Chapter 18

  • Muckrakers

    Muckrakers
    Muckrakers exposed the flith of society. Lincoln Steffens and Claude Wetmore marked the really beginning of this style of journalism. They exposed the corrupt political machine in St. Louis.
  • Ella Flagg Young

    Ella Flagg Young
    Ella Flagg Young became Chicago's superintendent of schools. The first woman to hold a job, such as this, in a major city. She promoted public education by raising teacher's salaries.
  • The Closing of Saloons

    The Closing of Saloons
    Prohibition was the ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. It also closed the nations saloons. George Turner wrote in McClure's Magazine that to truly reform the U.S. cities, saloons must be closed.
  • Labor Worker's Lives

    Labor Worker's Lives
    Progressive reformers fought for higher wages. About 30 million men and 7.5 million women were employed in 1910. About one third of them lived in poverty.
  • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

    Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
    There were some 500 employees, as they started to leave a fire erupted in a rag bin. In moments the entire eighth floor was ablaze. Escape was impossible because fire doors were locked, some women tried taking the elevator, sixty workers jumped out the window to their death, trying to escape the burning building.