During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Progressive reformers worked to improve the social, political, and economic problems in American society. Throughout this time, muckrakers helped reformers by revealing injustices to Americans through journalism, books, campaigns, photographs, and political cartoons. Poor working conditions, low quality of consumer products, and inferior democracy were present in American life during the Progressive Era; reforms such as state actions, the Meat Inspection Act, and Direct Primary helped to eliminate these corruptions. An issue society faced during the Progressive Era was poor working conditions. In Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, he writes that if a person found anyone who uses knives in this factory, …show more content…
The book, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection describes how Upton Sinclair stated how he had hoped to draw his readers’ attention to “the conditions under which toilers get their bread,” and how there are, “corrupt federal meat inspectors, unsanitary slaughter houses, tubercular cattle, and the packers’ unscrupulous business practices”(Document 4). The authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle are expressing how meat factory workers are making terrible, unsanitary food. They’re pointing out that not even the meat inspectors care for the condition the meat is in. In other words, just as long as they’re making a profit, the inspectors could care less about the meat’s quality. However, consumer products soon took a turn for the better when the Meat Inspection Act was finally passed. President Theodore Roosevelt “signed into law a Meat Inspection Act that banned the packers from using any unhealthy dyes, chemical preservatives, or adulterants”(Document 4). This stresses the point that meat made in these factories were so revolting, it would be unjust for any American to consume it. No American should be tricked into eating filth like this meat, and President Roosevelt knew this. Without him, citizens would still have no knowledge of the meats they’re
Nowadays many people in the world are sensitive to how animals are treated in the meat packing industry. The reason the sensitivity is as widespread as it is now is thanks to Sinclair's vivid imagery he uses to capture the reader's attention and sympathy. The methods the packers used to kill the animals can be described as cruel and disgusting. "There was a long line of hogs, with squeals and life-blood ebbing away together, until at last each started again, and vanished with a splash into a huge vat of boiling water"(37). The cruelty of slaughtering the animals within the book, affects the visitors who witness the killings.
Sinclair worked undercover in a meatpacking plant to gather information firsthand, before he began writing the book. Its influence on the labor practices and regulations governing the food industry cannot be understated. It tackles subjects as varied as the poor living conditions of the immigrants, exploitation of cheap labor by industrialists, and the unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking plants and stockyards of Chicago. The descriptions of the disgusting processes that were conducted in the meatpacking plants made for shocking reading and turned the book into a bestseller. The President Teddy Roosevelt ordered an investigation into the lack of sanitation in meatpacking plants and caused the creation of legislation governing the food industry in the form of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906.
Even through things might not happen as bad as once was but still it happens today where and how we slaughter the animals are not always done in a sanitary way. In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan also talks about slaughterhouse in the United States in chapter twelve. He mentions how the slaughterhouse that he visited made sure that there killing was clean because the buyer could come and watch them kill the animal. They then discuss that they how most factories don’t have people that allow to see them kill the animals.
Identify an historical event that influenced the creation of social welfare policy. In 1906 Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle, which ended up shedding light on two concerns Americans were dealing with. The main concern in Sinclair’s novel was about the horrendous living and working conditions of many poor Americans, particularly immigrants, however Sinclair discussed how diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat products were managed, modified by chemicals, and mislabeled for sale to the public (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2008). President Roosevelt referred to the conditions exposed as "revolting” and further declared to Congress that a law would be needed that will allow the Federal Government to inspect and supervise all aspects of the meat food product (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2008).
Chapter 8 from the reading describes the working condition of the slaughterhouse. The meatpacking was known for the most dangerous job in America. People worked in the poor working condition where knives and machines can cut through their shiny steel armor. There are no windows, workers standing in the river of blood, drenched in blood, and women facing sexual harassment. The cleaning crew cleans the plant with a high-pressure hose that shoots a mixture of water and chlorine heated to 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the article, “Is It Possible to be a Conscientious Meat Eater”, the authors argue that processed meat can greatly affect the many things in our everyday life. Sunaura and Alexander’s argument is significantly unreliable because of the certain professions both authors yield. As stated in the article “Sunaura is an artist, writer, and activist in Oakland.” “Alexander’s profession is studying philosophy, and ethics in Athens, Georgia.” This shows that neither of them are qualified to argue in the subject of conscientious meat eaters.
