The Progressive Era, 1890-1920's
The rapid growth and poor organization, along with the large immigrant communities, created a seemingly endless opportunities for corruption. Historian Andrew White said the era of 1890's was "the worst Christendom--the most expensive, the most inefficient, and the most corrupt" therefore, progressives promoted change. Significant problems were: business and political monopolies, children labor, dangerous industrial jobs, long work hours seven days a week, twelve hours a day, and bad pay--an average steel worker would make 14¢ an hour. The progressive era was a period of social activism and political reform in the United States that flourished from the 1890's to the 1920's as a result of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Some of the significant changes were the imposition of income tax, the Sixteenth Amendment, the direct election of Senators with the Seventeenth Amendment, Prohibition with the Eighteenth Amendment, and women's suffrage through the Nineteenth Amendment.
It is estimated that by 1904 one in three people living in the cities was close to starving to death. With few city services to rely on, the working class lived daily with overcrowding, inadequate water facilities, unpaved streets, homelessness, and disease. Immigrants were forced to live in crowed tenements with very poor living conditions. Conditions being so crowed, diseases like tuberculosis, cholera, and yellow fever were easily spread. Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle traced an immigrant family's meat packing industry and showed the horrible food conditions. This resulted in the Pure Food and Drug act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. Eventually city governments were transformed. Social workers labored to improve slum life including housing, health, and education.
It is estimated that by 1904 one in three people living in the cities was close to starving to death. With few city services to rely on, the working class lived daily with overcrowding, inadequate water facilities, unpaved streets, homelessness, and disease. Immigrants were forced to live in crowed tenements with very poor living conditions. Conditions being so crowed, diseases like tuberculosis, cholera, and yellow fever were easily spread. Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle traced an immigrant family's meat packing industry and showed the horrible food conditions. This resulted in the Pure Food and Drug act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. Eventually city governments were transformed. Social workers labored to improve slum life including housing, health, and education.
Citation: Hansan, John E. "Progressive Era - Social Welfare History Project." Social Welfare History Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.