FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 13

Before mechanization became common, neighbors and family—including
the children—pitched in to help each other on the farm.

While the Industrial Revolution contributed greatly to
advancements in both rural and urban life, not all the changes
it brought were positive. Factory workers often had to endure
difficult and dangerous working conditions. Many workers lived in
overcrowded and unsanitary tenements. The plight of the American
worker, and the perceived greed of the wealthy industrialists who
employed them, gave rise to the modern Progressive Movement.
Originating in the 1890s, the Progressive Era, which lasted into the
early 1920s, was a period of social activism and political reform
aimed primarily at corruption in government and the abuses of
capitalism. The Progressives were avid modernizers who believed
both technology and education were the solutions to society’s ills.
Above all, they believed it was the responsibility of government to
intervene in order to protect and promote the interests, and the
quality of life, of its citizens.

American Farms at the Turn of the Century

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