ere the beef luggers who carried two-hundred-pound quarters into the refrigerator cars, a fearful kind of work, that began at four o'clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years. . . . Of . . . all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb (101).
These horrors are intensified by the fact that the immigrant workers are paid wages which barely allow them to live. They dwell in crowded tenements hardly fit for human habitation. And the political climate of the era, in terms of its effect on their lives---as both workers and consumers---was one of corruption and laissez-faire. The capitalist bosses were essentially allowed by political leaders to do whatever they had to do, or wanted to do, in order to maximize profits. And the corruption of the unions was mirrored by the corruption of so
...