Question

Which shows the correct organization of key events?Which shows the correct organization of key events?

A.The embalmed beef scandal erupts; Roosevelt sends inspectors to Chicago; a federal Meat Inspection Act is passed.

B.The Beef Trust blocks reform; The Jungle is published; state laws ensuring food safety are passed.

C.The Spanish-American War begins; the Beef Trust is defeated in Congress; The Jungle is published.



At the beginning of the twentieth century, no
federal laws existed to ensure the safety and
quality of America's food. State laws existed but
were poorly enforced. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, who
headed the Bureau of Chemistry in the
Department of Agriculture, led the fight for laws
that would protect the public. His efforts were
blocked by the powerful "Beef Trust," which
lobbied on behalf of the meatpacking industry.
A series of events aroused public concern
and indignation, beginning with the "embalmed
beef" scandal. During the Spanish-American
War (1898), American soldiers were sickened
by canned meat. The contaminated beef caused
food poisoning, typhoid fever, and dysentery;
thousands of soldiers died as a result. A school
of journalists emerged after the First World War
whose sensational tactics and commitment to
social reform earned them the name
"muckrakers." Muckrakers like Samuel Hopkins
alerted the public to fraudulent practices in the
making and marketing of patented medicines.
Charles Edward Russell undermined the
authority of the Beef Trust with his report on
greed and corruption in the beef industry. Most
influential was Upton Sinclair's The Jungle - a
horrifying account of the Chicago meatpacking
industry. Published in 1906, the book shocked
the public and galvanized it behind reform.
Sinclair's intended purpose was to expose
the plight of the immigrant who suffered cruelly at
the hands of an unscrupulous and unregulated
industry. He wrote about Jurgis, a fictional
Lithuanian immigrant who faces starvation,
injury, and degradation as a worker in the meat
industry. But the public seized on Sinclair's
grotesque descriptions of meat production.
Sinclair wrote, "I aimed at the public's heart and
by accident hit it in the stomach."
In response to the book, President Roosevelt
sent government officials to Chicago. They
submitted a report that confirmed the truth
behind Sinclair's fiction. Roosevelt warned that
the report's findings were so shocking that its
publication would be "well nigh ruinous to our
export trade in beef." With the public behind him
and the damning report in his hand, Roosevelt
was able to override the influence of the Beef
Trust and convince Congress to act. In 1906,
both a Meat Inspection Act and a Pure Food
and Drug Act were passed within six months of
The Jungle's publication.