Upton+Sinclair+cct


 * [[image:upton-sinclair.gif height="80" caption="upton-sinclair.gif" link="2. industry cct"]] || [[image:jacob-riis-cct.gif height="80" caption="jacob-riis-cct.gif" link="Jacob Riis cct"]] || [[image:child-labor-laws-cct.gif height="80" caption="child-labor-laws-cct.gif" link="Child Labor Laws cct"]] ||

Upton Sinclair
Many Americans were equally concerned about the food they ate. Dr. W. H. Wiley, chief chemist at the United States Department of Agriculture, had issued reports documenting the dangerous preservatives being used in what he called "embalmed meat." Then, in 1906, Upton Sinclair published his novel //The Jungle//. The book, The Jungle, featured appalling descriptions of conditions in the meatpacking industry. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race upon it. Sinclair's book was a best-seller. It made consumers ill and angry. Many became vegetarians after reading the book. Roosevelt and Congress respnded with the Meat Inspection Act, which passed in 1906. It required federal inspection of meat sold through interstate commerce and required the Agriculture Department to set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants.