PRIN - Reform Movements (Lesson)

Reform Movements

“There were the men in the pickle-rooms, for instance, where old Antanas had gotten his death; scarce a one of these that had not some spot of horror on his person. Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one. Of the butchers and floorsmen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife to hold it. The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They would have no nails,—they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan. There were men who worked in the cooking-rooms, in the midst of steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour. There were the beef-luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound quarters into the refrigerator-cars; a fearful kind of work, that began at four o’clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years. There were those who worked in the chilling-rooms, and whose special disease was rheumatism; the time-limit that a man could work in the chilling-rooms was said to be five years. There were the woolpluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands of the pickle-men; for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid to loosen the wool, and then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with their bare hands, till the acid had eaten their fingers off. There were those who made the tins for the canned-meat; and their hands, too, were a maze of cuts, and each cut represented a chance for blood-poisoning. Some worked at the stamping-machines, and it was very seldom that one could work long there at the pace that was set, and not give out and forget himself, and have a part of his hand chopped off. There were the “hoisters,” as they were called, whose task it was to press the lever which lifted the dead cattle off the floor. They ran along upon a rafter, peering down through the damp and the steam; and as old Durham’s architects had not built the killing-room for the convenience of the hoisters, at every few feet they would have to stoop under a beam, say four feet above the one they ran on; which got them into the habit of stooping, so that in a few years they would be walking like chimpanzees. Worst of any, however, were the fertilizer-men, and those who served in the cooking-rooms. These people could not be shown to the visitor,—for the odor of a fertilizer-man would scare any ordinary visitor at a hundred yards, and as for the other men, who worked in tank-rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting,—sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!”

Excerpt from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

Muckrakers

The Progressive Era was a time of many reforms. Reform means, "the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, etc." The Progressives saw themselves as agents of positive change in society. Oftentimes the problems were brought to the attention of the masses by muckraker journalists. Progressive reformers pushed the government to take action and pass laws that addressed the issues.

Supporters viewed the Progressives as fighting against injustice, trying to create a better world, and leveling the field for the common man (and women). Critics viewed them as meddlers trying to impose their values on the rest of society. In some areas the Progressives only had a limited impact, but in many other areas they were successful in getting laws passed to reform society.

Progressive Reforms

The Progressives supported new ideas and policies they believed would improve people's lives. They supported increased government regulation of business and industry, efforts to protect consumers and workers, and policies to conserve natural resources. Their efforts to improve living conditions for the poor people in cities led to more and better libraries, schools, hospitals and parks.

Progressive Legislation

As Progressive reforms took root, the movement to correct injustices in our political system ran parallel to social issues of reform. Many people involved in progressive reforms understood the impact of political machines and big business on the daily lives of those whom they hoped to influence. The Progressive Movement sought to increase political participation for all during the Progressive Era. During the era a few reforms were enacted to provide larger political voices for the common American.

Another Progressive reform was the direct election of senators. Under the U.S. Constitution, each state's legislature elected that state's U.S. senators. The Progressives favored the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution that gave voters the right to elect their U.S. senators. They succeeded in their efforts with the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.

Reformers worked to provide for initiative and referendum legislation. Under an initiative, an issue is brought up by the voters, not legislators, to be considered for legislation. Supporters of any new law may collect voters' signatures in an initiative to force a public vote on the issue. This practice prevents government officials from ignoring the desires of citizens. When enough citizens support an initiative, the government must present the issue to the public as a referendum on which they may vote. Citizens may also remove public officials from office before their terms expire by organizing a recall election. This allows citizens to control who serves in government. Once removed, the people are then able to have a recall election to vote a new individual into office.

Restrictions for ‘Big Business’ came in the form of pro-worker labor laws. The laws with the most impact were child labor laws and included age restrictions and labor forms restrictions, limiting what children could do in the workplace at what appropriate age. Further laws were enacted to provide a minimum wage and maximum working hours. Benefits like worker’s compensation began during the era. Federal and state governments also worked to provide inspections for the health and safety of workers and consumers.

Review

Do you know who is who? Can you guess which reform movement they led? Click on each image to see if you are right.