The Duel Nature Of The Progressive Era — страница 2

she and her assistants organized domestic science classes to educate women about the dangers of contaminated urban foods (Addams, 26). Ms. Addams also appreciated the benefits of social science, believing that social investigations through scientifically collected data could be used to “enlighten people on social conditions and to mobilize for change in public policy” (Addams, 32). She was not opposed to using scientifically collected data from both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor to better understand the eating habits of the immigrant (Addams, 96). Furthermore, Hull house directly employed the use of social science in its survey Hull House Maps and Papers. Not only did the survey allow Jane and her colleagues to better understand the ethnic make-up

of the neighborhood, but it also revealed that only one-quarter of the area’s residents had access to a bathroom with running water (Addams, 18). It is also safe to assume that Ms. Addams and her contemporaries-Florence Kelly, Grace Abbott, Alice Hamilton-supported and applauded the science which led to purified milk stations, diphtheria vaccinations, public nursing and industrial medicine. This was the humanitarian side of science and it was supported by those Progressives who viewed themselves as benevolent benefactors of the poor and working class-social workers, health care practitioners and to some extent the ward bosses and labor leaders (Wiebe, 175). Frederick Taylor was also a proponent of science and he too saw it as a means of bringing social order to an otherwise

chaotic world. Taylor believed that through a careful and detailed analysis of time and motion, he could develop a worker to his highest state of efficiency and prosperity. The underlying theory of scientific management was to professionalize big business; thereby, making it more socially responsible to the citizenry. Frederick Taylor may have truly believed that more efficient corporations would raise wages and lower prices, and thus end social strife. However, the ultimate outcome of such science was the development of a rigid set of rules and laws that dehumanized the worker. In reality, scientific management was nothing more than a hard, unfeeling elitist system according to which “engineers worked out the one best way of doing a thing and then ordered workers to comply

with it” (O’Neill, 83). This was a cold and emotionless science; one filled with precise measurements, economical statistics and monetary projections. This brand of science appealed to the businessman, the career city manager and to some extent the commercial farmer. While scientific development did allow for higher profits, increased productivity and more efficient governments, it left little room for human compassion and social welfare services. As Weibe so aptly pointed out the reform minded businessman desired continuous services that were both efficient and inexpensive and resented any taxes that would “take away with one hand the benefits he was just then extracting with the other” (Weibe, 175). It is apparent that Taylor’s brand of science was not always in the

best interest of the common worker, and social engineers who advocated scientific management were often quite willing to sacrifice the worker’s welfare in the name of efficiency. Jane Addams often found herself at odds with such efficiency experts. Such was the case, when she served on a public relief committee. Although the committee’s sole purpose was to provide work for unemployed laborers, they were unwilling to forgo the ideal of “efficiency”. Exasperated, Addams attempted to point out that it was not the committee’s ultimate goal to clean streets but to provide jobs in a time of high unemployment. Before resigning her post, she told fellow her fellow committee members “it is better to have men work half a day for seventy-five cents than a whole day for a dollar,

better that they should earn three dollars in two days than in three” (Addams, 109). Ms. Addams had an innate respect for the working class poor and the newly arrived immigrant. She firmly believed that in order to be of service to these individuals, that one must have intimate knowledge of their needs and a true appreciation and respect for their ethnicity. Addams took the time and effort to understand people as individuals and did not arbitrarily categorize the immigrant and worker as unintelligent or unskilled. Instead, she respected their skills and valued their handicrafts, their artwork and metal working abilities. She and her colleagues showed their respect by dedicating entire rooms of Hull House as showcases for the immigrants’ handiwork. Furthermore, in her writings