Here are 4 discussion questions about the excerpt from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: 1. What unsanitary practices does the excerpt describe happening in the meatpacking plants? 2. How do you think conditions like these could impact public health? 3. Why do you think Sinclair included such graphic descriptions of the conditions? What was he trying to accomplish? 4. How did the public and political reaction to The Jungle lead to changes in food safety regulations?

1. Theodore Roosevelt
and the Square Deal
"Roosevelt was a great personality, a great
activist, a great preacher of the moralities, a
great controversialist, a great showman. He
dominated his era as he dominated
conversations....the masses loved him; he proved
to be a great popular idol and a great vote
getter." – Thomas Bailey, Historian

2. TR’s SQUARE DEAL
• “square deal” – plan to help the
American people through
Progressive reforms
• Helped create the modern
presidency as we know it (an
activist approach)
• Felt he could influence media,
and therefore legislation, from
the presidential seat

3. Progressive Era Legacies of
TR
1. Food and Drug Laws
2. Trust Regulation
3. Conservation
4. Race relations/civil rights –
little reform

5. “It was only when the ham was spoiled that it came into the
department of Elzbieta…there was never the least
attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would
come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had
been rejected, and that was moldy and white – it would be
dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the
hopper, and made over again for home consumption.
There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in
the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and
spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There
would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the
water from leaky roofs would rip over it, and thousands of
rats would race about on it…a man could run his hand
over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the
dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the
packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they
would die, and then the rats, bread, and meat would go
into the hoppers together.”
- The Jungle, Upton Sinclair

6. 1. FOOD AND DRUG LAWS

7. TR was influence by Sinclair’s The Jungle and took on the
meatpacking industry

8. Meat Inspection Act (1906)
• Sinclair exposed unsanitary conditions in
meatpacking
• TR forms commission to investigate-they
back up Sinclair’s claims
• TR pushes for Meat Inspection Act in 1906
• requirements for meatpackers
• federal meat inspection

9. Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
- food/drug companies making false claims
-halts sale of contaminated foods,
medicines
-requires truth in labeling
**did not ban harmful products, but labels
had to provide accurate information so the
consumer could decide

10. T.R.:
A
Conservative
Republican…
or was he???

11. 3. Trust Regulation
 Trusts – legal; held stocks in many
countries
– Lowered prices to knock out
competition, then hiked up prices
consumers paid (ie. Standard Oil)
– Sherman Anti-Trust Acts = useless
 T.R. took on trusts that hurt public interest
 Couldn’t slow business mergers

13. Coal Strike of 1902
 Coal = most efficient source of fuel at the
time
 Workers strike for safer conditions, better
wages, shorter work hours
 T.R. stepped in and threatened to take
over mines (country threatened by
shortage)

15.  Workers – won 9 hour work day, 10% pay
raise, but gave up closed shop and right to
strike for 3 years
** federal govt. was expected to intervene in
strikes**

16. T.R.’s Idea of the Fed. Govt.’s
Responsibilities
Intervention for the PUBLIC
GOOD
–Trust-busting
–Strike intervention
–Railroad regulation

17. 2. Conservation
 Before T.R.
– Late 1800s pioneers and ranchers exploited
resources in West (cattle grazing, forest
clearing)
– Coal companies – dumped refused from
mining
– Cities – dumped sewage
 Conservation – not COMPLETE
preservation like Muir (some areas used
for the common good)

18.  During/After T.R.
– Muir persuaded
him
– Set aside over 150
million acres for
preservation
– Over 50 wildlife
preserves
– Several national
parks

19. T.R.
and
Muir

20. 4. RACE RELATIONS

21. Pre Class
 What was the status of African Americans
in the South after the Civil War?
 What challenges did African Americans
face?

