Essay On Working The United States In The Late 1800s And Early 1900's

Working the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s had several hardships and these created workers to join unions and to go on strike. The industrial revolution created several jobs that made people move to the cities to work these jobs but the pay was poor and the conditions were terrible. The government was little help at the time to create regulations and the owners of these companies were so powerful that they could overcome strikes and replace workers quickly and cheaply. This was soon to change in America as we entered the Progressive Era. The fight for better working conditions, higher wages, and shorter hours were beginning to pay off for the working class of the United States in the late 1800's through the early 1900's.

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This was the beginning of when several women organizations demanded better and safer working conditions in clothing factories, this included Alva Belmont who was the ex-wife of William Vanderbilt. This soon brought the attention to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who used the Triangle Fire as an example “the government needed to regulate industry.” (“Give me Liberty” Pg. 682) This later led to factory inspection law as well as fire safety code. This was the beginning of the Progressive Era, “by 1920, for the first time, more Americans lived in towns and cities than in rural areas. Yet severe inequality remained the most visible feature of the urban landscape, and persistent labor strife raised a new question of the urban landscape, combating social inequality.” (“Give me Liberty” Pg.

Many American now began to fight for better wages so they could participate in the purchasing of the consumer goods such as the Model T car. Ford was creating a new class of living for the United States not only were they compensating their employees better than most companies but he was lowering the price of cars so that American would be able to purchase them on their income. After the creation of the assembly line Ford could lower the price of his cars by over half from $700 in 1910 to $316 in 1916. The car could be purchased by the working class of America. Workers fought for shorter work weeks and the government responded in January 1912 creating a 54-hour limit per work week. Companies responded with a lower take home per week due to the new law. This made workers go onto strike fighting for better pay and shorter hours, these strikes were