Upton Sinclair's Work Conditions

Employment is hard to find and hard to keep and a job isn’t always what one hoped for. Sometimes jobs do not sufficiently support our lifestyles, and all too frequently we’re convinced that our boss’s real job is to make us miserable. However, every now and then there are reprieves such as company holiday parties or bonuses, raises, promotions and even a half hour or hour to eat lunch that allows escape from monotonous workloads. Aside from our complaints, employment today for majority of American’s isn’t totally dreadful, and there always lies opportunity for promotion. American’s did not always experience this reality in their work places though, and not long past are days of abysmal and disgusting work conditions. In 1906 Upton Sinclair’s

It was widely believed that such "embalmed beef" had killed more American soldiers than Spanish bullets did.”3 The President sent in two groups to inspect the conditions of the meatpacking plants and report back to him immediately. The USDA reported that the claims by Upton Sinclair were essentially fabricated and the novel was a compilation of lies. Roosevelt was intelligent however and recognized that the close relationship between the beef trust and USDA could not be trusted. Another investigation was launched by “Charles P. Neill, the U.S. commissioner of labor, and James B. Reynolds, a New York social worker, to visit slaughterhouses in Chicago and assess the accuracy of Sinclair's claims.”3 What they found was far from ideal and directly contradicted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s conclusions. Ramped disease and filthy conditions comprised the usual areas where rotten meat was kept, cut, packaged and combined with acid to cover rancid stenches. Plainly, the major executives that ruled the American free market of the time executed a strategy to cut corners and costs at every possible opportunity in order to stockpile astronomical amounts of money even when it resulted in the death of their own employees and