Today is Veterans Day. Do anything that you can to honor those who have fought for our undying freedom.9.) What did the progressives do to make food and drugs safer for the consumers of America? 9.)What did the progressives do to make food and drugs safer for the consumers of America? Progressives did many things for the people of the United States. Among these things was making food and drugs (medicines) safer for the consumers of America. Back in the days before the Progressive Era, food was terribly put together and processed before being distributed to the public. In fact, food was pretty much not processed at all.Meat was among the worst products on the market, but meat was considered a delicacy and an important symbol in the household. There wasn’t any refrigeration in those times, so meat had to be distributed immediately after the animal was slaughtered. Meat was very poorly handled and often cooked improperly. Rodent feces, rat poison, disease, and just about anything sick and disgusting that you can think of could have been found in the meat that was kept and sold in the market. Upton Sinclair was an author whose book, “The Jungle”, brought to light the horrible things that were going into meat and other products that Americans unfortunate enough to have no knowledge about.People were better off to just raise and kill their own meats to be sure that they knew what was actually going into their food. Not only meat, but just about any other food products had these products. Medicine was also a big problem in those days. Immoral “merchants” and “medicine men” would travel from town to town trying to sell their “cure all” medicines. They claimed that their homemade medicine could cure any sickness or disease.Often this medicine would be sugar or some other harmless substance. Other people would make terrible concoctions that would make the buyers terribly sick. Some of the consumed medicine would even cause deaths. The Progressives realized that the country would become a much healthier and better place to live in if the food was at least half way decent.The Progressives knew that people would live longer, and live healthier if the food was actually edible. The changes that they made would also stimulate the food industry in a good way as the consumers would be more willing to buy better food products.The Meat Inspection Act was passed that granted appointed officials the ability to inspect the meat that would later be distributed to the public. If the handling of the meat, the quality of meat, or anything to do with the meats processing did not meat the standards of the inspector, the plant was either shut down or strictly reinforced and reorganized.The Pure Food and Drug Act made it law that foods must be inspected and deemed worthy of sale before being shipped off to the general public. This saved many people from sickness, drug addiction, and even death. Americans were all too happy to know that what they were eating was at least somewhat safer than before.10.) What did progressives and Teddy Roosevelt do to help conserve land and resources in our country?11.) What did progressives do to regulate businesses in the United States?Before the Progressives came to power and bettered the lives of the majority of the United States Population, monopolies were formed in basically every major industry. A monopoly is a very large company that dominates the industry.Monopolies are self reliant. They have their own resources, refining facilities, processing plants, manufacturing centers, shipping fleets, and anything else that you can think of. Monopolies were great… for the head of the monopoly. Monopolies, which are also known as trusts, are bad for the little guy.They undermine the small business and unfairly attract all of the business until the smaller business or company had no choice but to give up and conform to the monopoly. Here is where the Progressives come into play.The Progressives were all about bringing change and prosperity, especially to the common people who couldn’t always help themselves. President Theodore Roosevelt was a Progressive. He passed the “Sherman Anti Trust Act” which made him a “trustbuster”. The “Sherman Anti Trust Act” gave the government the power to break up trusts or monopolies that it felt were making it too unfair for the small competing businesses.The Interstate Commerce Commission was formed. The ICC passed the Interstate Commerce Act. “The Interstate Commerce Act” gave the ICC the power to set maximum rates that the railroad companies of America could set for the public. These new, lower rates made it much easier for farmers and the common people to travel by train.The “Sherman Anti Trust Act” eventually failed. The “Clayton Anti Trust Act” Now gave the government the power to break up monopolies. The Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) effectively prevented and broke up any company that it deemed to be in violation of the Anti Trust Laws.President Theodore Roosevelt is credited for being a big-time trust buster. However, it was President Taft who was elected president after Roosevelt who broke up more trusts than Roosevelt. After Taft, Woodrow Wilson Broke up even more trusts than his two predecessors.I have learned quite a bit from these two questions, and I hope you will learn from reading this blog. Sometimes the Progressives seemed to be pushovers like when they got the nationwide Prohibition enacted. In these two cases, the Progressives helped a lot of people, especially the common people who are the strength and backbone of our society.
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