The document discusses living and working conditions in the late 1800s, and efforts to improve them. It shows photos of families working long hours in unsafe conditions. Some worked in homes, while factories emerged as a new system where many worked together in one location. Reformers advocated for better protections and regulations. Andrew Carnegie believed wealth should support society, while Jacob Riis pushed for housing reforms and Ida Tarbell called for antitrust laws to limit corporate power and corruption. Jane Addams established volunteer services to directly aid the poor.

1. Essential Question
What were some of the living and working
conditions during the late 1800s, and what
did people do to try to improve those
circumstances?

2. Early industrial labor system in which
workers produced goods at home.

4. Mrs. Battaglia with Tessie, age 12 and Tony, age 7 work at
home on a Saturday. Earn from $1 to $1.50 for the day.

5. Family and neighbors working at night sewing garters.

6. Method of production in which goods
are made by workers and machines in
one location (a factory) outside their
homes.

7. 9pm in an Indiana glass factory

8. Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory.
Began at 3:30am and worked to 5pm.

9. Mill Girl, Lancaster, S.C., November 30, 1908

10. 1) What is “progress”?
2) What is the best way to make progress?
3) What should the government do to improve society?
4) Is there a need for more government involvement?
5) Is there a need for more private competition?
6) What should business do to improve society?
7) What should “common” people do to improve society?
8) Do Americans need the government to protect them
from corporate abuse?

11. Home of Andrew Carnegie, New York, NY, c1903

12. Carnegie Steel Company,
“Lucy” furnace, Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie blast furnaces,
Between 1900-1915 Homestead, PA 1905

13. Carnegie Libraries
Carnegie Library,
Montgomery, AL
c1906
Carnegie Library, Tuskegee Institute c1906

14. Carnegie Libraries
Carnegie library,
Washington, D.C. c1906
Carnegie Library,
Burlington, VT c.1907

15. Carnegie Libraries
Carnegie had two main reasons for donating
money to the founding of libraries
First, he believed that libraries added to the meritocratic
nature of America. Anyone with the right inclination and
desire could educate himself.
Second, Carnegie believed that immigrants like himself
needed to acquire cultural knowledge of America; which the
library allowed immigrants to do.

16. Residential street,
Chicago, c. 1901.
A backyard shared by five houses, Chicago, c. 1910.

17. Packinghouses c. 1909.
Making sausage

18. “Young Miners,”
South Pittston PA, January 6, 1911
“Breaker boys,” Hughestown
Borough Coal Co. Pittston, PA

19. Residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, New
York, NY, 1901
Vanderbilt Hall, Yale College, New
Haven, CN, 1901

20. Adolescent girls from Bibb, Mfg. Co. in Georgia

21. Young cigar makers in Engelhardt and Co.

22. Mill workers mending broken threads on bobbins.

23. John D. Rockefeller’s
residence, Cleveland, OH, c1908
Forest Hill Lodge, entrance to
Rockefeller’s home, Cleveland, OH,
c1905

24. Rockefeller Hall, Brown University
Rockefeller Hall, Vassar College

27. Breakerboys – Pennsylvania Coal
Company
Young Driver - West
Virginia, September 1909.

28. Francis Lance, 5 years old,
jumps on and off trolleys to
sell newspapers. Tony Casale, 11, has been selling
newspapers for four years.

29. Breaker boys, Woodward Coal Mines,
Kingston, PA, 1900

30. Home of J.P. Morgan,
New York, NY, 1907
J.P. Morgan & Co.’s offices,
[Drexel Building], New York, NY, 1905

31. Striking workers rally at 47th and Ashland, Chicago, 1904.

32. What is the definition
of “democracy”?

33. Do these pictures show a
democratic society?

34. What is the difference
between a democratic and a
capitalist society?

35. In the early 1900s, some people were
concerned that there were “people” with
power in the U.S. but that the majority of
the “people” had no power.

36. This is a Senate
Of the Monopolists
By the Monopolists and
For the Monopolists

37. Entrance for
Monopolists

38. People’s
Entrance
Closed

39. 1) What is “progress”?
2) What is the best way to make progress?
3) What should the government do to improve society?
4) Is there a need for more government involvement?
5) Is there a need for more private competition?
6) What should business do to improve society?
7) What should “common” people do to improve society?
8) Do Americans need the government to protect them
from corporate abuse?

40. Andrew Carnegie – was a strict Social
Darwinist. He believed that accumulation of
wealth by a few was inevitable in any
capitalistic society. Further, this concentration
of wealth in the hands of a few was necessary
for democracy and freedom to prevail and for
the whole of society to be prosperous. Any
attempt to circumvent this system would lead to anarchy and tyranny.
However, Carnegie believed that those who did make it had a
moral obligation to use their fortune to give back to society (The
“Gospel of Wealth”). In particular, this money was to be spent in a
way that did not encourage laziness (charities that only dealt with
symptoms and not the problem) but that created institutions that
made opportunities for anyone with the right character to be
successful and rich.
Carnegie gave money to build 2,509 libraries.

41. Jacob Riis – became a police
reporter in New York City,
where he documented the grim
realities of tenement life. His
detailed accounts of the city’s
poor and of their struggles at
work and at home argued the
need for public housing and laws
to control landlords.

42. Ida Tarbell – revealed the illegal
means used by John D.
Rockefeller to monopolize the
early oil industry in her most
famous work, The History of
the Standard Oil Company. She
argued the need for the federal
government to enforce the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act and
control corruption.

43. Jane Addams - was a selfless
giver of assistance to the
poor. She showed the need
for individual volunteers to
give of their time and
resources to aid the
downtrodden.

44. The central questions are:
Can society create a system
with winners and no losers?
&
If so, how?

45. In your opinion, which of these people (or
solutions) would have made the U.S. (around
1900) a more democratic society?
•Carnegie - the wealthy should give back to the
community.
•Riis - need public housing and laws to control landlords.
•Tarbell - government needs to enforce the Sherman Anti-
Trust Act and control corruption.
•Addams - individual volunteers must give of their time
and resources to aid the downtrodden