Progressive News
Paola Gonzalez
Why Walk, When You Can Drive?
During the 1890's society was growing into a new way of living. this new life was Progressivism. With this new era taking shape, the things that the people once found common, were now changing into a new evolution. Coming into this new time there was an absence of transportation to places that were farther than 45 minutes; therefore, urban densities were very high because of the lack of space that was available to the people. Not until 1890-1920 did the streets get filled with streetcars instead of horses. A man by the name of Andre Smith Hallidie, built the first streetcar in 1871.
With this new invention making its way into the era. it tripled the speed of getting to places and making it easier for people to get to their destination more efficiently. Plus with streetcars, there was then a need for downtown cities that would act as ports. These ports increased the population and expanded the city limits. Due to the cities increasing their limits, people thought it was time for a new way of transportation. This would be known as the Automobile Era of 1920-1945. Only the wealthy would be known for possessing their own automobile during this time period though.
Streetcars
Women Behind Steering Wheel
Streetcar
Education Starts With The Young Ones
Before the Progressive Era it was not common for people to graduate high school. Most students were educated only up to the level that was necessary for them to function in life. Today the level that they were taught, would be considered middle school. Men, white men, usually go to school longer if they intended to make a living that was more than agriculture and mining. For the men that did not, They would only go to school until there teenage years. For women, that usually meant primary school only; sometimes they were not even given the opportunity to go to high school for their education.
During the Progressive Era, a great expansion of high schools began to be developed throughout the United States. That is when people decided that a high school education would benefit them. During this time, going to high school was then considered normal. Even people actually decided to prepare themselves for college even if they weren't attending. The Progressive Era was considered "an important driving factor in the high school movement." Progressives knew that in order for people to live a quality life that education was the key to that. Also that education should be given to women and racial minorities to create equality.
First Public School
Charles C. Thach
Seneca School
Not Even The Children Can Enjoy Their Childhood
Industrialization sprung into action during the early 1800's; not until the mid-1800's did Child Labor start to become an issue. Factories thought that the best workers would be children. Considering they would work for any amount of time and were small enough to fix and replace things, that they would pay them little wageand had them work 12 to 18 hours a day. Most children began working before the age of 7, so they figured that they would be easy to control over. Children were given jobs that no "man" would want to do themselves, such as, mining, canning, glassware, cotton picking, wool handling, ect.
National Child Labor Comitties fought to cease child labor. This committee even hired a man named Lewis Wickes Hine to capture photographs of the children's conditions to show others what is happingunder their noses. The NCLC and other organizations continued to investigate the children's conditions and push for the state legislation to stop the child labor. Not until 1929 did every state regulate the age of the child laborers. The children under the age of 14 were not allowed to work. With this new regulation, people felt that is would also be beneficial for the workers to have their hours cut to a reasonable time and push for an increase of their wages, but this will not happen unil years later.