The Progressive Era Dbq

2015: A promising year, full of opportunities, though less than 3 months away from coming to a close. Not more than 100 years ago, things were not the same as they exist now. Major problems were faced in eras such as the Progressive Era. Such problems that people faced back then were women’s suffrage, child labor, and deforestation. If I was born in the generation where I had where to choose where to place $1,000,000 to certain cause, I would give it to the three things I have stated.

In today’s society, women are starting to be seen as capable of functioning in our ever-changing world, but during the Progressive Era, women were seen as nothing more than synonymous to “maids”, as their primary focus was to “keep her house clean and wholesome

Child labor was another problem presented at this time. At the rate they were going back in 1900, 26% of boys between ten and fifteen were already working, and for girls it was 10% (Background Essay). Child labor was increasing as fast as the children working were dying. An example of this tragic scenario was Dennis McKee, a 15-year-old boy who was smothered to death by coal (Document B). This boy had a family, and that family had to deal with the loss of their son, all to the fault of an industry that thought to use young, able-bodied boys for their work was a fantastic idea. If this had gone on for any longer than it did, it may have damaged the society greatly. What use are dead children to an advancing society in need of children that are, I don’t know, alive? The children are our future, and if they cease to exist, then our future may cease to exist as

Deforestation is still an unbeleafable issue even to this day. With our trees being cut down to make supplies and furniture, we struggle with keeping our ratio of trees being destroyed and trees being planted equal. It seems like that was also the case in the past. There was a significant amount of trees being cut down in 1920, the land looking much more barren than it did in 1650 (Document A, map). These trees, some of them taking more than three thousand years to rise tall, are being cut down. They are being cut down for fun, or for as long as a dollar can be made out of it (Document A). These trees, as long as the ones cut down are replanted, could be used as the foundation for the future generation, serving as the paper bound by a cover, as the furniture used to live in, as part of the pencil to write their ingenious ideas on. Deforestation is still a problem today, but luckily for us there are trees still standing. Our mission is to keep them standing, or else our futures will burst into flames before our very eyes, like the firewood burned in a fireplace during