Wright, Caroll. “The Factory System as an Element in Civilization.” Journal of Social Science, No. 16, December 1882.
Sinclair, Upton. “The Meat-Packers of Chicago.” The Jungle, New York, 1906, pp. 39–47, 112– 117, 160–162.
My motivation for choosing these two primary documents is informed by the fact that there are a lot of unfair labor practices and exploitation at present and very little has been done to address this menace. Laborers at factories work extremely hard and in the end other people unjustifiably feast on the proceeds of their sweat. Both papers are connected by the theme of improving the factory system so as to better the livelihood of employees. Doing this will ensure an increase in dividends and wages of the workers in question.
The first document was authored by Carroll D. Wright, a labor rights activist who was later appointed to be the first labor commissioner in the U.S. The author seemed optimistic in this paper because she opined that the factory system was undergoing gradual civilization. Carroll targeted the government to be the audience for the paper because the exclusive authority to make changes in the industrial regime was vested in the state.
In this paper, the author starts by lamenting over the dilapidated living and working conditions of laborers because it was not commensurate with the advantages that factories owners and the society reaped from technological innovations resulting from production. She asserted that,
“Living and working conditions to which workers were subject did not compare favorably with the benefits that factory owners and society itself received from technological innovations in production.” [Wright 1882, 1].
The second point the author makes is that factories were the core forum of the basic rudimentary signs of association which is an inherent trait and the progression of this tendency has significantly improved the lives of human beings. In this respect, she noted that:
“Factories are, therefore, the legitimate outgrowth of the universal tendency to association which is inherent in our nature and by the development of which every advance in human improvement and human happiness has been gained”. [Wright 1882, 2].
Finally, the author notes that in a bid to transform the whole industry, factories ought to be rebuilt and focus more on people would be wooed from their homes to work in the factories. This point intends to make a proposal for incentives that would get more people working in factories so as to increase production of commodities. In this context, Carroll posited that:
“To make the system what it will be, the factory itself must be rebuilt and so ordered in all its appointments that the great question for the labor reformer shall be how to get people out of their homes and into the factory. The agitation of such a novel proposition will bring all the responsibility for bad conditions directly home to the individual, and then the law can handle the difficulty.” [Wright 1882, 11].
“Before the carcass was admitted here, however, it had to pass a government inspector, who sat in the doorway and felt of the glands in the neck for tuberculosis. This government inspector did not have the manner of a man who was worked to death; he was apparently not haunted by a fear that the hog might get by him before he had finished his testing.” [Sinclaire 1906, 3].
The second criticism is directed at the facilities at the meat processing factory. The room in which sausage casings used to be scrapped and washed was full of stench that the visitors could not stand. This implies that even the safety of food that was being processed there was not guaranteed at all. The author noted that:
‘The party descended to the next floor, where the various waste materials were treated. Here came the entrails, to be scraped and washed clean for sausage casings; men and women worked here in the midst of a sickening stench, which caused the visitors to hasten by, gasping.’ [Sinclair 1906, 4].
The third point made by the author is that the public was forced to feast on sausages which had been preserved in chemicals such as borox gelatin. By making this point, the author emphasized on the fact that the consumers of the meat factory products unknowingly enjoyed the food products without asking questions even if the food itself was clearly hazardous to their health. Sinclair puts this as follows:
“Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water — and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat and sent out to the public's breakfast.” [Sinclair 1906, 10].
Secondly, both papers take the perspective that the persons who suffered most during this period were the workers. This is because they were subjected to very harsh working conditions in the factories with poor sanitation and stringent targets. At the same time what they took home as wages was peanuts. They could not even fend for themselves let alone their families. The essence of this exposition is that it seems that the associations of workers at this time were not so established or probably they were not so aggressive when it comes to fighting for the rights of the workers.
The difference between these two papers is that while the first one does not highlight the grievous injustices in the working lives of factory laborers; the second one focuses more on bad conditions of the factories like poor sanitation, poor working conditions of employees as well as indigent lives of workers. However, both achieve the purpose of elucidating in detail the nature of working in factories during that period.
The import of these two papers can be stretched to resonate with present day labor practices in the United States. There are currently many multinational companies that are so profit oriented that they simply the health hazards facing both consumers and their own laborers. Many workers are forced either literally or by circumstances to work for very long hours with little allowances forthcoming. However, it must be acknowledged that the policies in place right now are way better than what the situation was in the 1900s. There are structured policies on inspection of food products under the FDA Act. The Labor unions are also proactive in the sense that a worker can readily get assistance from them in the event that an injustice has been committed at the place of work. In addition to this, there are also Occupational Safety and Health policies which ensure that all persons within the premises where industrial work is being carried out must be kept safe at all times, least the owner of the premises and business is legally culpable for their negligence.
Bibliography
Wright, Carroll. “The Factory System as an Element in Civilization.” Journal of Social Science, No. 16, December 1882.
Sinclair, Upton. “The Meat-Packers of Chicago.” The Jungle, New York, 1906, pp. 39–47, 112– 117, 160–162.
