Do Now: Photo Analysis
Circle the room and look at all the
photos. Choose one photo and complete
a photo analysis worksheet.
Labor Reforms of
the Progressive Era
Child Labor: A National Crisis
• What were the
benefits of hiring
children?
• 1900 census: nearly 2 million children ages 10
to 15 were employed in the US.
– Industries employed children as young as five or six
to work as many as 18 to 20 hours a day.
Muckrakers
Lewis Hine
•
•
•
Investigative photographer
National Child Labor
Committee.
Traveled the country to record
the plight of child laborers.
John Spargo
•
•
•
Socialist
The Bitter Cry of Children (1906)
“God… must work in some other
mine.”
Monongah Mine Disaster
• 1907 in Monongah, WV.
– Two mine shafts exploded due to igniting
coal dust and methane.
• Death toll: 362 men and boys.
• It remains the worst mine disaster in the
history of the United States.
– Led to new mining regulations.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
• March, 1911 in New
York City
• 146 people, mostly
young immigrant
women, died.
• NY State Factory Commission.
– Proposed 56 new laws to make factory work safer.
Reforms
• State Reform: Child labor laws, minimum
wage, safety inspections, more/better schools.
• National Reform: The Keating-Owen Child
Labor Act (1916)
– Prohibited the sale of goods produced by factories
that employed child labor.
– UNCONSTITUTIONAL!