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How the industrial revolution changed immigration
Morality and profitability
Morality and profitability
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Recommended: How the industrial revolution changed immigration
Industry in America during the 1900's was in the "I'm walking, what next?", stages of infancy. Politics, although not so young, was dealing with the bourgeoning growth of industry. Regulation in American industry was veritably nonexistent during this time. Anything went, and everything went, providing they achieved profit. Huge quantities of immigrants arriving daily into the United States provided a bewildered and obedient workforce. If profit meant that we neglected workers or sanitary conditions the dollar spoke louder.
Large unregulated corporations began to dominate the U.S. after the civil war. The most harmful and biggest monopolies called "the trusts." The trusts were groups of corporations that would squeeze out free competition to keep the prices of their products low. Although the Sherman Anti-Trust of 1890 banned this, the U.S. government sparingly enforced the law believing that supply and demand would regulate the economy to the best interests of everyone.
Graft and corruption ran rampant within the city governments and corporations, who worked hand in hand tying and interweaving unjust practices, leaving a blind eye to worker and consumer rights. In 1901, a Socialist party was founded and exercised remarkable growth due to this straining industrialization of the U.S.. The Socialist party blamed many of society's ill's on competition for profit and believed government regulated cooperation should substitute for competition.
Upton Sinclair, a journalist, spent seven weeks researching and interviewing within Chicago's meat packing district. His novel "The Jungle," depicted the graft, corruption and unsavory practices of the meat packing industry. Originally published as a series of articles in a weekly Socialist-based newspaper called "Appeal to Reason." This newspaper's circulation was a half million and heading upwards, thus "The Jungle," found much notoriety before published as a novel. Due to public outcries that followed its publication as a novel in 1906 led directly to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug act later that year.
Although Sinclair wrote this novel as an argument for Socialism, it became an expose of the meat packing industry. His main idea throughout this novel was the injustice of commercialism to working-class people. He used his immigrant characters lives and difficulties to display how horrible capitalism treated society. Greed, graft, and corruption enslaved his characters. The inequities of society blatantly listed paragraph by paragraph to a public he hoped to influence to his politics.
During the early 1900s, the changing views on human rights redefined the standards of society and government in America. When Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle, it immediately affected American society and American federal policy, although Sinclair had hoped to bring about a different reaction.
During this era, businesses supplied large amounts of employment for citizens which created power for these businesses. They had the power to provide bad working conditions, lower wages, and fire their employees without any justification (Doc 1). George E. McNeill, a labor leader, states how “whim is law” and one can not object to it. The government took a laissez-faire approach and refused to regulate economic factors. This allowed robber barons and business tycoons to gain more authority of each industry through the means of horizontal and vertical integration. It wasn’t until later in the time period that the government passed a few acts to regulate these companies, such as the ICC and the Sherman Antitrust Act. One of the main successful industries was
However, they also had a much wider reaching idea of democratic control over the economy . This is where I tend to disagree with Sinclair and socialism. He mentions corruption in the system at the time and implies that socialism may be a system without corruption. I don’t feel that a political and economic system ran by the people is any less susceptible to corruption than capitalism is. After all, it is still just people and people will do dishonest things for power. America was built on capitalism and it definitely has its flaws, but I feel that it promotes prosperity best when paired with democracy. The socialist movement played a great role in reshaping the US capitalist system. It definitely needed tweaking in the early 20th century, and still does, but the socialist ideas help push us in the right
However, that was not the case. When The Jungle was presented to the public, readers were astonished by the disgusting and unsanitary state in which the meat was being processed in. The community was more concerned with the meat conditions than they were with the horrific conditions the workers were faced with. So while the popularity of Sinclair’s work was not his original intentions, it still accomplished stages of reform. It can be assumed that Roosevelts initial reluctance to accept Sinclair’s novel was in part, directly connected to his disbelief that the Federal government had become so disconnected and oblivious to American industry and the complete lack of Federal oversight. This “disconnect” did not last long as The Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as, the Meat Inspection Act were both directly set in to place mere months after Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle was published. This type of reform supported progressive philosophy by preventing corporate owners from remaining above government regulation and started a trend in the way government regulators began to deal with corporate monopolies and trusts. The Jungle, along with other “muckrakers” began a series of Federal oversight reforms and regulatory guidance that soon began to take hold in other industries. Big industry would soon realize that they were not above the
The Jungle, the 1906 exposé of the Chicago meatpacking industry. The novel focuses on an immigrant family and sympathetically and realistically describes their struggles with loan sharks and others who take advantage of their innocence. More importantly, Sinclair graphically describes the brutal working conditions of those who find work in the stockyards. Sinclair's description of the main character's
At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started an investigation as he declared“ I spent seven weeks in Packingtown studying conditions there, and I verified every smallest detail, so that as a picture of social conditions the book is as exact as a government report” (Sinclair, The Industrial Republic 115-16). To get a direct knowledge of the work, he sneaked into the packing plants as a pretended worker. He toured the streets of Packingtown, the area near the stockyards where the workers live. He approached people, from different walks of life, who could provide useful information about conditions in Packingtown. At the end of seven weeks, he returned home to New Jersey, shut himself up in a small cabin, wrote for nine months, and produced The Jungle (Cherny).
