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The Drive for Reform

The Drive for Reform. Goals for the Lesson: Understand the problems plaguing American society in the early 1900s Understand the role of muckraker journalism in reforms Understand solutions to the problems during the Progressive Era. Progressives Target Problems. WE NEED POLITICAL REFORM!

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The Drive for Reform

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  1. The Drive for Reform Goals for the Lesson: Understand the problems plaguing American society in the early 1900s Understand the role of muckraker journalism in reforms Understand solutions to the problems during the Progressive Era

  2. Progressives Target Problems • WE NEED POLITICAL REFORM! • City officials building corrupt political machines • Bribery and violence were used to win elections • WE NEED TO STOP OVERPOPULATION! • Lack of adequate water, housing, and municipal services • WE NEED TO BUST THE TRUSTS! • Stop monopolies to allow for fair competition • WE NEED TO REDUCE THE GAP BETWEEN THE WEALTHY AND THE POOR! • Social welfare needed • End harsh working conditions for the working class

  3. Journalists Uncover Injustices Muckrakers – journalists who reported on the ugly side of social problems Lincoln Steffens published the Shame of the Cities regarding political corruption Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives about how the urban poor lived Upton Sinclair published The Jungle about the unhealthy conditions in Chicago’s meat packing industry

  4. A Quote from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [T]he meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water—and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast.

  5. Questions • What were some of the problems reformers hoped to solve? • What role did journalists and other writers play in reforming the ills of society? • Who was Upton Sinclair? • ASSIGNMENT Due Friday, August 19th • You’re a worker in the Chicago Meat Packing industry in 1901 • Write a letter to a Congressman describing your working conditions • Suggest solutions for each problem you present. • No longer than one page

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