A Look into Labor Reforms of the Progressive Era

Provoking thoughts occurred as a result of viewing a certain piece of art at the San Jose Museum of Art. This piece of art piece labeled Fallen Fruit by David Burns and Austin Young was the awe and inspiration for my topic of this paper. The piece made me think of working conditions and how far they have improved in the past century. The digital print coldly depicts assembly line workers packaging fruits for a company. The print displays the average worker in monochrome while the environment juxtaposes the workers with its tinted bright colors. The contrast between the monochrome workers and the tinted environment creates a feeling where the worker is lost in a sea of color and reveals a sense of seriousness of the morbid reality that most workers faced during the 1920s. This contrast was created by Burns and Young as a metaphor to illuminate the audience on the emphasis that companies placed on the workplace itself and the products that were being produced rather than the conditions of the workers. The angle and focus of the workers in the print also help establish a feeling of disregard for the workers. This cruel reality established by the print led me on the train of thought of the Progressive Era. An era of great change, Progressive reforms helped the quality of life for the average worker and helped pave the way for future improvements. Although Progressive reforms for the workplace were loosely enforced, these labor reforms were effective to help create better working conditions, help regulate big business, and push for the creation of unions and bureaus.
The Progressive Era was a movement in the United States from the 1890s to the 1920s where social and political reforms flourished in order to combat corruption in g...

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...t ruled them as unconstitutional and the Progressives were back to the drawing board. Congress attempted to pass more of these laws in 1924, but “the conservative political climate of the 1920s, together with opposition from some church groups and farm organizations that feared a possible increase of federal power in areas related to children, prevented many states from ratifying it”( Yellowitz). Enforcement of reforms were also lackluster. In the case of child labor which was restricted in 1938, enforcement of said reform was said that “effectiveness in enforcement varies from state to state(Yellowitz). However, the push from Progressives were effective in setting the foundation for later vital laws. Without this push, who knows how much longer it would have taken for the government to pass social and economic regulations that the populace deems as normal today.