Archive for April, 2009
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair, an author and member of the socialist party wrote a novel, The Jungle, which was designed as a propaganda tool to promote the Socialist party and discredit capitalism during the early 1900’s. Some people argue that because The Jungle is a work of fiction it is not an effective propaganda tool. Granted, the reforms that were brought about because of The Jungle are not the reforms that Sinclair intended but they are no less important and the fictional story is what helped bring the issues of meat packing conditions to light. Most people, even today, do not pick up non-fiction books to read for pleasure, especially one that is focused on the slaughterhouse districts of Chicago, therefore, a non-fiction book would not have reached as many people. The fictional writing also allows the reader to get caught up in the story and become intimate with the characters, which allows for stronger feelings that drive people to action.
Few people in society have an interest to read non-fiction books. Fewer still have an interest to read a book about meat packing in Chicago. Reading is used for enjoyment and the argument could be made that fiction books are far more entertaining than non-fiction. Fiction creates opportunities for the reader to step out of their own life and into the settings and plot of the story they are reading. This allows the reader to connect and empathize with the characters in the story.
Sinclair uses the lives of an immigrant Lithuanian family to show that the capitalistic society in America only works to keep the poor, poor and the rich, rich. The story starts by introducing us to the family of Jurgis Rudkus on the night of his wedding. Sinclair carefully introduces each character to the reader allowing them to get to know each characters traits, morals and personality. The reader learns that this group of people, especially Jurgis, has a high moral fiber coupled with a strong work ethic. For example, several times throughout the story Jurgis tells his family that he will “work harder” and that will make things okay. They are full of life and love, and willingness to help those in need, even though they themselves don’t have much. The goodness of these characters makes it easy to connect with them.
This early connection with the characters sets up the reader to experience events and feel emotions as they are revealed throughout the story. From the time of their arrival in Chicago, Jurgis and his family had experienced hardships. They lived in a boarding house that was dirty until they found a house to buy. The house they bought was a dump and it ended up draining them of money and requiring all able bodies in the house to work. When Jurgis and his wife Ona have a child he is unable to spend time with his child because he is required to be at work for such long hours. Ona ends up at a job where she is raped repeatedly by her boss; when Jurgis is hears of his wife’s rape he is heart broken. In retaliation he beats her boss, which lands him in jail, as well as on the blacklist in the meat packing industry, and gets his family kicked out of their house. Back in the boarding house, Ona dies during child birth and shortly there after Jurgis’s baby drowns. With each event, Jurgis’ spirit is a little more broken, and so is that of the readers. Sinclair gets his readers to experience the emotion and the heartache of each character. These emotions drive the reader to want to do something, want to help, and thus they turn to socialism as Jurgis did, or at least that was the result that Sinclair hoped for.
The Jungle did prove to be a powerful piece of propaganda, but not for the Socialist Party. The meat packing industry was forever changed because of the conditions that Sinclair brought to life. In the early 20th century, most readers were well educated business class men. These men benefited from the capitalistic society that they lived and therefore did not want to see that change. The Jungle, did however, give them insight into the unregulated and dirty conditions of the meat packing plants. They did not want to eat diseased and infected meat and thus started pushing for reforms and laws that would regulate the industry.
While achieving unexpected outcomes, The Jungle did not succeed in persuading Americans to turn to socialism, but this is not the fault of the fiction writing. Rather the blame should be placed on the time period and class of people that it was introduced into. Perhaps Sinclair and The Jungle would be more successful in today’s society. The volatile economy has put the working class people on edge and diminished their beliefs in the current system. Today, the working class is also far more literate than that of the early 1900’s, thus The Jungle and the reforms it proposes, are accessible to the people who would benefit from it the most.
Sin in the Second City
Everyone knows, he who has the most money has the most power, but few people know that she, who is single and has the most money, comes in second; followed by other white men, and then the remaining women. Most people would argue that the issue of gender in at the turn of the 20th century was pretty straight forward, with men holding all of the power, and women holding very little or no power. However, in Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbot shows us that the issue of gender was much more complex. In her book Abbot shows that white men are on the top of the power scale, and women are at the bottom, but also that this power is highly dependant on class. While wealthy white men were at the very top of the spectrum, there were some single women who gained wealth, and with it, independence and power, that placed them above certain classes of men on the power spectrum.