The Jungle was released to expose meatpacking industries’ ways of treating workers and meat. With this release, changes occurred. President Roosevelt urged Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This act required the Department of Agriculture to inspect every hog and steer whose carcass state lines. In other words, it required companies to pay to get their facilities and practices checked by an inspector to assure everything was being done correctly.
The meat industry likes to portray to the consumers happy farm animals grazing in fields, having happy lives, and long futures: however, nothing could be further from the truth. Every second innocent animals are being sent to slaughterhouses to be killed in such cruel and inhumane ways. The torture that goes down in slaughterhouses is something the meat industry does not want the consumers to find out. Farm animals that go to slaughterhouses are beaten, broiled, and dismembered alive by impatient, careless workers. Employees at slaughterhouses need to be immediately stopped.
Intro: When people eat food they do not think about what is in it, or how it is made. The only thing people care about is what the food tastes like and how much they get. During the 1900’s the meat packing industry had not regulations of any kind. All that mattered to the industry was that they made as much money as possible with as little expenditure as possible. During this times people were often made sick and died either from working conditions or poor food quality.
Journalists and authors, such as Upton Sinclair from document 2, can be credited with exposing the corruption during the gilded age. Sinclair was know as a muckraker and his purpose in writing books such as The Jungle was bring light to what was happening in these factories. His work played a key role in the progressive era by holding these business men accountable. The Progressive Party also played a key role in the progressive era. Based on their platform, it is shown that their purpose is to benefit the working class by laws and
For a majority of the outside world, the United States of America was more than just a country. Many people from Europe, Asia and all over would do just about anything for the opportunity to move to America and pursue the well-known “American Dream”. Many foreigners immigrated to America with hope that the American Dream would allow them to work towards a successful career. However, in the early 1900’s this dream was far out of reach for most. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle, depicts the harsh environment and conditions of the Chicago meat packing industry as well as the amount of working class poverty.
The meat industry wants the public to know as little as possible about what goes on with their meat. They give the American public the false idea that their food has been properly cared for its entire life, when in reality the animal was likely given many hormones, lived in a very cramped space and quite possibly never had seen daylight its entire life. Because they try and keep the process a secret, many conditions in the factory could be unsafe. This is why it is vital for slaughterhouses to be more transparent so the conditions are actually safe and people are not just given the falsehood idea that it is. If a light is not shed on what is going on behind closed doors, conditions will only worsen because “most companies would not err on the side of safety without a potentially substantial negative impact on profits” (Simon
Amelia Keany ACBS 160D1 10/4/15 Do Slaughterhouse Animals Lives Matter? The treatment of animals in slaughterhouses has been an ongoing controversy in the United States. Animal protection organizations and animal activists have continuously voiced their disapproval of the treatment of animals in factory farms and in doing so; have shined a light on the harsh realities of these environments. While it may not be a surprise that an animal activist would want to spend their time fighting for the rights of animals, even the lives of those intended to be cut short.
Thus, the book Jungle by Upton Sinclair reveals the social injustice that persisted in the US in the early 20th century. However, the book raises many issues, which are still relevant today, such as the workplace safety, employees ' rights, labor relations, government policies in relation to labor relations, sexual harassment, social security and injustice and many other important issues. Upton Sinclair shows the desperate position of the working class in the US and clearly indicates the shift to socialism as the only solution to the problem of social injustice. In this regard, his solution is debatable but the point is that problems raised by Sinclair in his book were and, to a certain extent, are relevant and affect many people. The economic disparity and the unfair redistribution of the national wealth is the major problem that causes other issues and widens gaps between the rich and the poor
Progressivism began as a social movement but had major impacts in the political arena. Processed meat and patent medications had been a concern for years but didn’t make any progress until 1906 when a fictional book called The Jungle was published. The books grueling details alerted the public to appalling conditions in which their food was being processed in the meatpacking industry. Although the book’s intention was to call attention to the bigger picture of poor working class and harsh working conditions, it focused the public’s eye on the issue of disturbing meat processing antics. An investigation ordered by President Roosevelt found the description of food processing in The Jungle was an accurate account of reality.