“American industry, for all its boasting, was still crude and wasteful in its methods; and part of the cost of its education,—of that technique it was, in time, to consider, somewhat smugly, as a uniquely American heritage, a gift of God to the corporations of America,—was the lives and bodies of thousands of its workers.” 

American industry is known to be advanced and efficient, but in its beginning, the cost of growth was paid in human lives. For many, this period of growing pains was viewed as divinely appointed, despite the carnage.

“Hope sustained him, as it sustained them all; hope and the human tendency to feel that, dreadful though one's circumstances might be at the moment, there were depths of misfortune still unplumbed beneath one, there were people much worse off.” 

All workers like George Kracha really have to hold on to is the belief that their living situations will get better one day, somehow. It is hope for a better life, though they did not know how to bring this life about.

“The greater part went on from day to day feeling that all this was only temporary since such things couldn’t last, that just before human flesh and blood could stand no more something would happen to change everything for the better. But it never did.” 

Despair is viewed as a never-ending cycle here. Hope is held, then dashed, then picked up and held again. Hope is portrayed as a coping mechanism.