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History: The Progressive Era

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On “March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Waist Company in New York City,” and as a result of the building being engulfed, 146 employees were killed (Fire!). Most of the victims burned to death, but some chose to leap from the top floors to their death in order to spare themselves the excruciating pain of being burned alive. The “Death List Shows Few Identified” article, published by the New York Times, recounts the identified dead, unidentified dead, reported missing, and injured. All in all, the article, published on March 26, 1911 (a day after the fire), reported 32 identified dead, 35 unidentified dead (where they could actually make out of human qualities), 39 unidentified dead (where they were burned beyond recognition), 21 reported missing, and 24 injured. The identified dead and reported missing sections include each victim’s name and address, while the unidentified dead section includes each person’s approximate height, weight, age, sex, and one or two other distinguishing features, such as jewelry found on the person’s body or …show more content…

The main objective of the Progressives was “to harness the power of the federal government to eliminate unethical and unfair business practices, reduce corruption, and counteract the adverse social effects of industrialization” (___). In other words, they wanted to improve the lives and conditions of factory life and protect them from as much corruption as they could. The International Ladies ' Garment Workers ' Union (ILGWU) was one of those Progressive Era unions demanding improved factory life. The fire can be seen as a “major turning point in history,” and finally, gave Progressive reformers the opportunity to start changing labor conditions for the better

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Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist fire Disaster hit March 25, 1911 at 4:40 pm at the Triangle Shirt Waste Factory when it caught on fire by a cigarette bud or burning match. The employees were mainly young women and girls of Italian and Jewish decent and 146 died that day. The workers wanted out of the building but one of the doors was locked in the stairwell. Speculation was that Isaac Harris locked the door. Some of the women and girls jumped off the building and out the windows to trying to survive which was interfering with the firemen trying to put out the fire.

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a devastating fire that killed 146 girls in New York City (Leap for Life, Leap for Death). At this time, citizens of New York were furious and demanded that the government do something to prevent future tragedies. The government responded and the reforms that the government made, it changed the future of New York industry. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, one of history’s deadliest fires, came as a result of outrageously unsafe working conditions, led to a high death toll and injury total, but, ultimately resulted in reforms that helped safeguard future factory workers.

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The Progressive Era was a movement from the late 19th century to the early 20th century where many people in the United States tried to reform political, social, and economic injustices. This might sound like a good thing, but most of the movement was filled with corruption and ulterior motives. The Progressive movement was not entirely clean; while there were selfless reformers, many reformers only wanted reform if it suited them. Using the historical interpretations of George Mowry, Joseph Huthmacher, and James J. Connolly, I will explain who the progressives were and what their reformed society entailed. I will also state what historian is most persuasive and why.

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1380 Words | 6 Pages

On May 11, 1894 a widespread strike lead by railroad workers brought business to a complete cessation; only willing to discontinue until the federal government took unprecedented action to end the strike. The Pullman Strike began “as a peaceful labor protest against a single Chicago employer (54)”, and later ended up “into a national labor boycott of more than twenty railroads and then into a violent confrontation between the federal government, the railroad companies, and American workers (55.)” With the “mix of employer resistance, government aggression, worker bitterness, and general economic desperation (54)”, the Pullman Strike presented questions towards the “rights of employers and workers in an industrialized democracy and about the role

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166 Words | 1 Pages

The Progressive Era is unique in that this impulse spread to foster an all-encompassing mood and effort for reform. The immigrant "Quandary" was handled for the most part by white, middle-class puerile women. Many of these female reformers had been inculcated in the incipient women 's colleges that had sprung up in the tardy nineteenth century. Possessing an edification yet barred from most professional vocations, these women took to "Sodality building" as an expedient to be active in public life.

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The Canadian government did not have a plan of action for what to do if there was a large influx of dead bodies or how to identify the victims. Luckily, five and a half years prior to the explosion, the coroner John Barnstead developed a system that used labels to describe bodies of victims to deal with and identify the approximately 209 dead bodies that originated from the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The labels included the physical description of the victim, their personal belonging that were on their bodies or in their body’s general area, the address of where they were found so on so forth. This system had even helped Frances Coleman find her husband 's body when the brother of Vincent Coleman, the deceased husband, identified by recognising Coleman’s wallet and watch that were found with his severely burned body. Despite the good efforts of John Barnstead, the system still had its flaws, for example due to the fact that bodies would bloat soldiers would have to cut rings off their fingers, which in turn caused people to mistrust the soldiers as they believed that the soldiers were stealing valuable property from the dead.