Men believed, as society had taught them, that it was their right and duty to hold power over all others. They understood that their powers were based on a class structure and knew their place. Their power ranged from setting policies and creating laws that affected everyone in the Nation, to those that affected only people in their communities or families, but no where in that structure or in their minds should women have more power than men.
While never holding the same amount of power as men, certain women were powerful in their own right. A good example of this is the Everleigh sisters. The Everleigh sisters gained their power, by working hard and saving money. Money is a very powerful thing, and it allowed the Eveleigh sisters to make decisions and live a life that few women ever dreamed of. The Everleigh sisters had the power to make choices, like the choice to move to Chicago, rather than New York or New Orleans. Their money allowed them to buy and design a magnificent brothel that was employed by carefully selected women who were well taken care of. It gave them the power to choose their cliental, which was one, perhaps the only, power that any woman had over men during the century, and certainly not every women had this power.
The Everleigh sisters also provided the opportunity for other women to gain some power over men. Most prostitutes had absolutely no power and were at the mercy of men that they worked for or men they pleasured. It was not uncommon for girls seeking a job in this line of work to be raped, abused, and treated like property. Everleigh girls, however, were treated with respect, paid honorable wages and had health care (something that a lot of American’s today live without). Not only were they given these rights by their employer, but were also not forced to bed any slum off of the streets. They were visited by a cliental with money that usually also showered the girls with gifts. The sex appeal and prowess of the Everleigh girls, coupled with the magnificence of the Everleigh Club, made them addictive for the men who visited, thus giving them a sense of and perhaps an actual power over these men.
With all of the power they had, the Everleigh sisters were still second to, and heavily relied on some men. Most obviously, they relied on men, especially men with lots of money and power, to keep their business lucrative. Men like Marshall Field Jr., Prince Henry of Prussia, and other lucrative businessmen allowed the sisters to continue living in the life style to which they had become accustomed. The sisters also relied on powerful men to keep their business running. For example, they relied on Hinky Dinky Kenna and Bathhouse John Coughlin to provide security and protection from law enforcement.
While men like Kenna and Coughlin used their power to help the Everleigh sisters, other men exercised their power to hurt the sisters. Reverend Ernest Bell and Assistant District Attorney Clifford Roe were two of these men. Reverend Bell was on a campaign to reform all harlots and end the practice of prostitution. He was not alone in this endeavor as many crusaders, several who were women, also joined in the fight to reform the girls working in the Levee district. ADA Roe was also interested in ending prostitution; however, he took the legal route to make his point, fighting against white slavery. Although a large part of these campaigns were based on ideals and values, it could be argued that the leaders of these campaigns also harbored fear, resentment, and jealousy towards the women they were after. The natural order of things was for men to be at the top, and women like the Everleigh sisters threatened that order.
Sin in the Second City, uses real life subjects to show us that the gender issue was not as clear cut as men on top and women on the bottom: Although it is true that men possessed most of the power in society, the Everleigh sisters are a good example of women who challenged and threatened the social norms. This challenge was met by men who feared change and the loss of their “God given right” and it is possible that their actions helped to restrict the rising power of women for the next half a century.
Death in the Haymarket
The Chicago of the mid to late 1800’s is a good representation of other American cities during that time period. Industry was booming cities all over the country were benefiting from this. The growth in commerce created new jobs that attracted immigrants to each city. These jobs eventually led to class stratification and labor discontentment. Chicago, however, differed from other cities in these events by experiencing them all on a much larger scale. Chicago’s central location allowed it to be a hub for industry and trading and caused an exponential growth in these industries. That growth called for a large unending need for laborers that came mostly from an immigrant workforce. The large labor force created an ever widening gap between rich and poor; this social economical gap, along with the large numbers of laborers help drive the need for a labor rebellion. In turn the labor rebellion created the “need” for the 1st city subdivision, the Pullman model town, and lead to catastrophic events unlike any experienced by other American cities.
