There were few better representations of the brutal efficiency of American industrialist capitalism at the start of the 20th century than Chicagos sprawling meatpacking factories. The Union Stockyards alone covered more than a square mile on the citys South Side, processing millions of animals and employing tens of thousands of workers though their employment was far from comfortable at the factories. Not only did these massive facilities turn countless animals into profits with ruthless speed, but they also had a disturbingly high human cost. Workers, mostly impoverished immigrants desperate for any employment they could find, endured conditions so appalling that they shocked even the most hardened sensibilities lingering from the Gilded Age. Eventually, the labor conditions caught the attention of activist and journalist Upton Sinclair. In 1904, Sinclair began investigating Chicagos meatpacking industry and eventually embedded himself among the meatpacking workers, intending to write about labor exploitation and the cruel machinery that had emerged with capitalism. What he found was far more disturbing than he had anticipated. Two years later, his novel The Jungle would inadvertently spark a food safety revolution that changed American regulatory policies forever. And even though Sinclair famously remarked, I aimed at the publics heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach, his expos fundamentally transformed food inspection and consumer protection in ways that still resonate in the United States to this very day. Click here to view slideshowThe "Killing Floors" In Chicago Meatpacking Plants: A Portrait Of Industrial BrutalityThe meatpacking factories of early-1900s Chicago were both monuments to efficiency and nightmares of human suffering. Workers began their days before dawn, working long shifts in buildings that were stifling hot in the summer and barely heated during the winter. The "killing floors" ran slick with blood, animal waste, and chemicals, creating treacherous surfaces where falls could mean serious injuries or even deaths. Ventilation was poor, leaving workers breathing in air thick with the stench of animal death and the chemical fumes of preservation processes.The work itself was brutally repetitive and dangerous. Men wielding sharp knives stood alarmingly close to each other along "disassembly lines," making the same cuts over and over again each day. Workers injured their hands with such regularity that it barely merited attention from supervisors, even if they cut parts of their own fingers off. Employees in the cooking rooms often suffered burns from scalding hot water. And diseases like tuberculosis spread rapidly in the cramped, unsanitary conditions.Library of CongressChild workers stuffing sausage skins in a Chicago meatpacking facility. 1893.Although The Jungle was a novel and not a purely journalistic account of Sinclair's experience at Chicago meatpacking factories, his descriptions of the work still painted a disturbingly accurate picture of the real thing:"They had chains which they fastened about the leg of the nearest hog, and the other end of the chain they hooked into one of the rings upon the wheel. So, as the wheel turned, a hog was suddenly jerked off his feet and borne aloft. At the same instant the ear was assailed by a most terrifying shriek; the visitors started in alarm, the women turned pale and shrank back. The shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing for once started upon that journey, the hog never came back; at the top of the wheel he was shunted off upon a trolley and went sailing down the room."Speed was everything, and workers were often treated as disposable as the animal parts that couldn't be sold. If a man's hands became too mangled to hold a knife, or if he collapsed from exhaustion or illness, he was simply replaced with another healthier worker who was willing to step in. No guaranteed compensation existed for workplace injuries. No sick leave was offered. Many workers, injured on the job, found themselves unable to work anywhere else and faced destitution with little recourse."In 1890, it took about eight to 10 hours for a skilled butcher and his assistant to slaughter and dress a steer on a farm. In Chicago, it took 35 minutes," Slaughterhouse author Dominic A. Pacyga told NPR in a 2015 interview. The system was about efficiency and profit, above all else. Companies were more than willing to accept the human cost to make more money. And all the while, they maintained a steady stream of new immigrant labor Lithuanians, Poles, Slovaks, and others who arrived in America with virtually nothing and accepted any conditions for a paycheck."The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie."Upton Sinclair, The JungleEven worse, young children worked in these plants, sometimes in the most hazardous areas. They often climbed into the smallest, tightest spaces to clean them, risked their lives while navigating slippery floors, and breathed in the same hazardous, polluted air as the adult workers. And their small wages were often essential to their families' survival, making advanced education or escape from the cycle of poverty nearly impossible. Children and adults alike were sometimes described as "wage slaves" to these companies. And as Sinclair's character Nicholas Schliemann says, "So long as we have wage slavery, it matters not in the least how debasing and repulsive a task may be, it is easy to find people to perform it. But just as soon as labor is set free, then the price of such work will begin to rise."How Upton Sinclair's Investigation Into Meatpacking Factories Changed EverythingUpton Sinclair arrived in Chicago in late 1904 with a commission from the socialist publication Appeal to Reason, intent on exposing the exploitative nature of the meatpacking industry, particularly in the Windy City. Public DomainMuckraking journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair.He spent about seven weeks moving through the Packingtown community, interviewing