Henry Ford vs. the Jungle
...tories (Sinclair 97). While early automobile manufacturers merely bought automobile parts and assembled the cars. Henry Ford's objective was to make every part that went into his cars at his factory. He acquired iron and coal mines, forests, mills, and factories to produce and shape his steel and alloys, his fuel, wood, glass, and leather. He built railroads, steamship lines, and an airplane freight service in order to transport his products (Brodsky). This shows the identical idea in The Jungle. Every tiny thing that could be made out of the cow and pig was made in the same factory. From the horns going to make buttons to the left over stuff going in to make lard. They also made glue combs, fertilizer, and even violin strings (Sinclair 45). When Jurgis took the tour of the packing plant the guide had said, “They don’t waste anything here, they use everything about the hog except the squeal” (Sinclair 38). In early 1913, Henry Ford came up with a great new invention to increase productivity. The great new innovation was the assembly line, which used conveyor belts. These conveyor belts brought the jobs to the men, instead of having the men waste time going to the jobs. Each worker preformed a particular task, such as adding or tightening a part. In The Jungle it was very similar. Every worker had one job in which he did all day, every day. At this time mass production was Henry Ford's main focus, so he replaced men with machines wherever possible. He also tried to cut shipping costs by getting parts shipped from the main plants in the Detroit area and then assembled into cars at branch plants. He also tried to save money by using the crates that the parts were shipped in on. He would use them as seats and paneling. In The Jungle they did the similar thing, by using anything they could to make more money. If the meat was diseased they would still use it. They would use chemicals to change the color of them meat, and spices to change the flavor (Sinclair 100). They would add potato flour and water to make the meat thicker (Sinclair 134). Sometimes in making sausage poisoned rats, rat dung, poisoned bread, spit, consumption germs, and the waste barrels would be added (Sinclair 136). Evan men have gotten mixed in with the meat! Another one of Henry Ford’s main focuses was employee wages. In 1914 he raised his minimum wage to $5 a day and later to $6. This was almost twice as much as most other people received, and very much different than The Jungle! The New York Post proclaimed, “It’s a magnificent act of generosity,” (Cahill 55) while the Cleveland Plain Dealer said, “It’s a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression” (Sobel). Henry Ford also reduced then the working day from 9 hours to 8 and made a five-day working week. In doing this it increased the profit of 30 million in 1914 to 60 million in 1916. The Washington News said, “His general policy of labor resistance to labor is as out of step with the times as the oxcart” (Lacey 124). This though was very appealing to workers. So thousands of workers flocked to the Ford Motor Company looking for jobs. Like in The Jungle, the Ford Motor Company had to choose the strongest, hard-working, and smartest looking worker. At that time 71% of the workforce at the Ford Motor Company was composed of non-English speaking people. These people had to take English classes. This is the same in The Jungle. This caused many riots. Henry Ford also didn’t want unions. So he had to hire thugs to go around making sure there were no unions forming. Like in The Jungle if they found out you were speaking out for unions you were laid off. Like when Marija was laid off from the canning factory in The Jungle. Also his factory was one of the last to have unions! Also resembling The Jungle, when the foreign-speaking workers had to take...