Jacob Riis: The First Significant Legislation For Social Reform

Upton Sinclair disguised himself and went undercover for seven weeks in the year of 1904. He entered the meatpacking industry as an everyday worker and observed the conditions of the meatpacking industry. He began work at one of the factories in Chicago’s slum district known as “Packingtown”. His main purpose was to expose these horrible conditions while also showing how poor Americans and immigrants lived during

Upton Sinclair is most known for his criticisms of the meat packaging industry in his book The Jungle. For close to 2 months, Sinclair worked in a Chicago meat package plant in order to expose the hidden truths of the industry. This was one of the first examples of a journalist immersing themselves in the material coved in

Thesis Statement: Upton Sinclair was a muckraker who wrote, “The Jungle”, which exposed the problems of the meatpacking industry.

With the growth of cities and factories, citizens began to see unsafe and filthy conditions that progressives tackled to change. Muckrakers, journalists who exposed both government and corporations for their corruption, caused the most waves in change regarding consumer protection. Although at times the pieces by muckrakers were exaggerated, they were able to generate public awareness on issues that would have otherwise been swept under the carpet. One of the most notable pieces was “The Jungle, “by Upton Sinclair. Although he had originally wanted to expose the harsh conditions faced by immigrants throughout industrialized parts of America, he inadvertently exposed the meat industry for their unsanitary practices. Upton Sinclair made the public very aware of what is actually in their meat.

Upton Sinclair, the most influential writer regarding the food industry was born in Baltimore 1879. Growing up in a poor family with an alcoholic father was difficult for Upton (Simkin, John). Upton often lived with his wealthy grandparents during his childhood due to the instability in his own home. Moving from his poor parents house to his grandparents rich house constantly made him see the injustice in the American society, this made him become a radical socialist as young as his early teens. At 14, Upton being the intelligent and independent man he was, started attending New York City College. In order to make money to pay for his tuition, apartment, and still provide for his family, Upton sold magazines and news articles of his socialistic ideas. The childhood Upton struggled through with family and financial problems only made him strive to change the conditions of America in his writing.

This book was called The Jungle and its purpose was to bring attention to the hardships of plant workers (Constitutional Rights Foundation). However, when the public read his book, they were more appalled at the possibility of consuming contaminated meat than the hardships of plant workers, and so demanded that President Theodore Roosevelt and Congress do something about it (Laws.com). In response, President Roosevelt commissioned labor commissioner Charles P. Neill and social worker James Bronson Reynolds to investigate Sinclair's claims. What they found was exactly what Sinclair had described (Constitutional Rights Foundation). After the President and Congress heard of these deplorable conditions, they went to work creating a law to improve the working conditions in both slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. What they came up with was the Federal Meat Inspection Act (Constitutional Rights Foundation). The act improved conditions in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants by forcing slaughterhouses and meat processing plants to practice clean and sanitary handling and preparation of meat. It also required inspections of livestock and animal carcasses, as well as monitoring of slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, among other things (USLegal, Incorporated). All this helped to put an end to the dangerous and unsanitary conditions of

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written to expose the brutality faced by the workers in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair wanted to show people what was really going on in the factory because few people were informed about these companies work conditions. He wanted to show the public that meat was “ diseased, rotten, and contaminated” (Willie).” This revelation shocked the, public which later led to the creation of the federal laws on food and safety. Sinclair strongly shows the failure of capitalism in the meatpacking industry which he viewed as inhumane, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent (Willie).”

Most famous people inspire authors to write books written about their achievements, however Upton Sinclair Junior did it backwards. Some of his ninety novels including an autobiography, and in particular The Jungle, changed America forever by using fictitious stories to depict the present issues at that time. Upton Sinclair was an author and activist in the early to mid 1900’s who was passionate about issues involving women 's rights, working conditions, and the unemployed. He wrote over ninety books in his lifetime, as well as countless articles and other works of journalism. As Sinclair grew up, he was exposed to both a lifestyle of poverty and wealth that shaped his world as well as his political views as a socialist, or someone who advocates the vesting of the control of the means of production and distribution, of capital or land in the community as a whole. Upton Sinclair was a controversial author who took a stand in history by vastly impacting the food industry, becoming politically active, and forecasting solutions to social problems.

