1. Social Reforms
Progressive Era

2. Urban Slums -- Reforms Settlement Movement
Goal = get the rich and the poor in society to live and work closely together
Established “settlement houses”
Volunteer middle-class settlement workers would live with their low-income neighbors hoping to share knowledge and culture with them

3. Jane Addams and Hull House
Dedicated life to aiding urban poor
Pioneer social worker
Established Hull House in Chicago
Provided Social Services to the poor
Taught cooking classes, hygiene, responsibilities of citizenship
Provided child care and kindergarten
Won the Nobel Peace Prize

4. How do you think settlement houses like Hull House benefitted the urban poor?

5. Reforming the Urban Slums
New York State Tenement House Law
Banned the construction of dark, poorly ventilated tenement buildings
Required that new buildings be built with out-ward facing windows in every room
Required indoor toilets and fire safeguards

6. Reforming the Urban Slums
During the Progressive Era, we have laws and reforms that
Help poor learn skills to become more self- sufficient
Provided maternity and childcare for new mothers (Sheppard Towner Act)
Set guidelines for new housing buildings

7. Working Conditions Child Labor Laws
Many of the early laws at the federal level were overturned (Keating- Owen Act, “Tax on Employment of Child Labor”
However, states took action
By 1929, every state had a law that banned children under 14 working

8. Working Conditions 8 hour workday! Adamson Act – railroad workers
Muller v Oregon –white women

9. Working Conditions Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (1916)
Extended financial assistance to injured workers
Became the precedent for “disability insurance” today

10. Reforming Working Conditions
Child labor laws put in place
Laws setting safety guidelines
Laws limiting work day hours
Minimum wage laws (in Oregon and Massachusetts)
Disability Compensation

11. Consumer Safety
Pure Food and Drug Act – made it illegal to mislabel food and drug products Meat Inspection Act – worked to prevent misbranded and tainted meat from being sold to consumers

12. Education Reform
Number of schools increased due to Progressive Reforms
School became mandatory in many states for children
The Smith-Hughes Act (1917) provided one million dollars to states that agreed to improve their public schools

13. Prohibition 18th Amendment – outlawed sale and distribution of alcohol