Topic > Overview of Major Issues During the Progressive Era

The Progressive movement impacted America in many ways. At the beginning of the Progressive Era there were many different problems including terrible working conditions, women had no rights, immigration, industrialization, political corruption, urbanization, and alcohol was a big problem . The United States has had many problems, but the progressive movement has been able to create a lot of changes and has been able to help implement many new laws to help. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayOne of the first major problems was the terrible working conditions. The workplace was one of the most dangerous places to be. In his book entitled “The Jungle” Upton Sinclair described the meatpacking place where he worked and talked about the piles of raw meat and hundreds of rats running in and out of the piles of meat. Upton Sinclair also said that they put poison and different chemicals around the meat to kill the rats. The rats died and fell into the meat, they were collected together with the meat and put together in the grinder. Upton Sinclair also stated that unskilled immigrant men performed backbreaking and dangerous jobs, working in dark, dimly lit rooms and in unventilated rooms. It was scorching hot in the summer and unheated in the winter. Many stood all day on floors covered in blood, pieces of meat and foul-smelling water, brandishing clubs and butcher's knives. Women and children over 14 worked at meat trimming, sausage making, and canning stations. Another great example of poor working conditions was the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on March 25, 1911 at 4:40 am. pm. The fire was the deadliest industrial fire in the city's history, resulting in the deaths of 146 workers (23 women and girls and 23 men). It was caused when a match or cigarette butt was dropped into a bin filled with scraps of shirt waistband material. the fire very quickly, the only thing that wasn't very fabulous was the steel beams. Most of the bad guys and women died from smoke inhalation, burned alive, and some girls and boys jumped or fell from the eighth and ninth floors. They all died because the doors to the stairways and exits were locked (a common practice at the time to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft of goods). The elevator operator saved many lives by going up and possessing as much as he could but did not go back up when the weight of panicking people enveloped the elevator and made it worthwhile to trap everyone. The firefighters showed up only to be useless because the stairs were too short and could only reach the seventh floor and couldn't reach the correct floor. Firefighters began to act quickly and grabbed the safety nets only to have them snap under the weight and force of the falling people. Some men also attempted to build a human bridge from one building to another, but it failed when too many people climbed onto it and broke the middleman's back causing everyone to fall to their deaths. They also used the fire escape for a couple of minutes before it collapsed due to all the weight on it and the structure was poorly installed and melted due to the heat. There was one survivor, a child, who slipped down the wires of the elevator shaft to the bottom. The shirt factory marked a change.