Upton Sinclair engaged in “willful and deliberate misrepresentations of fact”

Letter to The WSJ. 

"“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” John Godfrey Saxe’s quip certainly applies to the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, legislation meant to clean up Chicago’s meat-packing industry (“‘The Jungle’ Is a Cautionary Tale for DOGE” by Peggy Noonan, Declarations, March 15).

In reality, the Beef Trust improved sanitation in slaughterhouses. It replaced wooden cattle pens with brick structures, revamped sewage systems, minimized dust through electrical power and reduced waste in the Chicago River by making by-products from carcasses. Canned meat products and preservatives decreased spoilage, bacterial contamination and monotonous diets. The Beef Trust likewise reduced prices for ordinary Americans.

These innovations incurred the wrath of smaller butchers, cattle ranchers and reformers like Upton Sinclair. He was an avowed socialist who wanted to write a sensationalist book on wage slavery. The official report by the Bureau of Animal Industry noted that he engaged in “willful and deliberate misrepresentations of fact.” The law encouraged industry consolidation in the Beef Trust by, among other things, imposing new costly sanitary requirements on smaller competitors.

Contrary to popular history, the saga of the Beef Trust is a great example of how free-market capitalism improves the lives of ordinary Americans while government intervention makes things worse.

Prof. Patrick Newman

University of Tampa

Tampa, Fla"