Question

In your opinion, which details on this excerpt most convincingly highlight the problems in the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s?

Answer 1

Diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws by the year 1900.

By the beginning of the new century, progressives had started to attack huge corporations like Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, and the Armour meat-packing company for their unjust practices. The progressives revealed how these companies eliminated competition, set high prices, and treated workers as "wage slaves”, which could be denominated the main problems in the meatpacking industry.  

As mentioned before, “The Progressives” came out from the “The Progressive Era”, which was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States that spanned from the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objectives of the Progressive movement were eliminating problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and corruption in government.

Answer 2

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

The details that most convincingly highlight the problems in the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s were the following.

First of all, one of the most important issues of the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s was the poorly way to kill animals. A very savage and unhealthy way. The animals died in agony and that affected the quality of the meat. Another issue was that the health inspections were not as serious as they were supposed to be for sanitary control. Workers did not follow sanitary procedures. Another problem was that the workplace was infested with rats all over the packages of meat pilled up in very humid places.