Analysis Of The Problems In The Progressive Era
The beginning of the 1900s was full of big changes. Some people think the Progressive Era was good; however, kids were working long unfair working hours, women had no voting rights, and the food was disgusting and not clean. There were a lot of problems in the Progressive Era but the most important problems were, child labor, women's suffrage, and food industry were the most important issues to prioritize.
Generally, the majority of the children in this period of time they were working long unsafe hours. (The reading said) ¨26% of boys between ten and 15 years old were in the workforce. ̈ This gives an example of how everyone was working hard jobs no matter their age. During this time the photographer Lewis Hine took pictures, and he took a photograph that showed rows of young kids around the age of 10 breaking up coal and older kids standing behind them with what looks like beating sticks keeping the younger kids doing what they are supposed to. This brought to perspective how bad the children were treated when they were working the long hours. In the report of Lewis Hine he reported ̈While I was in the region, two breaker boys of 15 years… fell or were carried by the coal down into the car below. One was badly burned and the other was smothered to death. ¨ This gives one of many examples of how working conditions were exponentially unsafe for kids. McDonald's usually does this because they try to make some kids work longer than they are supposed to.
Subsequently, women were thought of as housekeepers rather than ordinary people. In a passage about progressivism, it gives an example of how women were didn't have the right to vote and were denied the right to. This gives an understanding of how women were thought of during that time. In the passage ̈ Why Women Should Vote ̈ by Jane Addams, it goes over how they need the right to vote in order to take care of the house. This means women were bringing one of the main points men were trying to say why women shouldn't vote and turning it around on them. The photograph of the women standing outside the Whitehouse protesting presents a good example of how far women were willing to go to get their voice out there without being violent. This is similar to the employes at GMC going on strike due to the fact they are trying to get their voice out there for health insurance.
Furthermore, everyone in the Progressive Era was having trouble with the safety of the food they were eating. An American novelist Upton Sinclair wrote a book about all of the problems in the food industry at the time. This book brought to the people's eyes a better understanding of just how bad the food industries were back then. A passage from the book by Upton Sinclair explained how little care and attention was paid to the food. This was supposed to warn the people that no one is taking care of their food. A photo taken during this period shows rats running around and rat droppings all over the food. This was another big eye-opener for the people back then since they could physically see what was around their food. To prevent unsafe selling of food from happening again we now have pubic health inspections to make sure that everything is safe.
Of all the problems going on during the Progressive Era child labor, women suffrage, and industry reform were the most important issues to prioritize. Today women can vote, there are laws against child labor, and there are mandatory food inspections to protect everyone from bad food. If it wasn't for the muckraker reporters we wouldn't have the laws today because these problems wouldn't have been brought to people's eyes and we would have never had any insight of what was going on.
