Chapter 6.5 Regulation, Reform, and Revolutionary Ideologies
Chapter 6.5 Regulation, Reform, and Revolutionary Ideologies
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Analyze the effectiveness of government regulation of the industrial workplace and of city life
- Analyze nineteenth- and early twentieth-century labor and social reform movements
- Describe the development of socialism as a means of addressing industrial workers’ needs
Industrialization and urbanization offered opportunities to many people and improved their lives in many ways. However, they also brought much suffering and discontent. The period of the Second Industrial Revolution gave birth to a number of reform movements and legal efforts to eliminate the problems that urbanization and industrialization caused. Some efforts were successful; many were not. When things did not change—or did not change fast enough—people sometimes turned to violent conflict and threatened revolution.
Regulation and Reform
The challenges of the industrial age must have seemed overwhelming to observers of the time, and the difficulties insurmountable. Nevertheless, governments attempted to solve some of the most important problems. Their motives varied. Many officials were sensitive to the criticisms of social activists and reformers, and some politicians came from their ranks. They genuinely wished to improve the lives of city dwellers and the working class. Politicians often acted to please the wealthy and middle class, however, who found themselves threatened by dirty air, smelly streets, and infectious diseases that domestic servants might bring into their homes (Figure 6.16). Florence Kelley, an American activist who sought to end child labor, objected to it not only because it deprived young people of the freedom of childhood, but also because she feared the products made by children in tenement apartments might be dirty and infect her own family.
Many politicians at both the local and national levels also realized that protecting workers’ health and welfare made the nation stronger. Sick workers were unproductive, and travelers avoided cities suffering epidemics. Numerous laws were passed to combat disease and render cities clean. In 1848, Britain took a step forward by passing the Public Health Act, which created the National Board of Health to regulate such matters as the dumping of sewage. In 1863, Britain’s Alkali Act sought to reduce hydrogen chloride emissions by empowering investigators to suggest changes to factory owners, though without the power to compel obedience. In the 1880s, several American cities, including Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, passed ordinances to limit smoke emissions. None of these laws were very successful. Businesses ignored them, and cities usually did not enforce them. Housing also became a concern of governments during the Second Industrial Revolution. Regulations often outlawed dangers such as apartments without windows or ventilation, where infectious diseases rapidly bred. Some municip