Immigrants Come to America During the Gilded Age Essay

1 In the early 1900’s there was a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants coming to the eastern shores of America. Many were pulled to America because of its economic opportunity, freedom, need for labor and its beautiful country. Immigrants were excited to come to America and were pushed from their home countries because of food shortages, overpopulation, war and political instability. This was going on in an important era in American history called the â€Å"gilded age†. It was a time of economic growth, and industrialization but also had high percentages of poverty mainly in urban environments. The majority of the immigrants intended to advance out west but actually settled in the eastern cities. In the book The Jungle, Jargis and his†¦show more content†¦Factories did not have to meet any safety guidelines, causing the United States to have the worst working conditions out of any other country. Also the factories were definitely not the cleanest places to work. Since there was no one inspecting the meat at the time, low skilled laborers were forced to package meat that was spoiled or contaminated. This did not go well with human consumption. â€Å"The meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy, which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water—and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped 3 into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast.†(Chapter 14, page 167) This quote really showed how strictShow MoreRelatedThe Gilded Age By Mark Twain1217 Words   |  5 PagesCoined the term the â€Å"Gilded Age, this time period of 1870-1900 was first referred to as this title by a book written by Mark Twain. In respect to the United States during this time, it refers to the overall appearance of the US to appear as if saturated in gold and opulence, otherwise known as a land of dreams. However, this was not the case because underneath this initial viewpoint, there was poverty and injustice that lined the streets of every urban city. 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