lled the Progressive Era (1890-1920) which dealt with the industrial revolution, political corruption, and the many reform movements that gained more economic and social power in every passing year. These people believed in faith in progress, rejected Social Darwinism and Laissez-fair, and wanted a pro-active government, a breaking up of trusts, and the application of religious and moral values with laws. The leaders of these reform movements were very liberal and wanted a change from what America had become, a few wealthy people running the nation while the vast majority of people, immigrants, were poverty stricken. There were many people who were a part of these reform movements and some people were also a part of the upper class in American society in the early 1900’s. Not every person believed everything that was said by the reformers, but the points that the reformers made must have made some of the upper class wonder about American society in that day. Some people must have wondered about the integrity and fairness that was being bestowed upon the labor force that kept the Industrial Revolution going.In the response to Brandeis’s one-hundred thirteen page report on how working long factory hours affected the women, “Justice Brewer’s opinion not only acknowledged the brief, a highly unusual step, but conceded that women were in fact different from men, and thus needed this type of factory protection.” (Backgrounder) This points out the judge’s recognition of Brandeis’s report and his approach to the case of relating the reasoning behind the law to the health of the women. The fact that the health of the bearers of the next generation should be in the interest of the public connected with some of the Oregon’s supporters. If the women were supposed to work and maintain the household as their predecessors had, how were they going to find that many hours in the twenty-four hour da...
