1880 - 1920
• Progressive Era attempted to
solve problems caused by
industry and the growth of
cities.
Very few are RICH and many
are very POOR
What’s wrong with America?
1. Terrible working
conditions
3. Monopolies control
industry
2. Terrible living
conditions
4. Political Machines
control city life
• Child Labor (children were paid less)
• Low pay (think about the picture of the
family making cigars… they made .30/hour
in today’s money)
• Long Hours (12 hours a day; 6 days a week)
• Crowded, unsafe factories (called sweat
shops)
What do
you see in
the
photos?
What could be done
to improve working
conditions?
What concerns
do you have
after looking at
those photos?
What did
you see in
the
photos?
What could be done
to improve working
conditions?
What concerns
do you have
after looking at
those photos?
• Crowded tenement
neighborhoods
• Unsanitary (not
clean)
“Great prison like
structures of brick, with
narrow doors and
windows, cramped
passages and steep
rickety stairs”
• Raised and lowered
prices of goods at
whenever they
wanted
• No competition for
pricing
• No other companies
for jobs - could pay
workers whatever
they wanted
• All power in the hands of
the “boss”
• They controlled every
aspect of city life: who
can open a business, who
worked in government
jobs, etc.
• Kickbacks – businesses
and bosses conspired to
steal money from the city
• Really rich see no problem in the current
system. The very poor, who are doing all the
hard work, are suffering and barely scraping by.
• Muckrakers:
investigators who
exposed problems
- Upton Sinclair: The
Jungle
- Jacob Riis: How
the Other Half Lived
“Raked the MUCK”
“Worst of any, however, were the fertilizer men, and those
who served in the cooking rooms. These people could not
be shown to the visitor—for the odor of a fertilizer man
would scare away any ordinary visitor at a hundred yards,
and as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of
steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the
level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into
the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never
enough of them left to be worth exhibiting—sometimes they
would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them
had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard! “
– The Jungle
Labor Union: An organization of
employees that fights for better working
conditions/pay
•
•
•
•
To improve working hours (less hours)
To receive higher wages
For better working conditions (make work safer)
One of the most important unions was the
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
STRIKE: Workers refuse to work until they
receive better working conditions or pay.
Homestead Strike
• In 1892 Carnegie lowered wages at his steel mill in
Homestead, PA (near Pittsburgh)
• The labor union went on strike.
• The strike turned violent and 13 people died.
• This caused many Americans to turn against unions
because they blamed unions for the violence.
•
•
•
•
Work day shortened
Child Labor laws passed
Wages increased
Safety Regulations
– Regulations: laws that protect goods people buy,
food they eat, places they work, and their political
voice
• Settlement Housing – provided
medical care, playgrounds,
nurseries, and libraries
– Middle class women would live in
“settlement houses” to help the
poor.
• Jane Addams created the Hull
House (Chicago, IL) – Most
famous settlement house in the
USA
• Monopoly = Trusts
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 –
law that limits the power of
monopolies
• Theodore Roosevelt – Known
as the “trustbuster” for
challenging monopolies
– 1911 Standard Oil is “busted”
into 5 major oil companies
and several smaller ones
• Suffrage – right to vote
• Women were not guaranteed
the right to vote until 1920
• Suffragists – Alice Paul
worked for women’s suffrage
• 19th Amendment grants
women the right to vote in
1920
• Some considered alcohol
immoral
• Temperance groups wanted
to ban making, selling, and
consuming alcohol
• 18th Amendment –
prohibits the manufacture,
sale, and transport of
alcoholic beverages
• Prohibition = 1919-1933