workers, visiting their homes, and even taking a job in the plants to experience the exploitative conditions for himself. What he witnessed surpassed his expectations for material he found a system rife with human degradation and disturbing signs of a public health catastrophe.Over the course of his investigation, Sinclair documented the workers' suffering, as well as the stomach-turning reality of meat production itself. He observed diseased cattle, some with tumors, processed into food products. Meat that had been stored in rooms contaminated with rat droppings was simply reprocessed. Sausages often contained rope scraps, sawdust, and the sweepings from the floor. The "potted chicken" contained no chicken at all, only beef scraps, pork fat, and chemical preservatives.One of the most horrific scenes from Sinclair's novel involved workers accidentally falling into an open vat and being processed along with animal parts as lard. Though this story couldn't be verified as something that happened in real life, the vast majority of Sinclair's descriptions are otherwise considered accurate. So it's little wonder why many American consumers soon became wary of buying lard altogether especially since Crisco went on the market just a few years after the book was published.Library of CongressFactory workers drawing off lard.The Jungle follows the fictional Jurgis Rudkus and his Lithuanian immigrant family as they face horrific conditions in the meatpacking industry. It was published in 1906 after being rejected by multiple publishers most of whom had asked Sinclair to remove "objectionable" parts of the book. In fact, according to PBS, the editor who had initially published the serialized version of the novel eventually refused to print some of the most gruesome details about the factories, calling them "gloom and horror unrelieved."Many editors and advisors insisted that Sinclair's descriptions couldn't be based on reality. They were more wrong than they could have realized. Readers, meanwhile, were less moved by Sinclair's recounting of labor exploitation than they were revolted by the descriptions of poor-quality, contaminated meat entering the food supply. But even if Sinclair hadn't quite gotten the response he'd wanted, the novel did gain him a surprising ally: President Theodore Roosevelt, who had previously received $200,000 for his 1904 presidential campaign from meatpacking interests. The Fallout From The Jungle Forced Regulators To Take ActionLike President Roosevelt, many politicians in America had received donations from the meatpacking industry, which made them hesitant to take regulatory action against the factories. Roosevelt, however, assured Sinclair upon meeting him that he wanted to investigate the claims. "Mr. Sinclair," he said, "I bear no love for those gentlemen, for I ate the meat they canned for the army in Cuba." Of course, that didn't mean Roosevelt and Sinclair saw eye to eye on everything, especially considering that Sinclair's book promoted socialism as a potential solution to the exploitation of workers and the brutal treatment of animals in the U.S. meatpacking industry."Roosevelt had no patience for socialism," The Poison Squad author Deborah Blum said in an interview with HISTORY, "and he was playing a political game that he thought Sinclair didn't really understand." Regardless of his motives, Roosevelt hired independent investigators to look into the meatpacking facilities. The companies knew this was happening in advance, but the conditions were so bad sometimes worse than what Sinclair had described that they simply could not hide the truth. "We saw meat shoveled from filthy wooden floors, piled on tables rarely washed, pushed from room to room in rotten box carts... gathering dirt, splinters, floor filth and expectoration of tuberculous and other diseased workers," the startling investigative report from labor commissioner Charles Neill and social reformer James Reynolds read. The legislative response was swift. In June 1906, Congress passed both the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act, which led to the creation of what would eventually become the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded food and drugs. The Meat Inspection Act mandated federal inspection of meat processing plants and established new sanitary standards for slaughterhouses.Library of CongressA moving platform carrying beef for dressing at a meatpacking facility.These laws represented a fundamental shift in American governance. For the first time, the federal government took responsibility for food safety and protecting consumers from dangerous food products. The concept that businesses should be regulated for the public good rather than allowed to operate with minimal oversight finally gained mainstream acceptance. It marked a crucial point in the Progressive Era's regulatory framework that would expand throughout the early 20th century.That said, it didn't fix everything. Sinclair had intended to cast a light on terrible labor conditions and the exploitation of immigrant workers, but instead, his novel had sparked change in food inspection and regulation. A benefit? Undoubtedly. But this change also revealed something dark about the American middle class: They had been horrified to learn what they were eating, but remained almost entirely indifferent to the suffering of impoverished laborers. It wasn't the last time this pattern would play out. Still, The Jungle proved the value of investigative journalism and putting the hidden, problematic conditions of workplaces on full display, no matter how horrific, to spark change in American policy and improve the lives of everyday people. And in the end, that's still a powerful message.Next, take a look at Lewis Hine's famous photos of child labor that changed the face of American industry. Then, learn about the historic Pullman Strike.The post 33 Photos That Show The Horrifying Conditions That Inspired Upton Sinclairs Novel <em>The Jungle</em> appeared first on All That's Interesting.