The Meatpacking District became a very dangerous area once the automobile was invented because it interfered with the elevated freight trains. Because the trains carried merchandises essential to the lives of most New Yorkers, freight trains were given the right of way to stop wherever they please just to make a delivery. Thus, a ten-car train would be blocking traffic just to deliver the goods. It most likely took longer than 30 minutes to unload the train of the goods to whichever business it delivered to, so the traffic gets overbearingly crowded. Besides the terrible congestion, regular New Yorkers would be in this area because most markets would be located there, so that they could get fresh produce from the local slaughterhouses. Unfortunately,
Most would say that they did not find what they were looking for. The work was harsh, dirty and hard to survive in since it was such a cruel environment. To start, there was severe corruption within the working authority; most meatpacking bosses were criminals and had a known reputation
Beginning in the early 1800s, Cincinnati was not just a fast-growing metropolis, it was an industrial powerhouse. Its location along the Ohio River made it the ideal spot for manufacturing and transportation of goods in the Midwest, which sparked a long period of population growth from 1800 - 1850. Fueled by the burgeoning meatpacking industry, Cincinnati was dubbed “Porkopolis,” and supplied much of the central and Northeastern United States with meat, primarily pork products; despite this, the urban expansion didn’t last. The growth of the U.S. railroad network and a shift away from water-based transportation meant meatpacking moved to Chicago, leaving Cincinnati a shell of the city it could have been. This paper will examine the rise and
Paul Starobin’s “Pork: A Time Honored Tradition Lives On” discusses the control exerted upon local appropriations by the Legislative Branch. The author points the divide the practice of “porking” creates within the House, fiscal conservatives are fundamentally against it, while some democrats support the action. Those in opposed to the method find that it creates budget inefficiencies because the federal funding is being used to finance local projects and special interests, which is generally done for political gain. However, those in favor, believe, as elected officials, their duty is to fight for the benefits of the people and areas they were chosen to represent. In reality, there needs to be a healthy balance between the two sides, central
To add to this most people living the urban part of NYC didn't even have an outhouse, they would most likely dig a trench that leads outside. This added much more filth and stench to their alleys. These dreadful events appearing good things began to come out of them, NYC passed building codes to promote safety and health. The city of New York came and cleaned up miles of these streets leading to the decrease of disease and death. George Waring and Mayor Strong are the reasons the urban cities were saved from filth and
He intended to show the public the horrifying effects capitalism had on workers in the Chicago meatpacking industry. He hoped his exposing would cause reforms. In his book, Sinclair described how workers labored long hours in cold, and cramped conditions. How they caught diseases, lost fingers, nails, and even limbs by acid, and unsanitary locations. However the public’s outcry was more focused on Sinclair uncovering of the products being sold to the general public, rather than workers plight.
Beginning in the late 19th Century, the Gilded Age was a historic period of time characterized by political corruption and angry sentiment towards government. As citizens of the United States became increasingly discontent about the current state of the nation, they started to express this anger in the form of reform movements. Leading up to the Progressive Era movements were various social, economic, and political concerns that revolved around political leaders failing to meet the needs of people. The rise of the Progressive Reform movements in the years 1870-1917 was largely influenced by conflict in the working class, governmental influence of big business, and the absence of civil rights for many American citizens.
During the Progressive Era, there were many issues surrounding labor, the food industry,and trusts. The Labor Union began to protest for better working conditions and hours, along with child labor laws. The Federal Government and the reformers had to act, and bring about reform through the nation. But the real question is whether or not they were effective in doing so. One of the main issues of the working industry that came to light was the terrible state of the meat packing industry.
Jackson most strongly argues that the trolley “had a greater impact on the American city between the Civil War and World War I” than any other invention. Stemming outward from the crowded business districts, trolley tracks opened up a vast suburban ring. Trolleys connected “an area triple the territory of the older walking city.” Along with the trolley, Jackson points to affordable housing as another reason for urbanization in American cities. With a quick trolley ride to urban housing areas, cheaper land than in cities, and the balloon-frame home construction method, American suburbs offered city dwellers a “safe and sanitary environment” in which was preferable over city life.
People in this area were constantly busy with racing cars down roads and not even thinking about the consequences of their actions until
Those two cities were London and Paris. By the end of the 19th century, several cities had a population over a million people. Those cities included New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Berlin, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Buenos Aires, and Osaka. In “Edison Newsreels: San Francisco Earthquake aftermath”, it showed big groups of people, overly crowed, on the streets of San Francisco. Cars were trying to weave through all these groups.
Working in Packingtown, Chicago was a nightmare because 99% of the jobs were very deleterious. Finding jobs were very scarce and there were not a lot of jobs that were great, so people had to take anything they could get. These jobs had no safety precautions or safety rules; employees got seriously injured daily and death would happen occasionally as an effect of on the job accidents. Some of the jobs were just detrimental to the employees’ health even without the accidents. The main character Jurgis took a job at a fertilizer mill and he started getting sick on the first
However the dangerous working conditions were not the only reason for the nightmare like conditions of the work place. Another factor was the constant speeding up that the workers were subjected to. The workers felt that the factory managers were “… speeding them up and grinding them into pieces…” (76), which was not far from the disturbing truth. For, the inhabitants of Packingtown did not live this American dream too long with the severe conditions that were imposed upon
In “The Midnight Meat Train”, this section is essential by playing a substantial role in the text as a whole. “The City of Fathers”, Kaufman’s purpose and the butcher’s role are specified in this passage. “Very soon these same deserted sidewalks would be thronged with people. The city would go about its business in ignorance: never knowing what it was built upon, or what it owed its life to. Without hesitation, Kaufman fell to his knees and kissed the dirty concrete with his bloody lips, silently swearing his eternal loyalty to its continuance.”
Millions of Americans view “hard and laborious” work as mowing the lawn or going to an office job eight hours a day. Young teenagers regard these duties as “chores”, miserable and tedious tasks; however, most of these people are oblivious to the mistreatment and overworking the meat industry workers experience daily. Since the 20th century, these employees have been exploited and taken advantage of by the large corporations in the food industry. In the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, revelations are made about the evil ways of the meat factories in the early 1900s. Although the working conditions have improved in several ways, today’s industry is not much better, and food investigators Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan expose the realities
What is Processed Food? The term ‘processed food’ applies to any food that has been changed from its natural state in some way, either for safety reasons or convenience. Some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurized to remove harmful bacteria. Other foods need processing to make them suitable for use, such as pressing seeds to make oil.