Louis Ohland wrote:
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=7229

Of Meat and Myth

As popular myth would have it, there were no government inspectors
before Congress acted in response to "The Jungle" and the greedy meat
packers fought federal inspection all the way. The truth is that not
only did government inspection exist, but meat packers themselves
supported it and were in the forefront of the effort to extend it!

When the sensational accusations of "The Jungle" became worldwide news,
foreign purchases of American meat were cut in half and the meatpackers
looked for new regulations to give their markets a calming sense of
security. The only congressional hearings on what ultimately became the
Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were held by Congressman James Wadsworth's
Agriculture Committee between June 6 and 11. A careful reading of the
deliberations of the Wadsworth committee and the subsequent floor debate
leads inexorably to one conclusion: Knowing that a new law would allay
public fears fanned by "The Jungle," bring smaller competitors under
regulation, and put a newly laundered government stamp of approval on
their products, the major meat packers strongly endorsed the proposed
act and only quibbled over who should pay for it.

In the end, Americans got a new federal meat inspection law. The big
packers got the taxpayers to pick up the entire $3 million price tag for
its implementation as well as new regulations on their smaller
competitors, and another myth entered the annals of anti-market dogma.

To his credit, Upton Sinclair actually opposed the law because he saw it
for what it really was — a boon for the big meat packers.10 Far from a
crusading and objective truth-seeker, Sinclair was a fool and a sucker
who ended up being used by the very industry he hated.

Myths die hard. What you've just read is not at all "politically
correct." But defending the market from historical attack begins with
explaining what really happened. Those who persist in the shallow claim
that "The Jungle" stands as a compelling indictment of the market should
clean up their act because upon inspection, there seems to be an
unpleasant odor hovering over it.



John wrote:
Read a book " The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair about the US meat industry
at the turn of the last century.