Quality of Life during the Progressive Era

    In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a trust was known as a cartel or monopoly involved in creating agreements to fully control a product or industry. Some of these monopolies are protected under the constitution, but these trusts in which one exercised full control over a product or industry were new to Americans. Rapid industrialization, along with advances in technology and urban growth influenced the structures of businesses. The laissez faire policy, enforced by the government, was very beneficial as it increased capital, increased labor supply, and helped the national market grow. However, many trusts emerged as businesses were unregulated, in which two of the most considerable trusts were those of Andrew Carnegie (Steel industry) and John Davison Rockefeller (Oil industry.) Similar to other trusts, these two men would employ horizontal (buying the competition) and vertical ( controlling every business process)  integration strategies to further e...

    Upton Sinclair, publisher of The Jungle,  was born on September 20, 1878, and died on November 25, 1968. (Time Toast)      Upton Sinclair was in an American writer for socialism, worker rights, health, etc. In 1904, Sinclair was sent by the Appeal to Reason  magazine to look into the working conditions of the Chicago stockyards. Sinclair spend seven weeks investigating the stockyards and produced unsettling results. Sinclair then went on the write The Jungle, in which he intended to discuss mainly about the awful working conditions that the workers (immigrants) had to face. However, Sinclair also brought light to the terrible meatpacking practices that took place in the packinghouses (which is what the novel is more widely known for.) Some things that he exposed (and wrote about in vivid descriptions) about the meatpacking practices were of the contamination issues, sanitation issues, and overall uncleanliness while processing meat. The Jungle ...