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Summary Of The Jungle By 1906 Upton Sinclair

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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). Ultimately Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, assisted in passing new federal food safety laws. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2008) What was the social concern that was being addressed? Sinclair’s novel was centered on a young man who had …show more content…

Wiley, chief chemist at the Department of Agriculture, had lobbied for over 20 years for federal food and drug regulation as he had tested chemicals added to preserve foods and found many were dangerous to human health (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2008). The tumult over The Jungle, strengthened Wiley's lobbying efforts in Congress and on June 30, 1906, President Roosevelt was able to push through the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2008). The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 authorized inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop any bad or mislabeled meat from entering market. The Pure Food and Drug Act regulated food additives and outlawed misrepresentative labeling of food and drugs. Does that policy exist today? If yes, why do you think it is still in place, and if no, what do you think happened that the policy no longer

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