Inhumane Living Conditions In Packingtown

Life during the late 1800’s and 1900’s was hard for if not all then for the majority of lower class citizens and immigrants that came into Chicago. The people flocking by the thousands came to find work in order to support their family. If forced to choose between living in a town with inhumane living conditions known as Packingtown or live in a town where everything was ran and owned by George Pullman, I would pack my bags and move into Pullmans model town. I choose Pullman because of its living conditions, the culture of the town, and opportunities for women even if they were not ideal.
Packingtown was notorious for its awful and inhumane living conditions and working conditions. The houses in Packingtown were built terribly, infested with
Although the same man owned everything, his ideas to better the town were very innovating. “Schooling was free through the eighth grade, with the only condition being that all pupils had to be vaccinated for smallpox. Another pioneering provision was a kindergarten for children between the ages of four and six. An evening school taught subjects such as bookkeeping and stenography. There was a lively cultural life in the town. There was a theater with one thousands seats, a library, a Military Band composed entirely of men who worked for the company, and an extensive athletic program”("The Town of Pullman"). Pullman’s town was filled with many attributions that I would deem fit to want in a neighborhood. The town valued educational and cultural enrichment. I found find myself in the library or theater whenever I was able to. I believe elements like those are important in towns because it makes its residents well rounded individuals. Being exposed to these things in Pullman would allow me to achieve better successes than in Packingtown where everything was work and no
Job opportunities for women were expanding; As opposed to Packingtown where “men and women and children bending over whirling machines and sawing bits of bones into all sorts of shapes, breathing their lungs full of the fine dust, and doomed to die, every one of them, within a certain definite time”(Sinclair, 1971, p. 152). Jobs available in Packingtown are extremely dangerous. Why would I take a job that can kill me when I can work at Pullman's company taking on safer jobs? The women of Pullman had work in knitting factories, paint departments, or housing borders ("The Pullman Strike and the crisis of the 1890s: essays on labor and politics pg.75). Although the ideal was for the man to provide for his wife, while she stayed home, I would have enjoyed being in the labor force and being able to make my own money. The money made would also go towards supporting my family. These jobs were also less deadly than the ones in Packingtown, and I would rather knit a sweater then kill an animal and fear death on the job on a daily