Payton Gates
HIS 135 01
Argument Draft
March 27, 2016
The progressive era was a time in America where a variety of responses to the economic and social issues arose. However, there would not be any responses if no one were to show the problems to the rest of America. What caused these problems was the hasty transformation into industrialization and urbanization which was introduced in the 19th century . As a result of urbanization and rapid industrialization, childhood was something ignored, and child labor became a huge issue than both adults and children didn't understand or find a solution to. During the Progressive era, many effective actions were made to better children's poor lives and lifestyles, and the societal outlook on childhood changed from ignorance to realizing the issues of poverty and child labor, and the effects they had on everyone.
A large issue that came from industrialization was that children of that time period up until near the end of the progressive era, were expected to basically become adults. Children from as young as eight were working and taking care of their families. In source two, the image is of mill workers in 1912, where children can be seen of nearly all ages, and none of them with shoes or decent clothing. This is a perfect example of how young workers were and how much they actually received from working. Since industrialization was one of the easiest ways to give an abundance of people jobs and wasn’t well regulated, the working conditions and pay weren’t great either. Source three is an image of breaker boys sorting slate and rock from coal. This wouldn’t be as bad if the boys in this image weren’t so young and the working conditions weren’t so tragic to look at. In the image, coal dust can be seen in the air and on the children’s faces, which is an example of how safe the working conditions were. An example of how the working conditions effected the children mentally can be seen in source 5, which is an image of newsboys who look to be younger than twelve and smoking cigarettes as if they done it every day. So not only did society not care about child labor, but it got to a point where even the children saw it as the norm. These images are among many that caused society to pay more attention to child labor and the problems associated with it. Not only was working conditions for children perilous but the living conditions for children of all ages and gender were poor and caused a lot of illness and injury. In source nine, a man who became very significant to showing America the problems they were facing, describes how slum life affects children. In this description, Jacob Riis describes how slum life affects children. What Riis describes is how crowded the homes were for the children, in one instance he describes how one “house contained one hundred and seventy children.” Not only was nearly every home crammed but health and cleanliness was not a thought that seemed to cross anyone’s mind except for those like Jacob Riis. In source seven, an image depicts a young girl at orphanage. In this image, the girl of maybe three has no shoes, very dirty clothes, and the home she is in looks unclean and unstable. Almost every child in every picture taken during this time did not have shoes and were not bathing, which is an important part of staying healthy. This is a great example of how much child health was thought of, which is why it was taken to show society. Even parents of these children didn’t seem to do much about the living situations. Source twelve is a great example of that when describing child neglect cases where children were injured or seriously ill and no one did anything about it. In some of the cases, children and even infants died. Making this graphic information public was one of the key ways that influenced more progressivists to make a change.
The progressives came from a long tradition of middle-class elites possessing a strong sense of social duty to the poor. Many actions were attempted to change children’s lives and the societal outlook, however some of the action taken was more effective and significant than others. An example of how progressivists tried acknowledging parents of the health of newborn children, which was an article that had to specify to parents about taking care of infants on things as simple as how pure air is safe and essential for an infant. The fact that advice like this was necessary to tell parents all around America shows how little parents knew about the health of children. This action to help infants however, was not as significant as the Keating Owen act in source fifteen which was a major action taken to address child labor. It was to prevent interstate or foreign commerce produced by factories that employed children under sixteen, and any facility that worked children under fourteen more than eight hours a day. It also instated rules and regulations along with inspections at any given time. However, in source sixteen, it describes the Hammer V. Dagenhart, which is where the district court held the Keating Owen Act unconstitutional. Even though it was removed, the Keating Owe Act showed many across America what the result of industrialization was doing to their children.
A possible reason for why parents seemed to not take care of their children is that parents themselves lived in poverty with the children with little to no help from anyone else. In source eight, an image is shown where a mother who is obviously poor is holding her child. Jacob Riis, whom I mentioned earlier took this photo, probably because of how much it showed how a mother is just as helpless as the children. The woman in this photo looks very depressed, almost like she has given up and all she has is her child. This photo is a perfect representation of parents, specifically mothers who needed help but could not receive it. Source ten is of Florence Kelley’s testimony on sweat shops. In this testimony, Kelley mentions how children of families will work in any condition simply because their parents needed the help and nearly every family owed debt that was more than they made. Not only did these children work to help their parents but they stayed in the horrible working conditions because they too eventually built up debt that they needed to pay off. Kelly was very passionate about the child labor issues and made sure to focus on every detail in his testimony in order to make a difference. During this time period, parents were also not acknowledged on how to better their deprived and unfortunate lives. Florence Kelley also did a report in source eleven where he focused on child labor. In these reports, Kelley mentioned families where no one spoke any English, and therefore did not know how to obtain help if there were any. Those who knew how to find help like the mothers in source thirteen didn’t seem to receive much assistance. In this source, there are a variety of letters from mothers to the Children’s bureau. In many of these letters, the mothers are desperate for help because they are worried about their children’s existence. These letters are filled with stories of how baby’s died because no one was there to help these mothers. This seemed like such a large issue that when mothers lost a child they seemed to handle the situation by having many children. This resulted in the abundance of children in nearly every household along with making poverty an even bigger issue. Because there was little help from anyone, it made it more difficult to resolve the childhood and child labor issues.
Those who did want change for child labor and societal views were the progressive reformers and photographers. These people were very determined and took many risks to make sure they got their point across. Certain progressivists that were more influential than others were people like Florence Kelley and Jacob Riis. Source ten is a perfect example of how determined Florence Kelley was to prove a point which was child labor was not a dismissive matter and it needed to be dealt with. Florence noticed the injustice of child labor and the working conditions in general that were hazardous to any human being. Photographers seemed to have the same determination as Kelley. Photos such as the one taken in source six were graphic and risky for the photographers. In this image, children seem to be not only playing in the street but literally maybe two feet away from a dead horse that was left in the middle of the road. Elliot West, who took this photo, knew that his photo would be seen and noticed which was a large factor in changing the societal views on how childhood is seen and how death should be something of significance rather than a place for children to play around. Jacob Riis describes the lives of the children like those in West’s photo. In his description, Riis does not refrain from stating every detail that was wrong with how children were living in this time period. It was progressivists like this who were able to significantly change societal views.
The Progressive era was a significant time of change for America. So many issues arose before the Progressive era that seemed to have little probability of being resolved. However, through many actions of progressivists and those with great influence, we got to where we are today. Even though urbanization and industrialization led to several issues involving children becoming overlooked and made laborers, the Progressive era made many effective actions to better children's unfortunate lives, and the societal attitude on childhood changed from ignorance to realizing the problems with child labor, and the effects they had on America as a whole.