Overview of The Major Problems During The Progressive Era

The Progressive Movement impacted America in many ways. At the start of the progressive era there were many different problems including, terrible working conditions, women didn’t have any rights, immigration, industrialization, political corruption, urbanization, and alcohol was a big problem. The United States had lots of problems but the progressive movement was able to create a ton of change and was able to help implement a lot of new laws to help.

One of the first important problems was terrible working conditions. The work place was one of the most dangerous places to be. In his book titled “The Jungle” Upton Sinclair described the meat packing place where he worked and talked about the mounds of raw meat and hundreds of rats running in and out of the meat piles. Upton Sinclair also said that they put poison and and multiple chemicals around the meat to kill the rats. The rats would die and fall into the meat and would get scoop up with the meat and put into the grinder together. Upton Sinclair also said that Unskilled immigrant men did the backbreaking and dangerous work, laboring in dark and not well lit rooms and unventilated rooms, It was blazing hot in summer and unheated in winter. Many stood all day on floors covered with blood and pieces of meat and foul smelling water, wielding sledge hammers and butcher knives. Women and children over 14 worked at meat trimming stations and sausage making, and canning.

Another great example of poor working conditions it the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City on March 25, 1911 at 4:40 pm. The fire was the deadliest industrial fire in the history of the town causing the deaths of 146 Workers 23 women and girls and 23 men it was caused when a match or a cigarette butt was dropped into a scrap bin full of scraps of shirt waist material fueling the fire very quickly, the only thing that was not highly famble was the steel beams. Most of the mean and women died from smoke inhalation, burning to death and some girls and boys jumped or fell from the eighth and ninth floor. Everyone died because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked (a common practice at the time to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft of merchandise), The elevator operator saved many lives by going up and own as much as possible but didn't go back up when the weight of panicking people wrapped the elevator and made it useful trapping everyone. The Fire department showed up only to be unhelpful because there ladders were too short and could only reach the seventh floor and could not reach the correct floor. The fire department started acting fast and grabbed safety nets only to have them snap under the weight and force of the people falling. Some men also tried to make a human bridge from one building to another, it failed when too many people got on it and broke the middle mans back causing everyone to fall to their death. They also used the fire escape for a couple of minutes before it collapsed due to all the weight on it and the structure was poorly installed it also melted because of the heat. There was one survivor a kid who slid down the wires of the elevator shaft to the bottom. The shirtwaist factory marked a change in rules and regulations forcing companies to make better working conditions. They had to make new laws that made them have better building access, fireproofing requirements, they needed fire extinguishers, the installation of alarm systems with speakers and automatic sprinklers.

The big problem at the time was alcohol and women's rights. Women were not allowed to vote, and were feeling very upset about men and their consumption of alcohol. Led by Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton women were able to protest and make great headway toward receiving the right to vote. In 1920 the 19th amendment was finally passed and women were able to vote. Lousia Ann Swain of Larmine, Wyoming became the first woman to cast a vote in a general election. Women felt that being able to vote was really going to help them progress the ideas that they had. A result of women receiving the right to vote was the prohibition. Women wanted to reduce the amount that men were drinking because of the amount of abuse that was happening to women and children. Women would protest by praying and standing outside of establishments that sell alcohol Saying and yelling ”Lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours”. Eventually all of the complaints and protests led to the complete ban of selling, consuming and manufacturing alcohol. Some women activists also tried to tackle other problems like gambling, profanity and government corruption. The prohibition lasted for a whole thirteen years and it failed making slight changes to the country but rather causing more illegal trades and causing a very big issue called “bootlegging” they would sneak alcohol by importing them and selling them for very high margins because alcohol was hard to get they would also make and sell their own hard liquor known as moonshine. The American gangsters and mob bosses saw this as a money making opportunity and started to pay Italian-Americans $15 per day to run alky cookers in Brooklyn and make big batches of bathtub gin. Moonshine was a very big problem that help cause more issues and ultimately making the prohibition fail. Women had to jump through many different hoops but after the women's suffrage movement they were able to get many things done including, women's votes, the prohibition and they were able to stop a lot of the government corruption.