Workers faced many dangers in the 1920’s, especially in New York when building skyscrapers
Workers at Ford’s factories worked unbelievable hours. But, unlike most other factories, Ford’s payed their men well
8
The struggle of the American worker Article by: Razan, Maddie, Jollesha, Quay
Everyone faces different problems in life, what makes us special is the way we deal with them. American workers are special for the way they try to deal with their problems. First, workers have been fighting to gain more freedom and exercise their constitutional rights since 1881, but have found no support from the government or the people. Similar to American workers, child laborers have been struggling to acquire the same freedoms that the adult workers are fighting for, but are having less luck accomplishing their goals. Farmers have been a big part of our economy and our country for a very long time, and if farmers are struggling then our economy is struggling as well. Workers have been striving to achieve their objective of being given freedom and control over their own live; these workers have only asked to be set free of the reins that are holding them in place so the rich can benefit, and although they started off having some support from the government, in the end, they were abandoned by their own government. The government that was created for the sole purpose of helping its citizens. Factories are a place where people go to have their moral, self-esteem, and self-worth questioned, and even destroyed in a lot of cases. Workers have rights just like the rest of us do, they are people after all. All these men want is to be treated like humans, not objectified and replaced with machines. That was the reason unions started, workers just wanted to peacefully protest for their rights. But, that put pressure on the factories, and they can’t have that, so a lot of factories made their new hires sign a contract forbidding them from exercising their constitutional rights and joining unions. If they wanted to get the job, they had to sign the contract, thus legally binding themselves in order to feed their families. During the war the government supported the workers and urged factories to entertain their requests because they were momentous to the thriving American economy and later to the winning of the war. After the war ended the government turned a blind eye on the injustice now that the workers have served their purpose and are nothing but a hindrance, a slight irritability for them.
Workers have not made huge accomplishments with their main goal of more rights for the worker, one worker specifically has made no progress. Child workers have not made any progress with gaining any rights, they work the same hours if not longer hours each day. They struggle with the same problems the adult workers do, they could suffer permanent injury or even death in rare cases. The child worker even faces a problem that the adult worker does not, they are at work all day which means they have no time to get an education. The education that they are missing could be vital to them having a successful future in whatever job they choose to pursue. Child labor laws have come nowhere worker laws and rights in general have not come close to reaching their goal of higher pay and lower hours. Farmer´s continued to struggle because they don't have enough money to get a truck to get all the stuff so that they can grow more plants and sell them to the stores . The government wasn't paying them enough , so the prices went up on the stuff that goes to the stores . In conclusion, all workers may not be struggling in the same way but they are fighting for the same thing, workers rights. No matter the age, race, or gender all workers are striving for more privileges for themselves and others. You may not see the battle that people are fighting but I assure you it’s there, Americans have been trying to find a solution to the poor conditions that American workers are forced to endure every single day. Workers are facing horrible conditions in factories, children are workingto the brink of a mental breakdown daily, farmers are losing valuable farming land and we aren’t doing anything about it. What else do these workers have to suffer through to get your attention and support to help out the workers of America?
Bibliography Maddie’s Bibliography A child working in a factory. The Weebley, theamericandreamforchildren.weebly.com/child-labor-in-the-1920s.html. Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Rancho Cordova, Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. Kids at Work. New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Kids at Work. Little Boy Carrying buckets of water. Digital file. Newspaper boys smoking. Rare Historical Photos, rarehistoricalphotos.com/child-laborers-newsboys-1910/. Robinson, J. Dennis. Striking Back: The Fight to End Child Labor Exploitation. Mankato, Compass Point Books, 2010. Striking Back. Three Children. History, history.blogberth.com/2017/07/09/lumber-saw-mill-with-child-labors-ca-1920s/. Two girls working in a field. Digital file. U.S.A. 1920s. Danbury, Grolier, 2005. 1920s. Young boys working in a factory. Eastern Illinois University, www.eiu.edu/eiutps/newsletter_childlabor.php. Young kid who has been working. The Atlantic, www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/07/child-labor-in-america-100-years-ago/397478/. Young man who has been working. United States Department of Labor, arlweb.msha.gov/CENTURY/LITTLE/PAGE1.asp.
Razan’s bibliography http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/prosperity/text5/text5.htm https://www.jstor.org/stable/27671703#metadata_info_tab_contents https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/thinking-about-amer ican-workers-in-the-1920s/FC67DDFA429FB71DE9863413536EBD1B http://americanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e330 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/dolchp02 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/1920s-america/a/1920s-consumption http://www.scholastic.com/browse/subarticle.jsp?id=1674