While Americans tried their luck abroad, they also saw with new eyes the social problems they had at home. Although the economy was booming and prosperity was spreading, half of the total industrial workers were still living in poverty; many of those workers were women and children.
Social workers began to go to the slums to build welfare centers that provided health services and recreational facilities for the poor. The prohibitionists demanded an end to the sale of alcoholic beverages, in part to avoid the suffering that drunken workers imposed on their wives and children. In the cities, reform politicians fought against corruption, regulated public transportation, created municipal utilities and reduced taxes through more efficient government. Many states enacted laws restricting child labor, protecting workers, limiting hours of work and stipulating workers' compensation. Women demonstrated for the right to vote, and by 1914 several states had recognized that right.
