Between 1870 and 1910 the population rose by 132 percent, but the number of people involved in industrial labor soared even more rapidly-from 3,500,000 to 14,200,000. The experience of workers led to the Progressive Movement in Industrial America due to the inhumane and often fatal working conditions laborers experience, the incredibly long hours for low wages, and the crowded and extremely unsanitary tenements and workplaces.

Laborers often work in inhumane and often fatal or incredibly dangerous working conditions. "The air at times is dense with coal-dust, which penetrates so far into the passages of the lungs that for long periods after the boy leaves the breaker, he continues to cough up the black coal dust. Fingers are calloused and …show more content…
“As you will note, the days were long and the wages low -- my starting wage was just one dollar and a half a week -- a long week -- consisting more often than not, of seven days” (PM Newman, Source 3). The evidence reinforces the main argument, since numerous minors toiled endlessly every single day, every week for a minimum wage of one dollar and a half per week. These atrocities were recognized by others and the Progressive Movement protested for the reform and correction of these commonly found injustices occurring at the time. Youths were exploited so that numerous corporations would be granted the opportunity to gain immense amounts of cash; these workers toiled from early morning to late night for such low …show more content…
The impoverished often relied on their young to labor in extremely unsanitary working conditions. “Therefore, we were, due to our ignorance and poverty, helpless against the power of the exploiters.” (PM Newman, Source 3), “There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it.a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread and meat would go into the hoppers together.” (Upton Sinclair, Source 2). The evidence reinforces the main argument since new immigrants and the impoverished population residing in America at the time were instantaneously thrown into great poverty and faced numerous hardships just to earn a meal and pay their meager living expenses. Therefore, the impoverished were forced to earn meager wages at these cruel and inhumane factories, whose owners exploited their situation to produce more and more income. The middle-class and high-class populations had not witnessed these atrocities and the process in which they set out to extinguish and reform these sections of society was the Progressive Movement. Impoverished communities and