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Interactive Illustration: Goals of Social Progressivism

Jordan Lockard

Created on July 12, 2023

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New York City, 1910. A typical street in a slum. The people who live here are hardworking, but their wages are extremely low. Escape from their nightmare of urban poverty - hard jobs, crowded housing, squalid streets - is all but impossible. Select the grey circles to learn more about how reformers of the Progressive Era hoped to help people like these lead better lives. Then answer the questions in your Google Doc. ​

Increasing Fire Prevention

Cities were firetraps. Open fireplaces and the use of gas for heating and light made accidents inevitable. poorly designed buildings, crowded together and filled with flammable objects, made fires spread quickly. Fire safety codes were lax or not enforced. Progressives pressured local governments to enact and enforce rigorous safety codes. The landmark New York State Tenement Act of 1901, which required better sanitation and ventilation, also required new buildings to include a variety of antifire safeguards.

Helping Children

The well-being of children was of great concern to many reformers of the early 20th century. In 1900, almost 20 percent of American children worked. Many of these jobs were dirty and dangerous, and children were required to work long hours. An even higher percentage, almost 30 percent, did not attend school. Reformers lobbied against child labor and for compulsory schooling. By 1930, the percentage of children working dropped to 5 percent, and the percentage not attending school had dropped to 20 percent.

Improving Working Conditions

Workers, typically poor immigrants, toiled for 12 hours a day, 6 days a weak in cramped, dark, and dirty workrooms called sweatshops. Sweatshops could be tiny housing that just a handful of workers, or quite large, employing hundreds. Often, they were established in apartment buildings where poor immigrants lived and where the rent for the sweatshop owner was cheap. Little was done for workers' health and safety. Unions and other Progressive reformers sought government regulations to improve wages and working conditions.

Bettering Health and Sanitation

Landlords divided their buildings into as many apartments as possible to maximize their rental income. The result was overcrowding. Waste disposal, plumbing, and ventilation were inadequate. These factors combined to create ideal conditions for the spread of disease, like tuberculosis. progressive reformers fought for laws requring landlords to improve living conditions to pursue public health and sanitation programs.

Combating Poverty

Settlement houses were community centers that provided various services to the urban poor. Pioneered in the United States by the Neighborhood Guild in New York and Jane Addams' Hull House in Chicago, the settlement house movement spread throughout major cities. By 1911, more than 400 settlement houses in the country provided various services, including English language instruction for immigrants, parenting classes, child care, help finding health care and employment, and a space for meetings and entertainment. Progressives viewed settlement houses as ways to both help the poor and to help the poor help themselves.