1. Day 7 Question A
Caroline Coyle, Geena Romero,
and Kate Stock

2. Question
Compare and contrast the programs and
policies designed by reformers of the
Progressive era to those designed by
reformers of the New Deal Period. Confine
your answer to the programs and policies
that addressed the needs of those living in
poverty.

3. Thesis Statement
The Progressive and New Deal Eras each produced a record amount
of programs and policies that worked to change the status of
Americans living in poverty, which included their working
environments, however while the policies of each were similar in
some ways such as fair labor practices, they also varied in their
focus with Progressives working towards the protection of women
and children in poverty, and New Dealers working towards pulling
families out of poverty by providing men with jobs.

4. Progressive Era Issues
Squalid urban living conditions:
Immigrants & minorities flooded cities, but corrupt local
governments failed to provide for the population influx
Byproduct of industrialization (more factories=more jobs= more
people moving to the cities)
Horrendous working conditions (esp. Women and children):
Children worked at almost slave wages in dangerous conditions in
factories (ex. Spindle boys in textile factories)
Women worked long hours for low wages in dangerous conditions
(ex. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in NYC)

5. Progressive Era Reforms
Living Conditions: Settlement houses (provided adult education,
taught English language classes, schooled immigrant children,
organized job clubs, offered afterschool activities, initiated public
health services, and advocated for improved housing for urban poor
and working classes) – Jane Addams & Hull House in Chicago
Jacob A. Riis documented the horrendous tenement conditions of
the urban poor in his photo-journal How the Other Half Lives
“Urban Refuges” to improve the lives of industrial workers and
children – i.e. Central Park, Coney Island
Play movement – growth up public parks in urban areas

6. Progressive Era Reforms
Working Conditions (esp. targeting women and children): Activists
such as Lewis Hine (documented child labor for the National Child
Labor Committee), Florence Kelley (first secretary of the National
Consumers League - advocated for federal minimum wage, eight
hour work days, and children’s rights and against sweatshops), and
Mary Harris aka Mother Jones (female labor leader, made an effort
to unionize mining business and industry)
Keating-Owen Act 1916 (Child Labor Act): prohibited the sale in
interstate commerce of goods produced by factories that employed
children under fourteen, mines that employed children younger than
sixteen, and any facility where children under sixteen worked at
night or more than eight hours daily (Overturned in 1918)
Workmen’s Compensation Act (1916)

7. Progressive Era Reforms
National Consumer’s League- chartered 1899 by Jane Addams and
Josephine Lowell to oppose the harsh, unregulated working
conditions of industrial positions that many faced. Florence Kelley
was first leader.

8. New Deal Era Issues
Unemployment and poverty due to the Great Depression
-Any available jobs went mostly to men in the belief that men were
the sole supporters of families. Single women or mothers were at
the greatest disadvantage.
-Pay cuts and layoffs across the board because of the stock-market
crash

9. New Deal Era Reforms
Living Conditions: HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corp)- Pays off
mortgages of nonfarm homes
FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration)- $3 billion given to
the states for direct dole programs
AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)- gave millions to pay farmer’s
mortgages

10. New Deal Era Reforms
Working Conditions:
PWA (Public Works Administration)- $4 billion for thousands of projects
like parkways, buildings, highways, ex. Grand Coulee Dam that
helped to irrigate farms
CWA (Civil Works Administration)- provided temporary jobs during
hard seasons – such as shoveling or raking leaves
WPA (Works Progress Administration)- gave jobs to high school and
college students as actors, writers, and musicians
Wagner Act- created National Labor Relations Board which allows the
right to organized labor, forms unions
NRA (National Recovery Administration)- reduced hours a person
could work so as to provide everybody fair levels of minimum wage

11. New Deal Era Reforms
Working Conditions
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)- provided employment to young
men by giving them jobs in government camps where they would
have to send a certain percentage of their paychecks each month
back home

12. Compare
National Consumers League similar to NRA and labor unions.
- label products identifying league/NRA compliance in effort to
promote consumer knowledge and fair labor conditions
-CCC and Settlement houses both educated poor/immigrants
provided also job education

13. Contrast
Progressives for the poor focused on the exploitation of women and
children
- Keating Owen Act (1916)
- Urban Refuges
- Lewis Heine, “Mother Jones”, and Florence Kelley
New Deal focused on providing job opportunities almost solely to men
- PWA
- CWA
- WPA
- CCC
Government provides care to the People (New Deal) vs. People going
to the government (Progressivism)
- FERA