How the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 Changed American Lives
During the second Industrial Revolution, there was a specific time that everything in society came to a halt. President Theodore Roosevelt and the government passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 which transformed policies in meat factories for better health and improved sanitary conditions.
Today, society does not commonly think about children working at the ages of twelve or thirteen in the United states. In the early 1900’s many children worked at these incredibly young ages in factories or in farms. They would not have the privilege to go to school, because they would work long days at the factories doing intense labor. Children would regularly get hurt or killed on the job site.
Before the Meat Inspection Act was passed many workers would be crammed into factories with many other workers. These factories were nightmares for workers. They had no ventilation or windows, so they would have to work in the dark. The odor of the meat was horrible, because they were selling spoiled meat before 1906. This caused the inside the factories to smell dreadful while working in unsanitary conditions. They would stand for hours breathing in odors of offal. During the hotter times of the year the meat packing factories were some of the worst places to work.
Charles Neill, a labor commissioner, went into the stockyard and was summoned by President Roosevelt to inspect the work area. He found the stockyard unreasonably unsanitary. The process that the food was prepared was dangerous and unsanitary causing health hazards to the workers and the consumers. The meat was already spoiled.
With the implementation of the Meat Inspection Act factories were required to offer safer working conditions, and all meat had to be properly packaged while being processed sanitraily. This made working conditions safer for all workers and customers.
States began to pass laws where parents would be fined if they sent their children to work. Education levels for boys went up significantly after 1906, because they were able to focus on school and were not able to work these hard jobs.
There were some downsides to the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. In 1912, the state of Louisiana was one of the first states who started cracking down on child labor heavily. They were searching for everyone who participated in it, specifically the theater. The children working in theaters and plays had no problem working, because the work was easy. Once that state of Louisiana found out about children, no matter where they worked, they were being caught.
On the extreme side of the laws in Louisiana people were even sent to court. Rose Mary Shields was taken to court at the age of fourteen to fight her case for participating in a play. Shields believed that the law was unconstitutional and opposed what the state of Louisiana had put her on trial for. The judge came to a conclusion and found shields to be guilty. She was given a fine and for not following the rules.
The Meat Inspection Act was also very positive. It created a new workforce for those who did not have access to work. With the law being put in place, children could no longer work and were forced to go to school. With shorter working hours women became the next big work force. After 1906 there was a huge increase in women in all factories and mills jobs in America. They took the old position in factories that the children were working before 1906.
As we look back on the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 in the United states. We see the world is still having a problem with child labor and unsatinary conditions in many third world countries across the planet.
Roger Horwitz, “”Where Men Will Not Work”: Gender, Power, Space, and the Sexual Division of Labor in America’s Meatpacking Industry, 1890–1990.” Technology and Culture 38, no. 1 (1997): 187–213.
Report on Conditions in the Chicago StockYards; 1905; Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233.
