Was it Worth the Cost?

The benefits of new technology of industrialization were not worth the cost. Industrialization wasn’t worth the cost because children were being utilized to do work that put them in harm's way, many men were injured or killed working and so much pollution was added to the environment when factory businesses began to grow. First and foremost, children were put in factories instead of getting educated. Lewis Wickes Hine captured photographs of children tired, worn out and dirty. The poster said that the children who worked in factories had “No future” and “low wages.” Therefore, children were turned into “junk.” If industrialization was going to turn the next generation into “junk” it wasn’t worth the cost. Meanwhile, hard working men were becoming terribly injured or even killed. Crystal Eastman posted a report warning people about the amount of men who were injured from working in industrial activities. How is the industrial industry supposed to move on, if their workers can no longer work because of the conditions? Is industrialization really worth the cost of one innocent man’s life? No, it wasn’t. The working condition should have been safer to protect the men. In addition, industrialization also impacted the environment. The Detroit Publishing Company released an image of factories in New York, but the amount of pollution coming from the factories was outrageous. The air that people had to breathe everyday was being destroyed. The article “Polluting the Environment” explains that there was so much pollution that they needed street lights to see during the day. Children rotting, men hurting or dying, the environment being polluted, was that worth the cost? Overall, the benefits of new technology were not worth the cost.