Progressive Era Timeline

National Labor Union

Before the National Labor Union, there were smaller groups of workers hoping to gain higher wages, shorter work days, and better working conditions. These smaller unions eventually grouped to found the National Labor Union, the first attempt at creating a national labor group. This enabled workers today to experience benefits and changes in the workplace. Americans today would not have been able to experience shorter days, higher wages, and cleaner and safer workplaces without these courageous workers' efforts.

National Labor Union

Sherman Antitrust Act

The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed on July 2, 1890, and was made to stop monopolies and sustain competition in businesses to keep companies protected from one another. This also saved consumers from unfair practices. This is demonstrated today in rigging bids, making agreements between competitors to fix wages, and allocating customers illegally. The outlawing of monopolies has created innovation, boosted healthy competition, and improved business efficiency. Control over prices paid or produced has been improved because the American supply and demand reached close to equilibrium.

Homestead Strike

Homestead Strike

On July 6, 1892, workers protested low wages and long work days by going on strike. This did not work because guards were shot, missing workers were replaced, and union leaders were faced with criminal charges. Despite the strike not working immediately, it brought attention to working conditions and altered the nation's view on the relationship between management and labor. This also changed American Industrialist's reputations, changing people's view on how the country was being run.

Immigration

Over 50 years, thousands of people from outside the U.S. came to America because of "push and pull factors" such as; famine, war, and natural disasters, or work opportunities, and religious freedom. Immigration is still present today and has an enormous impact on the U.S. It greatly increases diversity, new ideas and products, creates a more flexible labor market, and a larger skill base. On the other hand, it can be argued that it causes drains on funds, less employment for native workers, and overcrowding.

Immigration

The Jungle

The Jungle was a novel published in 1906 by Upton Sinclair that exposed the disgusting conditions in America's meatpacking industry. The novel was initially meant to cause shock regarding wage slavery," but instead shock was from the details of the meatpacking industry." The food industry was unregulated and therefore unsanitary. Sinclair writes about chemicals in rotten meat, blood, and flesh on walls, and sick workers coughing and bleeding onto the floor. There weren't any food safety laws meaning food didn't need to be clean and was laced with chemicals that would kill people. This novel led to federal food safety laws like the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. This was the first time Congress regulated food, and it was all because of public uproar over the quality and preparation of meats brought to light by Upton Sinclair.

The Jungle

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

On March 25, 1911, 146 workers were killed when the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Factory in New York burned. There were 600 workers at the factory when a fire started in a rag bin. There were attempts to put out the fire which failed, so the workers tried to escape. The elevator broke down, and the door at the bottom of the stairs was locked so they couldn't escape. Many girls tried to escape by jumping out the windows and fell to their deaths. This tragedy brought attention to the dangers of factories and sweatshops and led to a series of laws and regulations meant to protect workers. This included the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law which required sprinkler systems to be installed in factories. This was just one of 25 laws passed because of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Women's Suffrage

Women's Suffrage

The Women's Suffrage movement was a fight to gain the right to vote for women in the United States. This movement started before the Civil War as women started to turn against the idea that women were submissive wives and only concerned with the family. The National Woman Suffrage Association was founded in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to help in the fight for the right to vote. Eventually, in August of 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed giving all citizens regardless of gender the right to vote. Women earned this as well as the right to control their earnings, property, and the ability to take custody of their children in the case of a divorce. Women's suffrage helped to end political corruption, implement the protection of citizens, and improve individuals' lives, all goals of progressive reformers.

The Temperance Movement

The Temperance Movement was a widespread effort from multiple groups to reduce or eliminate the consumption of alcohol from the early 1800s to 1919. By 1830, most Americans drank three times as much as they do today and alcohol abuse was bad, particularly for women who had few rights and were dependent on their husbands. Temperance movement supporters saw alcohol as the root of all evil and the source of many social issues such as violence, crime, and poverty. Women created the Women's Christian Temperance Union which was allied with Elizabeth Cady and Susan B. Anthony as well as other women fighting for the right to vote. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was passed banning the making, sale, and transportation of alcohol. This didn't last as it was eventually repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

The Temperance Movement