-Of the various issues mentioned on this political cartoon (i.e. poverty, child labor, ill-paid labor, workers for better social conditions), PICK TWO and discuss what the Progressives wanted to do to solve the problem.
-Child labor: during the industrial revolution, children were not a protected segment of the American population. They were made to work as hard as the adults 16 hours a day, with no days off, subject to verbal, physical and often sexual abuse. They worked in dangerous positions or fields such as mines or industrial companies. They would often die or be maimed during industrial accidents. Before the Industrial revolution they were expected to work on the fields but the conditions were significantly better. Progressivism fought hard to start setting limits on child labor, including legal age to work, hours, days off and forbidden occupations for children. They fought to make sure that children received an actual education, at least to ensure their basic literacy.
-The Democratic/Republican Back Alley: it is striking that one of the main features of the cartoon is that the Progressive party people are framed by two walls, where two nearly identical bosses from the Democratic and the Republican Party try unsuccessfully to get their attention. The fact that these two representatives of the two major parties are represented as nearly indistinguishable Rich Men conveys the impression that their differences are minimal. What this is meant to criticize is an oligarchic system where two opposing parties with very little fundamental ideological differences take turns every now and then to perpetuate the dominion of the rich aristocracy. The fact that they are called a back alley demonstrates that they are both just establishment shills which perpetuate the illusion of democracy in a political system that only caters to the whims and interests of the wealthy elite. The Progressive party offered a third choice and more lately this third choice was represented by Bernie Sanders who joined to Democratic party in hopes to galvanizing its less corporate and more progressive wing. Indeed, the progressive party tried to end the monopoly of the two traditional parties by radically focusing on progressive issues and the welfare of the majority of the population, while the other traditional parties only vary in the intensity of their allegiance to plutocratic interests.
-What was the long term impact of Progressivism on American Life? Name at least TWO ways Progressivism left a last legacy on America.
-They were able to establish the principle that childhood is a crucial period of a person’s life when his/her welfare is of the utmost importance and education, health and protection are natural children’s rights. They succeeded in abolishing child labor and imposing severe restrictions in occasional work for children. In 1938 Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which imposed a minimum legal age for child labor (14-16 depending on occupation) and imposed severe restrictions on it.
-They also succeeded in imprinting their ideals on politics, notably with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who not only took inspiration from them for his relief and regulation policies aimed at the protection of American farmers and industrial workers and severe laws that regulated banks and corporations and very high taxation of the rich; he also invited several communist, socialist and progressive individuals and organizations to come work at his administration and help him shape national policy.
