The Progressives on Child Labor and Poverty in American History - Essay Example

There were various industries in the country but the payments for the laborers were inadequate which in a big way contributed to sparking the many strikes in the period where the laborers were complaining about economic injustices in their workplaces. The laborers were subjected to unfair payments, and most of them were not able to own or even operate businesses, acquire material and properties or even upgrade to better housing standards.

Due to the progressive movement ideologies, people were able to identify that the prevailing poor economic conditions of the country were motivated by the high levels of poverty in the country. (George Washington university 1999)Since poverty had stricken various people, the progressives wanted to turn around the poverty levels so that more people would be able to fend for themselves and that would lead to the progress of the country as a whole.

The progressives also expressed issues to do with escalating cases of child labor in the country. The country experiences increased cases of child labor due to increased industrialization. The poor conditions in the country also contributed in a big way to the increased child labor. (Putman 2000) Most people were not able to adequately fend for their families, thus, minor citizens would be employed in the manufacturing industries to help their parents provide for them. There were various issues concerning child employment in the country, in a census conducted in 1890, close to one million children who were aged between ten and fifteen years worked in America. In the 1910 census, there were more than 2 million which indicated an increase from the previous census. (Davis 2003)During that time, it was even more serious since children as young as five and six were employed in companies to work for as long as eighteen hours every day. This was sore to the progressives who looked forward to a child labor reform that would eventually relieve the country of the high levels of child labor in the country.

As seen from the above, it is clear that the progressive reformers were convicted that the widespread child labor cases were detrimental to the children involved and hence to the community at large. They were also convicted that the children ought to be protected from all environments that were harmful. Besides this, they were of the opinion that all workers should be given fair pay and this would reduce significantly the level of poverty in America and lead to a brighter progressive country.