Centrally located between the industrialized North East and the alluring Wild West, Chicago’s location made it a natural hub for industry and trade. Chicago’s eastern neighbors had provided the know how and supplies to become an industrialized city. The West provided grains and other produce as well as livestock that needed to be processed and then transported to eastern markets. The growing livestock trade required that more slaughterhouses were built to keep up with the growing supply from the West and the demands of the East, and the grain business in Chicago “was so profitable that it generated an orgy of hazardous undertakings in spot trading and futures.” (29)
The lumber industry also exploded in Chicago after the Civil War. Lumber was received from the North via the Great Lakes and from the South via the railroads. The lumber was used to build prefabricated houses, many of which went up in the western part of Chicago as affordable housing for the labor force, as well as prefabricated stores, churches and schools which were shipped west to growing boom towns.
The hundreds of factories, mills, forges and shops in Chicago required a large working force. The need for labor initiated exponential growth in Chicago’s population causing it to double during the 1860’s. While farm boys, Civil War veterans, newly freed slaves and other adventurers hoping to live the “American Dream” all were part of the migration to Chicago, the largest numbers of the growing work force was found in European immigrants. By 1880 the number of European immigrants had swelled to 204,859. (59)
While all cities in the US were experiencing growth due to immigration, none experience the growth and diversity of Chicago. The largest numbers of immigrants were from the German states, but also included Irish, Norwegian, Swedish, English, Bohemians, Scandinavians and Scotts. These European immigrants comprised “40 percent of the over all population and 56 percent of the workforce.”(59) These immigrants came to Chicago with the false belief that all people were equal and that everyone had the opportunity to rise from the laboring class into the business class.
In reality, the influx of immigrants created a widening gap in the class structure. The increase in the labor force allowed business owners to lower wages and provide poorer working conditions. The lower wages and longer working hours coupled with the cost of life was a recipe to keep the working class down. However, these immigrants had grown up believing in ideals and beliefs that helped push them to revolutionize their working conditions.
Every city was dealing with discontent amongst the labor force in some way. While most cities were dealing with strikes related to one industry of trade, Chicago was dealing with labor unrest in all industries. When labor strife reached its peak on May 1, 1886, Chicago was the city hardest hit. There were between 40,000 and 60,000 workers that walked away from their jobs that day. Stores, factories, construction sites and packinghouses all participated in this. No one showed up for work in the lumberyards and all transportation hubs were left at a stand still. These strikes were the most successful in the nation because they were the most organized and focused. (146)
Some members of the business class noticed this organization, in its infancy, and made attempts to protect themselves from the possible trouble that lay ahead. George Pullman was one of these businessmen. Pullman recognized the discontent in Chicago, and in an attempt to avoid the problems that it may cause, he built the “Pullman Model Town,” 9 miles outside of Chicago. He provided higher wages and quality housing for the families that worked for him. This “subdivision” of Chicago was unlike anything in other cities during this time period.
Also setting Chicago apart from other cities were the great fire of 1871 and the Haymarket bombing. The great fire was a direct result of the influx of people into the labor force. The bombing in the Haymarket on May 4, 1886 was also an event that set Chicago apart, as no other city had experienced a similar situation since the Civil war. These two catastrophic events helped shape the history of the labor movement, of Chicago and of the US.
Chicago’s great fire in 1871, the Haymarket bombing in 1886, and Pullman’s model town coupled with their astounding growth in industry, trade and population make it one of the most unique cities of the post Civil War era.
Did Lincoln Own Slaves?
Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of the greatest presidents that we have ever had, and quite possibly one of the greatest men that the United States has ever produced. In Did Lincoln Own Slaves?, Gerald J. Prokopowicz confirms Lincoln’s greatness by answering questions that explain the what’s, how’s, whys, and who’s of Lincoln’s life that made him the man he was. Did Lincoln Own Slaves? includes questions and answers that give us insight to Lincoln’s humble beginnings and how those beginnings helped him develop the character and personality that drove him throughout his life and ultimately to become the great politician that he was.
