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Problems During The Progressive Era

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throughout the years of the Progressive Era society suffered and grew from the problems. Even though the United States became known as the land of opportunities it also had its gloomy side to it. The Progressive Era showed how people underwent poor housing, deterioration due to unsanitary food production, and workers related death due to no work regulations. This lead to the reforms of fixing these problems that were leaving the United States with a dissatisfied society.
The first problem came from uncomfortable living environment the families were set to live in. Towards the beginning, tenements were a comfortable place for living. More immigrants were coming in everyday and the tenements became crowded. For example, multi family dwellings had two to three families living in a one family room. This lead to unsanitary conditions for living. Certain families would have no window in their part of the room leading to no fresh air or natural light. A reform proposed by the Progressives to improve this situation was, dumbbell tenements (Notes 7). These tenements had a dumbbell shape, pinched in the middle, creating an alley in between the two buildings. The purpose for these tenements …show more content…
Upton Sinclair published, The Jungle, a book intended to describe the poor working conditions. Society responded to a different problem that was illustrated in the book, the filthy practices of packaging meat (Source 6). Sinclair's book was so troubling and moving that it caught President Teddy Roosevelt's attention to pass a law regulating this problem. For example, Teddy said, ‘“The specific evils you point out shall, if their existence be proved, and if I have the power, be eradicated”’ (Source 6). Four months later the Meat Inspection Act was passed, this law banned unhealthy dyes, chemical preservatives, or adulterants. To this day the U.S. is still using this law to regulate meat

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