The Progressive Era serves as one of my favorite historical periods in the 20th century. From efforts to improve society to President Theodore Roosevelt, I find it to be an inspirational moment in American history. Yes, I know the Progressives had their faults, they couldn’t decide if behavior was learned or innate, they often acted in terribly racist ways, and no one loved a war more than Teddy Roosevelt. However, they also made huge strides in regulating business and attempting to make our country a safer one.
This leads me to the Food and Drug Act, passed today in 1906. Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle, receives the most credit for the passage of the act. He had intended to horrify its readers about the treatment of workers but instead horrified his readers about the quality of their food. Sinclair later famously claimed, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
But Sinclair was not the only champion of this act. Social activist Florence Kelley, researcher Harvey W. Wiley, and Roosevelt himself worked hard for the act’s passage. The hard work of all these convinced Americans that Congress needed to protect them through regulation of their food.
The initial Pure Food and Drug Act required that certain specified drugs, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and cannabis, be labeled accurately with ingredients and instructions for use. It also went hand-in-hand with other acts, namely the Meat Inspection Act. Later, these acts provided the precedent to create the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Never perfect, the FDA continues to work tirelessly to protect our stomachs.
Today is a short post to quickly celebrate the birth of our 27th president, William Howard Taft, born in 1857. Taft had a limited political career, but Theodore Roosevelt handpicked him to run for president after Roosevelt completed his second term.
