Labor Exposed In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

From 1860 to 1900 the United States quickly became an “industrial nation,” using its plentiful natural resources of oil, coal, steel, and timber, along with abundant labor to drastically increase production of manufactured goods. During this time period millions of immigrants from Europe (Eastern and Western) along with many from East Asia moved to various cities in the US, leading to both a rise in population density in these areas and a labor surplus. The constant supply of cheap labor combined with a strong spirit of competition and very little government regulation led to the rise of enormous “industrial empires” of steel, railroads, and oil. These raw materials were then processed into a vast array of consumer goods, which entered into

Unfortunately, what they learned was not comforting. In his book, Sinclair gives a fictional account of an immigrant’s experience working in an Chicago meatpacking plant. The protagonist “Saw men in the pickling room with skin diseases. Men who used knives on the sped-up assembly lines frequently lost fingers. Men who hauled 100-pound hunks of meat crippled their backs. Workers with tuberculosis coughed constantly and spit blood on the floor. Right next to where the meat was processed, workers used primitive toilets with no soap and water to clean their hands. In some areas, no toilets existed, and workers had to urinate in a corner. Lunchrooms were rare, and workers ate where they worked” (“Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle”) Sinclair also discussed how rotting and diseased meat was processed and treated with chemicals, then labelled incorrectly and sold to the public. Following the release of The Jungle, public outrage spurred the passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which later led to the formation of the Food and Drug Administration. These acts were two of many Progressive acts passed, including the Hepburn act to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Committee, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution that gave Congress the power to levy federal income tax, and the Seventeenth Amendment which allowed for the direct election of senators