The American Worker
Sidney Nash, Leah Moenning, Brett Pelfrey and Miles Davies
Table of Contents Editorial New products are Bad for American Workers- Sidney Nash Child Labor: The Importance of your Children - Leah Moenning Child labor comic Struggles in Farming - Brett Pelfrey Farming cartoon Henry Ford’s Assembly Line - Miles
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Davies
Ford Car advertisement Bibliographies
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The Struggles of the Working Man The workers are continuing to struggle and the workplace is changing. What workers have to do in their jobs is also changing. However, these changes are not all benefiting workers. They are striving to get better conditions in the workplace, but they are not succeeding. New production techniques, child labor, farming, and Ford’s assembly line are all failing to provide workers with good working conditions. The techniques for workers are unacceptable. These workers are not being cared for by their bosses. Their safety is also not being cared for and their pay is low. There are no benefits for the workers. The workers work in a hot place which is causing them to get hurt. Not only are adults suffering under harsh labor conditions, but children are also suffering. Child labor laws we have in place are not working. There are a large number of children who are currently working many hours with no breaks. The jobs our children are working are dreadful. The jobs are unsafe and sometimes can even be deadly. Some of the machines can fall and hurt the children. Also, the chemicals and pollution in the air are ruining our kids' lungs. It is ruining their lives and their future. We need to pass new laws to limit child labor. Farmers are also workers and they are struggling right now as well. The crop prices are rapidly falling, there is a huge oversupply, and the farmers are in huge debts. One of the major reasons why we are struggling is that the crop prices are falling by a substantial amount. Since 1919, the prices of corn went from $1.50 a bushel to $0.50 a bushel. Another reason why we are struggling is that there is a big amount of oversupply of crops. The last reason why we are struggling is that we got ourselves into huge debts. We did this when we bought farm equipment to try and get crops picked and planted faster so we can plant more land but when prices dropped we lost all our money and couldn't pay off our loans. One place where workers fought for better conditions was in Henry Ford’s assembly line. They formed unions to work for better conditions and higher pay. Eventually, they succeeded in getting a pay raise to $5 a day. Some workers are happy with that, but others still do not like their conditions. Workers on the assembly line have to do the same thing every day for hours and hours on end, which is very tiring and not very satisfactory. Is $5 a day enough for workers to be happy with their assembly line job? Workers are continuing to struggle and we need to fix this! For more details on each of these issues, read the following articles. You will find that these issues are very big. These issues need to be solved, and we need your help and your voice to solve them.
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Leah Moenning
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By Brett Pelfrey
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Works Cited (Brett Pelfrey) America in the 20th Century. 2nd ed., Tarrytown, Marshall Cavendish, 2003. Hanson, Erica. The 1920s. San Diego, Lucent Books, 1999. Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Student edition. ed., Rancho Cordova, Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. U.S.A. 1920s. Danbury, Grolier, 2005. Works Cited(Sidney) Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Student edition. ed., Rancho Cordova, Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. Kallen, Stuart A. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, Greenhaven Press, 2002. Lindop, Edmund, and Margaret J. Goldstein. America in the 1920s. Minneapolis, Twenty-First Century Books, 2010. Works Cited(Miles) Basset, William R., and Ernst Jonson. "Can Machines Make Us Free?-A Debate." The Forum, Oct. 1924. Edison, Thomas. "Machine-Made Freedom." The Forum, Oct. 1926. Flywheel Assembly Line at the Highland Park Plant, 1913. 1913. Flickr, 9 Sept. 2010, c1.staticflickr.com/5/4091/4974229245_e7d82e4f3b_b.jpg. Accessed 1 Nov. 2018. Ford, Henry. Today and Tomorrow. 1926. Ford Company. A-line1913. 1913. Wikimedia Commons, MediaWiki, 6 July 2006, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/A-line1913.jpg. Accessed 1 Nov. 2018. Ford Motor Company assembly line. 7 Jan. 1928. Wikimedia Commons, MediaWiki, 9 Aug. 2007, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Ford_Motor_Company_assembly_line.jpg. Accessed 1 Nov. 2018. Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Student edition. ed., Rancho Cordova, Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. Leslie. 1920 Ford Model T Centerdoor Sedan. 9 Aug. 2008. Wikimedia Commons, 31 July 2010, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/1920_Ford_Model_T_Centerdoor_Sedan_2.jpg. Accessed 26 Oct. 2018. Lindop, Edmund, and Margaret J. Goldstein. America in the 1920s. Minneapolis, Twenty-First Century Books, 2010. Niebuhr, Reinhold. Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. 1929. Shipler, Harry. 1910Ford-T. 11 Apr. 1910. Wikimedia Commons, MediaWiki, 3 Aug. 2008, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/1910Ford-T.jpg. Accessed 1 Nov. 2018. U.S.A. 1920s. Danbury, Grolier, 2005.
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Works Cited (Leah Moenning) Boys Child Labor. Group of Boys, www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7MLmEeTzuw. "Child Labor." Kawvalley, www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/schools/rjh/marneyg/05_history-projects/05_amack_childlabor.htm. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. "Child Labor in America 1920." National Public Radio, www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/08/16/158925367/child-labor-in-america-1920. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Freedman, Russell, and Lewis Wickes Hine. Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade against Child Labor. New York, Clarion Books, 1994. Kids at work. Girl Working. Girl in Factory working, theamericandreamforchildren.weebly.com/child-labor-in-the-1920s.html. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Student edition. ed., Rancho Cordova, Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. "Immigration,culture, and child labor in the united states." JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3657042?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=immigration%2Cculture%2Cand&se archText=child&searchText=labor&searchText=in&searchText=the&searchText=united&searchText=states&search Uri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dimmigration%252Cculture%252Cand%2Bchild%2Blabor%2Bin %2Bthe%2Bunited%2Bstates&refreqid=search%3Abbd1b394978d2d77455f08037071c1fe&seq=1#metadata_info_t ab_contents. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Robinson, J. Dennis. Striking Back: The Fight to End Child Labor Exploitation. Mankato, Compass Point Books, 2010. Striking Back. Three Girls. Photo of girls, www.eiu.edu/eiutps/newsletter_childlabor.php. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Two Boys. Boys Working In factory, www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/07/child-labor-in-america-100-years-ago/397478/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Two Boys Working. Two Boys, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/national-child-labor-committee/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Cover Image Lee, Russell. Coal Loader in Appalachia, 1946. 23 Sept. 1946. Wikipedia, MediaWiki, 27 Oct. 2018, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/ Harry_Fain%2C_coal_loader._Inland_Steel_Company%2C_Wheelwright_%5E1_%26_2_Mines%2 C_Wheelwright%2C_Floyd_County%2C_Kentucky._-_NARA_-_541452.jpg/ 220px-Harry_Fain%2C_coal_loader._Inland_Steel_Company%2C_Wheelwright_%5E1_%26_2_M ines%2C_Wheelwright%2C_Floyd_County%2C_Kentucky._-_NARA_-_541452.jpg. Accessed 2 Nov. 2018. 14