Deja Reynolds Period 1 Mr. Otto October 17, 2012 Was The Pain Worth the Gain?

In the 1880s, immigrants came to the U.S. from Southern and Eastern Europe. This time is known as the Industrial Revolution due to the shift from agricultural to a more industrial society. Although the Industrial Revolution time period brought forth important technology that we still use today, the exploitation of the workers and children were not worth the gain. The technology that was created during the Industrial Revolution is still beneficial to many lives today. With walking being the only means of transportation, only nearby jobs were convenient to work at. Seeing this, the transcontinental railroad was made in 1969 (Otto). This invention made transporting people faster and more efficient, which consequently caused urbanization (moving people from the countryside to the city). Faster transportation also meant that people could get further jobs. The expansion of cities were due to railroads connecting towns and inventions meeting the needs of the cities. Another invention was the telephone in 1876 (Otto).The telephone made communication between businesses much quicker because owners no longer had to rely on postal services. Additionally, it meant that changes could be made instantly, internationally. Despite all of the advances of technology, the pain that was caused was still not worth the gain. Reynolds 2

The people of this time suffered terrible living conditions such as having to live in tenement apartments, work in poorly ventilated factories, as well as suffer from poor sanitation. Tenement apartments were filled with a lot of people that barely met minimal standards (sanitation, wealth, etc.). Factory owners factories were dirty and poorly ventilated (Otto). This caused a lot of diseases because the walls werent insulated so when it was cold outside, it was freezing inside and when it was hot out, it was scorching in. With no heat, people would catch pneumonia and other diseases. In The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, he writes about the bad living conditions during the time. He states, There were the wool pluckers, whose hands went to pieces...for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid to loosen the wool...they would have to pull out this wool with their bare hands, till the acid had eaten their fingers off (Sinclair). This illustrates the fact that the workers were manipulated into doing jobs that were dangerous. The people of this time were said to be slaves to their wages because wages were so low that if they couldnt attend their job for a day, it would be gone. Times were so hard that all members of the family had to work, including children. In fact, children made up 5% of the Industrial labor force (Otto). Therefore, children were missing out on enjoying their childhood because they spent their lives in the factories. Majority of children left school at the ages of 12-13 to work in factories (Otto). Consequently, this created uneducated children and they also suffered from a lot Reynolds 3 of injuries due to the fact that machines werent built for children, but rather for adults to work. In my eyes, children werent treated as children, but as adults in smaller bodies. I

say this because childrens worlds were just like adults, now that they too had to provide for their families. People thought of childhood as the period when kids must not only be provided for but must also be able to contribute to their household, which is wrong. The Industrial Revolution caused various advancements in technology, the workers were exploited, as well as the kids. This ultimately was wrong due to the fact that the people were treated as animals for profit. Although it created new jobs for people working in factories, the conditions were not safe and people were not treated justly.

Reynolds 4 Works Cited Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: The Jungle Publishing Co., 1906. Octavo.