Child Labor Dbq

I 'm glad you have entrusted me to give away one million dollars to Progressive reforms. I had no idea there was an underside to America. I thought everything was going well because industry was booming. I found out more about the reforms from reading articles written by muckrakers. I read about deforestation, child labor, women’s suffrage, and food safety. I read that the average earnings for American workers is less than $500 a year. I also read that in 1900, 26% of boys between 10 and 15 years old were in the work force, and that women do not have the right to vote. Clearly America has some work to do. So now that I have a better understanding about the problems in America, I know who to give the money to. I have decided to give the money to child labor, to food safety, and to Deforestation.

Children work in awful conditions, where people don 't care about the children 's safety. The photo, by Lewis Hine, shows boys sorting and separating the coal from slate rock (Doc B). Sorting and separating the coal from the slate rock was not a very safe job. The boy’s fingers would callous and cut by the coal and slate (Doc B). According to Lewis Hine 's report, "... the air at times is dense with the coal-dust, which penetrates so far into the passages of the lungs that for long periods after the boys leave the breaker, he continues to cough up the black coal dust" (Doc B). This can lead to severe illness, like lung problems, and it can even result in death. According to Lewis Hine’s report, “… two breaker boys of 15 years… fell or were carried by the coal down into the car below. One was badly burned and the other was smothered to death” (Doc B). This reveals the dangers and harsh realities of child labor. It shows how children were badly injured and sometimes even killed. Child labor deserves $600,000 because work, illness, and death should not be a concern to