The Progressive Era changed government legislation, through means of public understanding, and manipulating the concerns of the people. By allowing the problems of loose and unfair safety regulations to emerge into public consciousness, people had little choice but to discuss them, and decide what's most ethical and economical for their country to flourish without the common man being treated dishonorably. While, "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair was only pragmatically a critique of the meat-packing industry, it was, at heart, a call to socialism. His critique brought light upon a problem hidden underneath a camouflage of public focus. That is to say that society at the time thought so little of the meat-packing industry that very few would question the asepsis of it's production. Sinclair was the only one who had both written of this topic, and had his writings widely read, which is why "The Jungle" eventually became one of the most well-known muckrakes of the twentieth century. It's partially-unintentional effect on government legislation will be looked back on for decades to …show more content…
This is partially due to the fact that since "The Jungle" brought sanitation to a higher degree of importance to the general public, scientists, and journalists have since been trying much harder to educate people of what is and is not healthy. Contradicting information has also caused most people to be slightly more suspicious, and more likely to question what they're told. A recent example of this could be Subway putting a chemical in their bread, which is often found in yoga mats. Azodicarbonamide is used to make Subway's bread fluffier, and has been banned in both Europe, and Australia. After it had been brought to the public's attention, most people reacted quite unfavorably, for Subway. One customer created a petition to get rid of the azodicarbonamide, which accumulated over 50,000 signatures alone. Subway then responded to these complaints, by removing the chemical from the bread, making it significantly healthier than it was prior to the petition. Although, a spokesperson for Subway later stated that they were planning to do that