Jacob Riis: How The Other Half Lives

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This source is an excerpt from the book How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis was born in Denmark and grew up there. He emigrated to the United States in 1870 at the age of 21. Being like most young men of 21, he had high hopes of the future and excitement about what was to come. He held quite a few odd and undesirable jobs during the first few years in the U.S. These jobs and the way of life he led while looking for his niche in the world, opened Riis ' eyes to the poverty of the working class in the United States. Riis obtained a job which became a career, as a police reporter on the Lower East side of New York City. While doing this he became proficient at photography and often took pictures of the neighborhood in which he was assigned. Because, the neighborhood was infected with crime and poverty, Riis desired to expose this suffering …show more content…
In fact many were working every waking hour only to look for sleep in a room full of people both adult and children and no space you call their own. This source brought into the American living room, the horrible truth of the lives the working class was living day by day. Demanding a change the American public looked to anyone in authority do create that change. When President McKinley was assassinated the public did not think it time to allow the status quo to continue. So with this issue having been brought about the second source is from President Roosevelt 's first address to congress. Roosevelt asks congress to look at this problem head on and find solutions that may help both the industries to make money and protect the working class from abuse. While Roosevelt and Riis come at the problem from completely different points of view, they both desired to protect the working

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