During the late 1800s, also known as the “Gilded Age” of the United States, there was a huge divide between the rich and the poor. Unlike the society of today, which admittedly still has a large class and income divide, there were no real programs that existed to protect the poor from the exploitation of the rich; in the Gilded Age society, there was massive economic growth in the United States, but it came at the cost of those who worked for the rich. Today, there are legislative protections and social welfare programs that exist to help the indigent and the poor, but the Gilded Age was an age in which the poor existed completely at the mercy of the rich. Exploitation was common, and it was not unheard of for the poor to be worked to death in the factories and other industrial centers, while the rich thrived off their labors. During this era, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle-- a piece that was part novel, part exposée-- on the situation in the meatpacking industry in Chicago. While Sinclair is extremely sympathetic to the plight of the poor in his work, his contemporaries, other members of the intellectual class, were not so sympathetic.
Sumner, in his piece entitled “What Social Classes Owe Each Other,” writes about the divide between the social classes, and he is not as sympathetic to the plight of the poor as Sinclair is. Sumner’s entire argument is one of, essentially, selfishness; he believes in the pure nature of capitalism, and trusts in the system to ensure fairness for all, depending on how hard they work and how much they strive to succeed. Perhaps one of the most telling lines in his piece is thus: “Certain ills belong to the hardships of human life. They are natural. They are part of the struggle with Nature for existence. We cannot blame our fellow-men for our share of these. My neighbor and I are both struggling to free ourselves from these ills. The fact that my neighbor has succeeded in this struggle better than I constitutes no grievance for me” (Sumner). Sumner’s entire philosophy on rich and poor can be distilled into one single idea: the success of others does not impede one’s own potential for success, and if an individual is not successful, he or she is not working hard enough for the success that he or she craves. In short, Sumner believes-- or appears to believe-- wholeheartedly in the American dream; he supports the idea that any individual can be successful if he or she works for it.
Sinclair, on the other hand, takes a much more sympathetic view of the poor and lower classes. Sinclair understands the plight of the poor; he knows how hard they work, and for what meager rewards they work. In The Jungle, Sinclair writes, “There are a million people, men, women and children, who share the curse of the wage slave; who toil every hour they can stand and see, for just enough to keep them aliveAnd thenthere are a thousand, ten thousand maybe, who are the masters of these slaves, who own their toil. They do nothing to earn what they receiveThey live in palaces, they riot in luxury and extravagance” (Sinclair). Sinclair believes that the American dream, for most people, is a myth; the people who toil day in and day out for the meager rewards that the system affords them will never have the success of Andrew Carnegie or any of the other robber-barons of the age.
In “Crime of Poverty” by Henry George, George expands upon the crime of poverty in a different light than Sumner’s interpretation of the class system in the Gilded Age cities. George writes that poverty is indeed a crime-- but that it is not a crime to be poor. Instead, he suggests, poverty is the resulting condition from the many crimes that are committed that result in the existence of the indigent class; this is an important distinction (George). George would suggest that Jurgis Rudkus is the victim of the crimes committed by those in his society that have more money, and that the crimes he commits to survive are merely the result of those crimes the rich commit to obtain wealth and stay wealthy. George writes, “Poverty is the mother of ignorance, the breeder of crime. I walked down one of your streets this morning, and I saw three men going along with their hands chained together. I knew for certain that those men were not rich men; and, although I do not know the offence for which they were carried in chains through your streets if you trace it up you will find it in some way to spring from poverty” (George). This is a very forward-thinking opinion for the time; even today, there are conflicting views on poverty, crime, and violence, although it is widely accepted by sociologists that poverty often plays a role in criminal activity.
Carnegie, on the other hand, takes a much different view on the role of the rich in the Gilded Age society. Carnegie writes, “This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: To set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community— the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves” (Carnegie). Carnegie would describe Jurgis’ struggles in The Jungle as a result of the poor administrative efforts and a lapse in responsibility by the wealthy individuals who had control over the meatpacking industry, rather than on the system that allowed these individuals to act in the way that they did in the novel.
George’s analysis of the situation of the indigent in Gilded Age society is much more convincing than that of Carnegie. Carnegie, as a robber-baron himself, was well-served by Golden Age society; he saw no benefits to dismantling the society that made him as powerful and as wealthy as he was during the time. However, George recognized the inhumane ways that the people of the lower classes were treated by Gilded Age society, and saw that it was criminal to treat people this way. His suggestion to criminalize the actions that cause extreme levels of poverty did come into fruition as stricter controls were placed on the industrialization of the United States.
Works cited
Carnegie, Andrew. "Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth." North American Review, (1889): Print.
George, Henry. Henry George on the “Crime of Poverty”. Letter. 1885.
Sinclair, Upton. The jungle. Cambridge, Mass.: R. Bentley, 1971. Print.
Sumner, William Graham. William Graham Sumner, “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other". Essay. 1883.
