Child Savers - What Is the Progressive Era?

What is the Progressive Era? After the suffering from the Great Depression, the Progressive Era began and lasted from 1890 to 1920; it was a response from the people to the Industrial Revolution. The era changed the role of government for the American people. The government neglected many parts of an everyday American's life like: racial issues and women rights; all this created was, an open opportunity for social reform groups of the future. Henry Sage (2010, pg.138) states that: "although the Progressive Era was a hopeful time, following as it did the "Reckless Decade" or Gay Nineties, a foreboding atmosphere nevertheless overrode much of the optimism of that turn-of-the-century era." So much went on in that era. There was labor violence and cultural disturbances because of immigration and urban disenchantment, as well as businesses controlling the people.

Theodore Roosevelt became the President during the Progressive Era due to the death of John McKinley. Theodore Roosevelt came from a legacy of contributions to domestic and foreign affairs with all the Wars that he had been a part of. During the presidency of Roosevelt, he had the support of great leaders like Woodrow Wilson and other business and political leaders. "The nation began to clean its act up" (Sage, 2010 pg. 71). The Progressive Era created clean and healthy cities and safer work environments. Businessmen had more concern for their workers and discovered that better work environments made their employees content and increased work productivity, which led to work hours being reduced. Societies all around improved after the Great Depression, though it did not change the social problems or labor issues; it was a new beginning. The era was an improvement of all the things that plagued an Americans life at the spin of the century, it also "was a period of considerable change and reform in all areas of social, legal, political, and economic life," says Platt (1969, pg. xv).

The focus of the reformers for this era was work conditions like hours, safety, wages and job security. "They attacked abuse of the capitalist systems in order to preserve it, rather than replace it with socialist alternatives," explains Sage (2010, pg.56). This era also addressed issues like prostitution and alcohol abuse which detrimental to the middle class' image.

Platt (1969, pg. xvii) said, "Critics have correctly observed, this book mistakenly implies that juvenile delinquency and experiments were nonexistent before the Progressive era." Juvenile behavior was not a concern or even an issue around the Progressive era. Many child savers had the same outlook on crime and delinquency as the previous generation; the only difference is that the child savers were also focused on trying to correct the problem and create programs that would help youth for years to come (Platt, 1969).

The Child Saver movement began in 1830-1960; it is known for influencing the creation of the juvenile system. The child savers wanted to be able to save the child by early detections of deviant behavior through training and education. The first juvenile court was created in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois (Platt, 1969). The idea of juvenile court spread like a wildfire in all states but 3 by the year 1917; and then over 600 juvenile courts were up and running by the year 1932 (Platt,1969).

The goal of the child saving movement among the juvenile court system was to process and establish programs for juveniles (Platt, 1969). These reformers had a desire to alleviate the miseries of urban life and to solve social problems by rational, enlightened and scientific methods (Platt, 1969). Michael Katz (1996) explains life at the turn of the 20th century after the Great depression; he uses the Child saving reform to address the wretched social conditions that the child savers desired to alleviate.

Countless amounts of people have questioned the economic and ideal support for the child savers establishment. The Child Savers were able to receive financial support from communal liberals, corporate bigots and public education, just to name a few (Platt, 1969). The child saver movement gained the attention of women from middle to high class statuses and political backgrounds; their aim was to get children out of poverty, end child labor, promote education and form a type of probation (Katz, 1996) verses the rich daughters of old landed gentry and the wives of the industrial nouveau riche (Platt, 1969). These women thought that the delinquents should have the opportunity to be rehabilitated and educated on the way one should live or behave instead of being confined.

Child labor in this era was very important because many children faced horrible working conditions. In 1852, states all over the U.S. began to pass laws dictating education as a requirement of every citizen. People from poor backgrounds supported this law because of the need to take care of the farm; this type of work was the only field that was basically exempt from the child labor laws. By the time 1890 came and passed, child labor laws were created and being enforced. The more I read into the child savers movement the more I consider them to be a part of the middle working class and the professionals; even though some may have not supported them completely, they were still in need of the financial support of that class.

The Child Savers reform had a mixed combination of social class. It combined both the reactor

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