On this date in History .... 1906:
Upton
Sinclair’s book, “The Jungle” is published.
It is the story of what Sinclair found
when he was working undercover in Chicago’s meat packing industry at the
request of the editors of the magazine “Appeal to Reason”, a political
newspaper of the Socialist Party of America that became the largest circulated
Socialist newspaper in America by 1910. He searched for a book publisher and was
rejected by five, who considered it “too shocking for publication”.
The book prompted the
public to write President Teddy Roosevelt to the tune of about 100 letters a
day. Roosevelt sent meat inspectors on a
surprise visit. Even though the visit
was leaked and the plants worked 3 shifts a day for 3 weeks to clean up the
place, the inspectors were still horrified at what they found. Their report
resulted in the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 which eventually led to the
establishment of the Food and Drug Administration.
Sinclair was
appalled and bitter that the public was more shocked at the idea of eating
“tubercular meat” than they cared about the horrific conditions of the working
man. In an interview with Cosmopolitan
magazine, he complained of the public’s viewpoint by saying, “I aimed at the public's heart, and by
accident I hit it in the stomach."
Sinclair is one of the most translated American
authors, his books having been translated into every major language, and it is
believed by many that his work has more impact than any other author with the
possible exception of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
He received a 1943 Pulitzer Prize for his fiction work of “Dragon’s
Teeth”.
A supporter of socialism, Sinclair helped
organize the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), and in 1923 he
co-founded the ACLU's first permanent affiliate, Southern California ACLU, as
an organization to protect public workers, in response to the arrest of dock
workers who had gone on strike. He ran for Congress three times and ran for
California governor three times, losing all six races.
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