...he government to the ordinary people as explained in July 5, 1892 by the Omaha Morning World –Herald (Doc F). Lastly, the laws for the regulation of businesses was enforces until President Theodore Roosevelt had also contributed by suing companies that violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The book, The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, has portrayed how conditions and social norms of the early 1900’s helped shape society through social reform. Sexism, racism, and class, shaped the experiences and choices of the immigrants in The Jungle throughout the book. The huge difference between the classes was the most significant of the three. Sinclair used the story of one immigrant and his family to help show what was going on in society at that time, to raise awareness, and to promote socialism.
Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, wrote this novel to unveil the atrocious working conditions and the contaminated meat in meat-packing workhouses. It was pathos that enabled his book to horrify hundreds of people and to encourage them to take a stand against these meat-packing companies. To obtain the awareness of people, he incorporated a descriptive style to his writing. Ample amounts of imagery, including active verbs, abstract and tangible nouns, and precise adjectives compelled readers to be appalled. Durham, the leading Chicago meat packer, was illustrated, “having piles of meat... handfuls of dried dung of rats...rivers of hot blood, and carloads of moist flesh, and soap caldrons, craters of hell.” ( Sinclair 139). His description
...ay to the rise of big business. Americas population was increasing, many citizens were employed and making money, and more eager to spend. Some of the businesses got too big and antitrust acts, such as the Sherman anti-trust act, were passed to control the powers of monopolies and their owners. Not only were there monopolistic companies in the corporate world, there were monopolies in the railroad business as well. The control of railroads became an issue in politics over the abuses and operations of the rail systems. Soon, the federal agencies Interstate Commerce Commission was formed as the first regulatory agency to control private businesses in the public?s interest. More and more control was placed upon Americas businesses and corporations and from this grew unions, as well as conflicts between management and labor, all of which exist today.
Many impoverished people immigrated to America in hopes of achieving the American Dream but instead were faced with dangerous working conditions while the factory and corporation owners increased their wealth and profit by exploiting this cheap means of labor. Upton Sinclair succeeded to show the nature of the wage slavery occurring in America in the beginning of the twentieth century. People felt distressed and unimportant in the community because they were being used by the wealthy to generate capital leading the industry for the future success and efficacy in the market. Upton Sinclair was an American journalist who incorporated his personal research of the meatpacking industry conditions and people’s life, as well as the structure of the present business into the novel under analysis. Thus, real facts and data were incorporated into this literary work, which helps the audience to feel involved in the work and understand the overall atmosphe...
Large corporations used this to their advantage. Profit oriented leaders did little to make suitable working conditions. With the aid of Muckrakers, journalists who exposed the underside of American life, the nation began to understand the "evils" of industrialization (599). More and more did Americans escalate their concern for reforms. The reformists promoting the ideals of Progressivism were moralists and championed the ideals of human rights. Progressivism embraced a widespread, many-sided effort after 1900 to build a better soc...
The corrupt politicians of that day were too ingratiated to this elite group and most likely would have been put into play to assist with putting down what would be considered at best a social rebellion. In conclusion, I feel that Sinclair's novel was a success, but not in the way he intended. His expose dealing with the meat packing industry was too graphic to be ignored and became the focus of the country instead of his message for Socialist reform which while not ignored did not catch on with the intensity he desired leaving the immigrant population to continue fending for themselves in the jungle.
The people who read it were so appalled by the disgusting filth, and the actual ingredients of the processed meat. The book provided the final drive for way for the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act and truth in labeling all passed by President Theodore Roosevelt. Also in the story, Sinclair concerns the readers with the abuse of immigrant workers, both men and women. This is partially why he uses the story of the man moving from Lithuania to America.
A competitive market makes a country stronger but without regulation it can threaten the country’s democracy. The President criticized the large corporations for “keeping prices artificially high and failing to increase workers’ purchasing power”(Liberty 863). Franklin D Roosevelt realized large corporations who gained monopolies were gaining immense influence on matter’s concerning government and the daily lives of American citizens. The first New Deal reforms were introduced, not to dismantle large industries but to control them in such a manner that they could never challenge the democratic government. Large corporations took advantage of the liberty given to them prior to the crash by exploiting the profits in payoffs or bribes. The businesses gained influence in government by funding election campaigns of tainted politicians who would in return be blinded of the corruption spread by the untouchable corporations to expand their profit margins.