Lincoln was not born into money or power like many politicians or most of the men that preceded him into the White House, nor did he have the formal education that most of those men benefited from. Lincoln was born in a small cabin in the middle of rural Kentucky to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. Lincoln’s parents were a major part of his life and influenced him greatly. He once said “All I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”(11) Prokopowicz explains that it is not clear whether Lincoln said this about Nancy, his natural born mother, or Sara Bush, his stepmother, but it is clear that both women had influenced his life. His father, Thomas was a farmer who worked hard but never quite achieved the “American Dream.” While Abe did not share his father’s love of farming he did learn the importance of a strong work ethic from him.
This work ethic led Lincoln to many adventurous careers. Lincoln was known as the famous rail-splitter who rose from the working classes to the highest held office in the country, however according to Prokopowicz, Lincoln did not split rails for a living but more than likely just as a chore on his father’s farm. Although he was not a professional rail-splitter, Lincoln did work his way up from job to job before getting into politics. He was as storekeeper, a postmaster, a transporter of goods, and a lawyer before he became a politician. In all of these jobs he showed the goodness that helped him earn the name Honest Abe, and other traits that made up the man he was. For example, he very likely walked two miles to return change to one of his customers while he was a shop keeper. (28) In Did Lincoln Own Slaves? we also learned that he would deliver mail, even though it was not his job to do so, and that his job as a transporter is possibly what drove him to end slavery. These jobs also provided Lincoln with the opportunities to educate himself.
While climbing the career ladder, Lincoln was constantly working to gain more knowledge. He only had one year of formal education. The rest of his knowledge came from self learning mostly in the form of reading. Lincoln used whatever opportunities presented themselves to help his learning. He would borrow books from others and when he worked as a postmaster he read others newspapers before they picked them up. (29)
Education and hard work are not all that made Lincoln the man that he was. He also had a healthy competitive streak and a sense of humility. Lincoln participated in athletics such as running and wresting. These activities helped him build sportsmanship and the backbone that would help in through political debates. Lincoln was a very humble man; he often made himself the butt of jokes or stories and even though he achieved great things he viewed himself as a failure until he became President.
While Prokopowicz seems to be an advocate for Lincoln, he does not ignore the few negative aspects of Lincoln’s personality and character, nor does he blow Lincoln’s greatness out of proportion. It is difficult to find a flaw in Lincoln’s personality; he did not have any bad habits such as drinking, smoking or gambling. As a young man the one thing Lincoln did have trouble with was manners. Prokopowicz says “the young Lincoln did not know how to behave in company…” and that “he would remain dreadfully ignorant of proper etiquette until he was eventually taken in hand by his wife Mary Todd.” (40-41)
Lincoln’s lack of manners was probably is only character flaw. That is not to say that Lincoln was a god of a man that never got anything wrong as he is sometimes made out to be. He made mistakes, wrote poor speeches, suffered from depression and made choices that not everyone agreed with. Lincoln also did not always believe in issues as strongly as history portrays. For example, when asked if Lincoln was “the “Great Emancipator” or a clever, lying racist” Prokopowicz explains that he was really a mix of both of these. (161) He used the “N” word (171), and did not believe that the African American race was equal to Europeans. In fact, when it came to the issues of slavery and the Union, the Union was his priority. In a letter he wrote to Horace Greeley he stated: “My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all slaves I would do it…” (174)
Today Lincoln is remembered as a giant of a man who accomplished giant sized tasks and shaped the future history of our country. He is said to have had the purist of characters and been the most honest of men. A man who saved our country from the sin and disgrace of slavery, Lincoln embodies every idealistic trait we would love to have in our countries leaders. While these remembrances of Lincoln may be true, Prokopowicz reminds us that he was a mortal man with faults just like the rest of us and not a god as he is often portrayed.