22. “Freedom: A History of US – What is
Freedom?” While you’re watching the video,
define these terms:
 Black codes  Civil Rights Act
 14th Amendment 1875 (and its
 15th Amendment repeal)
 Plessy v. Ferguson
 Ku Klux Klan

23. Race Relations in the early 1900s
 Economic, social inequality for African
Americans
 “Jim Crow” South
– legal segregation; Plessy v. Ferguson est.
“separate but equal”
– Lynching used as a way to terrorize black
populations
 North – de facto segregation
– Housing, job discrimination, “racial etiquette,”
race riots in northern cities

24. Jim Crow
Come listen all you
gals and boys, I’m
going to sing a little
song, My name is
Jim Crow
Well about and turn
about and do jis so
Eb’ry time I weel
about I jump Jim
Crow

25. Examples of Jim Crow Laws
 In Oklahoma, telephone booths were segregated.
 Mississippi had separate soft-drink machines for blacks
and whites.
 In Atlanta, Georgia, an African American could not
“swear to tell the truth” on the same Bible used by white
witnesses.
 In North Carolina, factories were separated into black
and white sections.
 In some Alabama towns it was against the law for blacks
and whites to play cards, checkers, dominoes, or other
games together on athletic teams.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/pdfs/segment11-6.pdf

26.  In Florida, school textbooks for white and
black students were segregated in
separate warehouses.
 In Washington, D.C., black people could
not bury their dead dogs or cats in the
same pet cemeteries used by whites.
Public parks were segregated. Even jails
and prisons had separate sections for
black prisoners.
BACK

28. You are an African American born into slavery in 1845.
When you are in your twenties, the U.S. Congress
ratifies the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments. Still, you know that even though the laws
have changed, the hearts and minds of certain
Americans in your community have not changed.
 Which would you do?
– Get a job working on a local farm to improve
your way of life; keep quiet about your status
in society
– Move to a city and try to get an education; join
a group that speaks out against prejudice
Explain your answer…

29. Progressive Era Reformers
W.E.B. Du Bois
Booker T. Washington

30. W.E.B. DuBOIS: BOOKER T.
– “ book smarts” WASHINGTON:
 GRADUAL
– IMMEDIATE
PROGRESS
LEGAL
THRU SELF-
EQUALITY
HELP &
– IMMEDIATE EDUCATION
EQUAL (agricultural,
ACCESS trades)
– NAACP  Most respected by
founder powerful whites
 Tuskegee

31. What did T.R. do for civil rights?
 Not an advocate of civil rights
 Supported a few African Americans
– Appointed head of custom house in SC
– Invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at
White House

32. What if??
Write a thoughtful paragraph that answers
this question:
 What if the 1st civil rights movement had
succeeded? How would US history have
been changed?

33. Progressivism Under Taft
 Problems:
– Conservation – appointed Sec. of
Interior with poor conservation record
– Tariff – tax on imported goods;
increases cost of living
 signed Payne-Aldrich Tariff
 Splits the Republican Party
– Support of political boss Joe Cannon
– Progressives (change) v. Conservatives
(no change)

35. Discussion
1.Think about the services and technology you use,
products you buy, entertainment you watch, etc. Do
you think that there are still monopolies in America
today. If so, what companies would you consider a
monopoly? Explain.
2. Do you think that monopolies should be allowed to
exist at all? Come up with one example, not
mentioned in class, of a monopoly that could be
good for the country.
3. The NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL are all considered
monopolies and have all survived until this point;
however, their status is still questioned today. If you
think that monopolies are bad for a capitalist
economic system, how do you explain why these
pro-sports leagues should be allowed to exist?

36. Images of Monopolies???

37. Medicines to cure all your ales!

38. Pills cure stomachaches, prevent
suicide!

39. These pills cure all!

40. Do you have pimples? Want to
grow a beard? Head hair?

41. Tar for a cough? No more itching?
Ate too much at the holidays?
BACK

42. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
 Read the excerpts from The Jungle
 Then, on a separate sheet of paper
(to be handed in)
– sketch an image that depicts what
is happening in the excerpt
– Answer the 4 Discussion questions
at the end of the reading