In the early 1900s, governmentally progressive leaders started to attack meatpacking organizations because of their unhealthy working environment and unfair employment practices. Their primary aim was the Union Stock Yards unit of Chicago, a massive employee housing complex, meat dispensation plants, slaughterhouses, and feedlots. In 1904, the dilemma of employees held the national headings when the meatpacker’s union in Chicago held a strike, asking for an increase of pay and protection measures. This composition will focus on how President Roosevelt’s report of 1906 and private segment media issue of 1906 discourses matters raised in the 1904 stockyard employee’s status concerning the meatpacking plants in Chicago. Progressives launched an attack at the beginning of the new century towards meatpacking plants because of their unfair actions. The progressives exposed how these plants treated employees like pay slaves, set high costs, and eliminated competition.[1]. The employees who worked in meatpacking plants said that the plants used all but the cry.
Untrained migrant men did the backbreaking and frequently unsafe work, struggling in unventilated and dark places, unheated in winter and hot in summer. Most workers stood the whole day on grounds flooded with blood knives, wielding sledgehammers, foul water, and meat scraps.[2]. The majority earned very little in every hour and worked over ten hours a day and six days per week. By 1904, most of Chicago’s packing employees were new settlers from Lithuania, Slovakia, and Poland. They congested into dwelling rooms and leased housing in packing town, near the foul-smelling stockyards and city junkyards.
The White House blasted with messages demanding for improvement of the meatpacking business. After evaluating The Jungle written by Sinclair, President Roosevelt called him to the White House to deliberate it. Roosevelt then selected a distinct commission to inspect Chicago’s meat-packing plants. The exceptional commission delivered its investigation analysis in May 1906. The report confirmed almost every complaint and allegation made by progressives. Special commissioners even saw a slaughtered hog that chops partway into an employee lavatory. Employees removed the carcass without washing it and placed it on a catch on the line. The officials critiqued present meat-inspection rules that only checked the health status of the animals. The officers suggested that checks happen at every point of the dispensation of meat. Commissioners also requested the agriculture administrator to make guidelines demanding the wholesomeness and cleanliness of meat.
President Roosevelt termed the situations exposed in the exceptional commission’s report “disgusting.” In a communication to Congress, Roosevelt said that a rule is required that will allow the Federal Government’s supervisors to examine and oversee from the beginning to the end of the preparation of the meat food produce.[3] President overpowered meat-packer disagreement and fueled the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The act sanctioned assessors from the United State Department of Agriculture to halt any mislabeled or evil meat from inflowing regional and overseas markets. This act significantly extended central administration regulation of private business. However, the Presidential report of 1906 did not address all the concerns of the employee’s biography concerning the meatpacking plant in Chicago[4]. The statement mostly focused on the safety of the products produced. Concerns such as wages, leaving conditions, and unjust towards workers was not well addressed.
Bibliography
Blair, Brian. “Gone To Ground.” (2018).
Dawley, Alan. Class and Community. Harvard University Press, 2021.
Newman, Patrick. “The Big Meat: The Beef Trust, Regulatory Capture, and Government Intervention.” Regulatory Capture, and Government Intervention (July 13, 2018) (2018).
Staudacher, Nicholas Adam. “Theodore Roosevelt’s Construction of the” Public Interest”: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Presidential Intervention, 1901-1906.” PhD diss., Kent State University, 2016.
[1] Dawley, Alan. Class and Community. Harvard University Press, 2021.
[2] Blair, Brian. “Gone To Ground.” (2018).
[3] Newman, Patrick. “The Big Meat: The Beef Trust, Regulatory Capture, and Government Intervention.” Regulatory Capture, and Government Intervention (July 13, 2018) (2018).
[4] Staudacher, Nicholas Adam. “Theodore Roosevelt’s Construction of the” Public Interest”: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Presidential Intervention, 1901-1906.” PhD diss., Kent State University, 2016.
