The Foundation of The Jungle
"He called it "The Jungle", filled it with page after page of nauseating detail he had researched about the meat-packing industry, and dropped it on an astonished nation in 1906."
- www.capitalcentury.com
- www.capitalcentury.com
Workers faced significant hardships in their occupations and the risks they took to maintain and support their life in America were extraordinary as emphasized in this video.
Sinclair's Research
"For seven weeks, he prowled the streets of Packingtown, the residential district next to the stockyards and packing plants. He donned overalls, posed as a worker, and slipped into the packing plants to gain firsthand knowledge of the work. He sought out social workers, police officers, physicians, and others who could tell him about life and work in Packingtown. Local socialists introduced him to other people who were knowledgeable about the community and the work."
- "The Jungle and Progressive Era" by Robert W. Cherny
"In 1904, Upton Sinclair spent roughly seven weeks in Chicago conducting research for what would become The Jungle. His fictional depiction of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant stockyard worker, and his family revealed poor working conditions and unsanitary meat processing techniques. In a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt, Sinclair described his own observations upon which he had built the fictional Rudkus story:
"I saw with my own eyes hams, which had spoiled in pickle, being pumped full of chemicals to destroy the odor. I saw waste ends of smoked beef stored in barrels in a cellar, in a condition of filth which I could not describe in a letter. I saw rooms in which sausage meat was stored, with poisoned rats laying about, and the dung of rats covered animal carcasses."
"I saw with my own eyes hams, which had spoiled in pickle, being pumped full of chemicals to destroy the odor. I saw waste ends of smoked beef stored in barrels in a cellar, in a condition of filth which I could not describe in a letter. I saw rooms in which sausage meat was stored, with poisoned rats laying about, and the dung of rats covered animal carcasses."
Working Hazards
"As for the workers, well, 'it was to be counted as a wonder,' Sinclair wrote, 'that there were not more men slaughtered than cattle.' Beef-boners suffered so many knife wounds that few could use their thumbs. Pluckers who had to handle acid-treated wool had their fingers slowly burned off. Men would occasionally fall into vats of lard: Sometimes, Sinclair wrote grimly, 'hey would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard!'"
-By Justin Ewers, "Don't Read This Over Dinner"
-By Justin Ewers, "Don't Read This Over Dinner"
"I see they're lowering a right new coffin
I see they're letting down a right new coffin Way over in that union burying ground And the new dirt's falling on a right new coffin The new dirt's falling on a right new coffin Way over in that union burying ground." |
This song, Union Burial Ground by Woody Guthrie, expresses the hardships and risks of working in the atrocious conditions in union factories.
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Sinclair also had written in his novel, The Jungle:
"There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms, and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats."
"There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms, and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats."
"The Meat Packing Process
In the killing room the cattle are slaughtered the beef going to the coolers The hides are piled on trucks and run to the cellar The offal is collected from the killing floor and distributed as follows:
1. Blood to fertilizer house
2. Fats to oil house
3. Casings cleaned and packed. The smaller houses sell their casings to several specialty men
4. The tripe is cleaned and sent to the tripe room
5. Livers, tongues, hearts, etc. are trimmed and sent to the cooler
6. Heads and feet to the bone house
7. The paunch manure is gathered up and pressed. At one time many houses burned it in their furnaces. Now it is shipped away and sold for manure. Some escapes in the sewers
8. Miscellaneous scraps to the tank house"
(Report on industrial wastes from the stock yards and Packingtown in Chicago ... By Chicago Sanitary District. Board of Trustees)
In the killing room the cattle are slaughtered the beef going to the coolers The hides are piled on trucks and run to the cellar The offal is collected from the killing floor and distributed as follows:
1. Blood to fertilizer house
2. Fats to oil house
3. Casings cleaned and packed. The smaller houses sell their casings to several specialty men
4. The tripe is cleaned and sent to the tripe room
5. Livers, tongues, hearts, etc. are trimmed and sent to the cooler
6. Heads and feet to the bone house
7. The paunch manure is gathered up and pressed. At one time many houses burned it in their furnaces. Now it is shipped away and sold for manure. Some escapes in the sewers
8. Miscellaneous scraps to the tank house"
(Report on industrial wastes from the stock yards and Packingtown in Chicago ... By Chicago Sanitary District. Board of Trustees)
The risks of buying meat and products prior to 1906 and the release of Sinclair's book were often hidden from the consumers relying on these products as a part of their diets. -youtube.com