wilson did. Also, by telling the public that he was only going to run one term, his chances of running for a second term was greatly diminished, which is one of the reasons why Wilson came ahead in the election of 1912. Roosevelt promoted New Nationalism, while Wilson promoted New Freedom. They were very popular presidents in the eyes of the American people. Especially Roosevelt, who liked to vocalize his opinions and open up his private life to them. Throughout the early 1900s, Roosevelt and Wilson both were leaders in the progressive movement, with their own spin on how it should be done. The two presidents altered labor and large businesses, civil rights, and ultimately the role of the federal government.
Often, children were forced to work due to money-related issues, and the conditions they worked in were terrible. Children worked in coal mining, such as at Woodward Coal Mining in Kingston, Pennsylvania (Doc. 7). Children were used to make the process of producing products cheaper, and they were paid low wages; the capitalists hired children just to keep the process of making products going and to make profit. One cause of child labor in harsh conditions was the unfateful fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City in 1911. Teenaged immigrant girls that were employed there worked under sweatshop-like conditions. The building they worked in was inadequately equipped in case of a fire, for the doors were locked, leaving no exit for the girls, and the single fire escape collapsed with the rescue effort; as a result, when the fire started, they were unable to escape. 145 workers were killed, but the company owners were not penalized harshly for this tragedy. This further demonstrates that capitalists were able to get away with the harsh conditions that they put their laborers, especially child laborers, through for their own benefit, which is making more money and using any means to get it, even if those means are low wages and harsh working
How The Jungle Influenced Social Reform and Socialism Beginning in the late 19th century, many people became concerned with many social problems resulting from the industrialization period of the United States. People began to demand reform. The writing of the book The Jungleby Upton Sinclair was one of the most influential tools used to reform many American industries. In this book, Sinclair focuses on the unsanitary conditions and corruption that was involved in the Chicago meat packing industry.
Cities and industry grew in growth on the first of January in 1900 which created an influx of the high classes. Andrew Carnegie is a factory owner who was about to sell his steel company, but ended up becoming one of the richest man in the world. However, there was an underside of this whole excitement to earn money and the hope of the American dream. Average earnings were less than $500 a year, but in the unskilled southern workers earned an average of $300 a year. The work hours were 60 hours a week, wages were strained, and horrible child labor. The question is what was the most important problems in America during the early 1900s that needed to be addressed by The Progressive Movement. There are three main reasons: the struggling child labor, women’s voting rights, and
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
For example, the Progressive movement saw many laws passed which are still in effect today. Also, without the Civil Rights movement we would still be living in a hypocritical, racist society. In the late 1800’s, a group of Americans decided that something needed to be done about the decline of moral and ethical values in most Americans. These people called themselves the progressives and started one of the most comprehensive reform movements in the United States to this day. Progressivism became so widespread that by the end of World War I, anyone who didn’t agree with Progressive ideals was labeled a communist.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy was booming, new technology flourished. The rapid industrialization brought achievement to the United States, however, it also caused several social problems. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a few, and poverty and political corruption were widespread. As people became aware of these problems, a new reform group was created. Unlike populism, which had been a group of farmers grown desperate as the economy submerged into depression, the new reform movement arose from the educated middle class. These people were known as the progressives. The Progressive Movement was a movement that aimed at solving political, economic, and social problems. The Progressives were people from the middle class who had confidence that they could achieve social progress through political reform. The Progressives sought after changes and improvements in the society through laws and other federal actions.
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
Without Upton Sinclair, the last hamburger you ate could have had part of someone’s finger within it, or worse. With a different personal life than we would experience today, his character was formed into one with with a strong passion for social justice. It turned him into what is called a “muckraker,” a journalist who exposes the corruption of a specific industry. The combination of his excellent writing ability and his passion for social justice lead him to become the excellent success we know him as today. Because of his book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair was the most influential and important person to the changing of the meat-packing industry in the early twentieth century.
Due to the rise of industries, a vast amount of jobs became available, especially for the working class, which paved the way for many issues among employers, their employees, the public and the government. In the early twentieth century, these issues started to affect the middle class’s views on the working class because they were concerned with the consequences of industrialization. The creation of the Social Gospel—a movement made up of middle-class Protestants—was meant to bridge a gap between the middle and working class. Many middle-class people were evolving new views on the causes of these social problems such as realizing that poor people weren’t poor due to sin, but due to circumstance. Not only were they concerned with the working-class and immigrants, but
The progressive reform movement started when people decided to take a stand against the things caused by industrialism, corruption, etc. There were many reforms people were a part of such as women’s suffrage, clean government, labor laws, milk pasteurization, and many more. (Document eight) However just like any other debate there are multiple different ways people describe the progressive reform movement.
Progressives did not work as a united group. Some fought against railroad monopolies, while others began to march in support of the factory workers' children. Some tried to get equal rights to African-Americans, while others tried to protect the forests. Whatever the cause they supported, the Progressives wanted the government to play a greater role in helping to solve the problems afflicting the country. And everyone believed that ordinary people could start "big new movements" that would improve American