1) What qualities did Sinclair believe a person must have to succeed in Packingtown?
He believed that the good, honest workers wouldn't succeed; their employers would "speed them up" until they were worn out and not useful anymore. The men who did not mind their own business, the ones who spied on the their fellow workers and told stories to the bosses - they would rise. "…if you met a man who was rising in Packingtown, you met a knave," Sinclair wrote.

2)According to the passage, what is the plant owner's main goal.
The plant owner's main goal was to make lots and lots of money, no matter how; the conditions for the workers certainly didn't matter.

3) What does Sinclair mean when he says, "...there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar....?"
He meant that money was more important than anything; it made people selfish and made them stop caring about other people. There was no room for honesty if you wanted to make some extra bucks.


The year Sinclair's The Jungle was published, it helped change the nation's meat industry. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act were passed, and labor organizations began tackling the poor working conditions which the meat packers had to deal with every day.  The question many ask today is how well, or ill, the meat packing industry treats its workers now.
Working in the meat industry is a difficult and dirty job, which causes it to have a high rate of employee turnover. Excessive processing line speed, animal remains spread around the work spaces, and stress disorders caused by repetitive motions are just some side effects you might have to endure as a meat packer. According to a report made by Human Rights Watch in 2005, working conditions in the American meat packing industry were so bad that they violated basic human and worker rights. The conditions are improving, but it's still a harsch industry compared to others. Government surveys show that there's an increase in overall safety, but all information doesn't reach them. Some won't tell about injuries they've suffered in fear of their immigration status (more than 30 % in the meat packing industry are immigrants) being looked up; other times employers want to earn safety awards and low-injury bonuses.

The Farm Tractor

Back in the days, before the Gilded Age, farmers relied on draft animals and their own strength when doing work. What was going to replace those power sources was the tractor - the engine vehicle which mechanized agricultural tasks. However, the tractor went through a quite slow process before it bursted out on the scene. 

The development of steam power marked the beginning of the tractor's lifetime. In 1849, A. M. Archambault & Company made the first farm steam engine. It wasn't too effective though since it was only stationary or portable. When the traction engine was developed, with its powered wheels, the farmers could steer the machine from a platform. This was a big change in the agricultural world, but since the traction engine was unwieldy and expensive it still wasn't good. In 1876, a more practical engine for farm tractors was created by German inventor Nicholas Otto: the internal combustion engine. This engine is still in use today. 
In the 1890s, the gasoline tractor made its debut. John Froelich's hybrid was especially notable since it could propel itself both forwards and backwards. The hybrid would be the forerunner of John Deere's Waterloo Bay line. 

The tractor kept evolving for many years and the demand for it escalated when the United States entered World War 1 in 1917. Farmers would lose a lot of labor when young men went out to war, and the tractor would make up for that. 

So, what is the significance of the farm tractor? Like I wrote earlier, it mechanized agricultural tasks. Just a basic tractor is in charge of plowing, pulverizing and treating the farm field. Then there are also tractors that maintains the growth of newly planted seeds, and tractors that both harvests and transports the harvest from farm to market. With just three tractors you can do all of that. Without tractors it would take a much longer time, and lots of labor would be needed. When the tractor came, farm workers would lose their jobs but because of that they looked for jobs in new factories in the cities. This sped up industrialization. 

Sources:
http://www.farmcollector.com/company-history/tractor-history-ze0z1205zsie.aspx#axzz2jLLmDBgi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Are-Farm-Tractors-Important?&id=4514832

Impacts of the Transcontinental Rail Road

On May 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Rail Road was finished. The effects it would have on society were important in many aspects.

The Rail Road made it easier for passengers and cargo to travel across the continent. Before, everything had to go through a dangerous route across ocean and Panama, now it only took a week to get from San Francisco to New York. $50 million worth of freight was annually shipped from coast to coast within ten years of the rail road's completion. Since more people could have access to the country's resources, the demand for it grew. Greater demand resulted in increased production, which really got the industrialization of the country going. It also created a lot of jobs and helped the growth of American business.

The Rail Road didn't only help transcontinental business, but also contributed to a greater transcontinental culture. People got a bigger picture of what their country actually looked like when they got to travel through it, and culture (like art and books) could be shared across the continent.

So the Rail Road was good for the country's development in many ways, but it worsened the lives of some people - especially the Native Americans. The spreading of white peoples settlements led to wars with the Native Americans, which they would eventually lose and were then forced to move to reservations.

Anne-Marie Hammarstrom

Source:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-impact/

Battlefield Health Care

During the American Civil War many people died - more could have survived though if it hadn't been for the low level of health care. The doctors didn't understand the importance of washing their hands, so what happened was that people didn't get killed directly from the battle wounds themselves but from the infections in them. There was actually no understanding at all of bacterias and germs and how they could be transmitted, so when not washing tools properly bacteria could be spread from one patient to another, which in turn led to the spreading of different diseases.

Also the medical techniques were'nt especially developed during these times, and since anti-biotics hadn't yet been dicovered infections were hard to stop. Amputating or cutting off a limb were the only choices a doctor had when faced with a broken arm for example.

The "hospitals" were not very high tech either. To transport the wounded soldiers from the battlefields they used wagons, and as hospitals they used almost whatever they could get a hold of. They did have portable hospitals (tents), but if they weren't possible armies could take over civilian homes, barns, churches etc.

The Confederate States had less resources to use for medicine, so their health care was even worse than the Union's.

So, how did the health care affect the war? Since the knowledge was so restricted about the spreading of diseases it took many lives - three in five Union casualties and two in three Confederate casualties died of disease. If not as many people had died maybe the war would have countinued for a longer time. And something I keep wondering about is what it would have looked like if anti-biotics had been discovered before the war. 


Portable hospitals

Sources for text and picture:
http://americancivilwar.com/kids_zone/civil_war_medicine.html
http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/UsaHistory/CivilWar/Hospitals.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_in_the_American_Civil_War

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