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Government oversight of big business (monopolies) and child labor were serious issues during the early 1900 's. Progressives were a group of reformers during these years that were fighting to "purify" the government, and eliminate political bosses and the corruption frequently connected with them. There were four main goals of the Progressives, fostering industrial efficiency, creating economic reform, promoting moral improvement, and protecting social welfare. The two Presidents that shared commitment to enacting these major social reforms were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt, through use of the Square Deal, promoted the conservation movement and placed millions of acres of land under federal protection to preserve America

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In the period between 1900 and 1920, the federal government and reformers were very successful in bringing social, economic, and political reform to the federal government. While not every aspect of it was successful, the rights of women, fighting against child labor and limiting the control of trusts and monopolies were three distinct successes of that time. Even before the progressive era, women challenged their place and articulated new visions of social, political and economic equality. The progressive era was a turning point for women as organizations evolved fighting for equal rights. Woman began to become very involved in a variety of reform movements.

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The labor unions helped so the owners could not take advantage of the workers. The discontent between the working class and big business owners was very important for the entire country, so President Theodore Roosevelt used his power as the President to pass laws fitting to the progressive era. He proposed a number of legislative measure to protect the health and welfare of the public and the environment. He helped to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Roosevelt also intervened in coal strikes on the side of the workers to help force the owner to negotiate.

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Progressives pursued battles over issues like government regulation of the economy and democratic reform of the electoral process. Some of them worked for women suffrage, others for temperance, and still others for immigration restriction, government inspection of foods and drugs, or the improvement of wages and working conditions. Several politicians that occupied government offices also worked to end corruption in law enforcement, public transportation and other city services. Also, political powers of the voters were increased by legislation which gave them additional powers such as recall of a person from public office before his or her term ended. Under referendum laws the voters could pass laws without the need for the state legislatures

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The world before the first world war was a very different place. The automobile existed. Few people, however, owned one. As a result street traffic had many horses and buggies. The most common means of transportation was the bicycle.

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842 Words | 4 Pages

After the Civil War, our country was battered and beaten, but it rebuilt itself over time and spread its policies, as well as manufacturing practices, throughout our country. Early in the 20th century, members of our nation started to look at some of these practices and policies and began to question their merit and whether they assisted our population or not. Many people were involved in the progressive movement in America from the presidents to a slew of popular authors and photographers. The one thing that they had in common was that they saw problems with how various industries in our nation performed that they knew needed to be fixed. They did not always agree on everything, such as immigration, but they always had the nation’s best interest at heart.

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If I could choose any historical time period to live in, I would choose to live in the time period of the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era strikes me as particularly interesting as it was a time when creativity and inventing was flourishing. Many new inventions were developed between the years of 1890 and 1920. Some of these iconic inventions include the stop sign and smoke detector, both of which were invented in invented in 1890, the semi-automatic shotgun and vertical filing cabinet, both invented in 1898, as well as grocery bag and hydraulic brake, invented in 1918. If I could go back in time and live in the Progressive Era, I would like to be a writer or inventor.

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860 Words | 4 Pages

The Gilded age was a period in the late 1800s (1865-1900) that showed tremendous increase of wealth caused by the industrial age. The lifestyle of the rich during this period hid the many problems of the time that eventually brought about the progressive era movement. This was a movement for reform between 1900-1920s. Progressives typically held that the irresponsible actions of the rich were corrupting both public and private life. Forces such as immigration, the Populist Party and industrialization that led to the progressive era also impacted the American government both in its activeness and its democracy.

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A lot of things have happened over time, but from 1890-1920, incredible things occurred, leading the world how it is today. This time period, known as the Progressive Era, has brought changes, for the better, in the categories of: politics, working conditions, and urban life. From events like corruption in the ballot-box, to the poor and very unsanitary working conditions in the Meat Packaging Industry, laws and official documents were put in place, when reforms were desperately needed. So, overall these reforms were very effective, changing the working industries, “all-things political”, and urban life.

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