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Progressive Spirit
Certain problems alerted a spirit of reform which became known as the progressivism. Members of the Populist Party protested things they found unreasonabke. -
Ida Tarbell
Ida Tarbell was the daughter of an indeoendent oil producer. She was greatly disapointed when her fathers oil industry went bankrupt. Later on in 1876 Tarbell enrolled in Allegheny College. She was the only female student in a class of 40. After her education was finished she became a famous writer. -
W.E.B. Du Bois
Du Bois was one of the most influential African American leaders. He was born in 1868 in Massachusetts. He was very religous always attended church on Sundays. He was strongly encouraged by his high school principle. By the early 1900's he was recognized as a strong supporter of civil rights. -
The Progressive Sprit
Industrialization transformed the United States Economic growth which led to a rise in the number of new goods and services. The growth also expanded the gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy. -
Laborers
In the early 1900's laborers worked several long hours a week. They usually clocked in atleast 10 hours or more. They worked six days a week make a low profit of $1.50 a day. Even at this low making of money children and women somethimes made less. -
The Muckraking Press
During one of Theodore Roosevelt speaches in 1906 he described a man with a muckrake. He described him as " he fixes his glasses... only on that which is vile and debasing." After mentioning this man the image stuck with him and then the investigative journalist became known as "muckraking". They gave this name because they raked up and expoed the mucks, or filth, of society. -
A Dangerous Work Place
There were several major concerns of the progressives was th e way corporate America did buisness. Industrial workers suffered from severaly unsafe conditions, over 70% of the workers worked long stressful hours usually adding up to a toal of 54 hours a week. To solve these dangerous problems people had higher accident rates than workers in other industrialized countries. -
Society of American Indians
During the year of 1911 a group of 50 American Indians mainly from the middle class formed the Society o American Indians. The members of this so called club/group talked about ways to improve different thingd like civil rights, educaton, health, and also local government. Some of the accomplishments are lobbied sgsinst the use of insulting terms of Indians. -
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The Shirtwaist fire was a severe tragic fire that occured in a factory building, There were a total of 500 employees most of them consisting of young children. The entire 8th floor of the 10 story building was completely destroyed. There was no escape only stairs and the factory was always nervious that people were going to steel fabric so they always kept the emergency fire escape stairwell doors locked. -
Reforming City Life
The rforming City life was well known because it was the in U.S. history that over 50% of Americans lived in the Urban areas. Due to all the people in that particular are at the time the city struggled to provide garbage collection, safe and affordable housing, health conditions, fire and police protection, and most importantly public education. Later on reformers formed a campaigh to make the cities and more livable.