Through the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the division between financial classes was great. Big businesses and monopolies ruled the market, making great financial powers such as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and more. On the other hand, middle to lower class citizens struggled to pay their bills, lived in houses of fifteen people, worked in mine shafts from the age of twelve, and had miserable lives in the city. The lives of the lower class was captured by Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis was an American journalist most famously known for his photographs of the slums of New York City. He compiled his photograph into a book called, How the Other Side Lives. This set of photographs inspired the social welfare reform effectively through American cities because it brought the issue to the people.

During the time from the 1890s to the 1920s a period of social and political reform took place in the United States known as the Progressive Era. “The era saw the expansion of political and economic freedom through the reinvigoration of the moment for woman suffrage, the use of political power to expand workers rights’ and efforts to improve democratic government by weakening the power of the city bosses and giving ordinary citizens more influence on legislation.” The progressive reformers from this time gained a majority of their support from the education middle-class of urban areas. Another term used to describe these reformers is Muckrakers.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was about Jurgis Rudkus who was an immigrarnt from Lithuania that came to the United States to discover his dreams, hopes, and desires. He took his family to Chicago to begin a new life. He worked in meatpacking industries that were unsanitary and brutal amount of hours that resulted into starvation. He was mistreated and realized the American dream wasn't as easy as it seemed. The book deals with disease, hunger, corruption, crime, poverty and death. “Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money – I will work harder.” This was said by Jurgis frequently because him and Ona always struggled with money and having a job but Jurgis never wanted Ona to stress about those problems. Jurgis always took charge

Upton Sinclair showcases the evils of capitalism and wanted people in the United States to reject it. Through his book, he depicted how capitalism destroys the lives of innocent workers. He wanted radical change and adoption of socialism where the government owns the means of production and controls large enterprises. Instead, most people who read his book were outraged by the filthy conditions in the slaughterhouses. Public outcry and media frenzy focused on the meat safety and not the labor rights and evils of capitalism. His book eventually led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (686). Although he was disappointed that he could not bring about an improvement in the lives of meatpacking workers, he did help

Throughout the progressive era there were many reform movements due to the abundance of political, social, and economical corruption in America in the gilded age as seen by political machines like William Marcy tweed and American financiers like J.P. Morgan. Some of the many issues that made themselves present in the gilded age include the large wealth gap, child labor, women’s lack of rights, influx of immigrants, Urbanization, Indian wars, monopolists, political machines, and alcoholism. All of these issues were brought to attention by Muckrakers like Jacob Riis, the photographer of How the Other Half Lives, and Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle. Once these issues were raised, Much to the monopolists dismay, America knew they had

There was an abundance of women, fighting for their independence, pouring into the streets of the growing city. Unfortunately, many of the young and eager ladies were the victims of the demented H. H. Holmes and were murdered. The Union Stockyard was also something that could not be ignored by the residents of Chicago. The smell of death coming from the unsanitary meat packing industry lurked the streets of the city. During the Gilded Age, Upton Sinclair worked at Chicago's Union Stockyards and exposed its corruption and disease through his book The Jungle.

In 1729, Jonathan Swift's country, Ireland, was being controlled predominantly by England. This being the case, I do not believe this proposal to be a serious one, or at least fully. Jonathan is whole heartedly devoted to bring awareness to the current plight that Ireland is going through, this being the full domination by England. Ireland, for all intents and purposes, is already selling their children to England. This is not to be taken literally, but metaphorically in the way that they are already giving everything to England and might as well go even further by selling their own children as food to the "rich", in this case the "rich" or "upper class" being England. Jonathan Swift is known for attempting to "fix" the problems in Ireland, or at least improve the conditions in which everyone is living.