The broad issue that my paper will discuss is the extent to which efforts during the Progressive Era succeeded in improving working conditions for children. The topic paragraph for my paper is as follows:
At the beginning of the Progressive Era, children were often required to work long hours in factories, mills, and mines under unsafe conditions for exploitative wages that were less than those compared to adults. The Progressive Era brought many reformers who set out to end the abuses of child labor and to force businesses to make improvements, such as reducing the number of hours that children could be required to work and protecting children from working with dangerous machinery and from other workplace hazards. The reformers succeeded in informing the public of deplorable workplace conditions for children and, to various degrees, in getting laws passed to improve these conditions. However, progress was slow in getting industries to voluntarily make improvements that cost them money, and the laws that were enacted were often poorly enforced or overturned by the courts. Nevertheless, the reformers provided a valuable service by turning the country’s attention to the injustices of child labor and in laying the groundwork for substantial improvements in the future.
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