The Muckraker

Upton Sinclair was an American writer, muckraker, and socialist activist. He was best known for his novel, The Jungle, which was based on the troubling conditions of a Chicago meatpacking company. 

In 1904, a meatpacker's union in Chicago went on strike. The editor of the socialist magazine that Sinclair wrote for, Appeal to Reason, suggested to Sinclair that he should write about the incident. Sinclair went to Chicago with the hopes of telling a story of the conditions suffered by the meatpacking workers. Little did Sinclair know that he would witness firsthand all of the meat industry's extremely unsanitary practices. His book instantly caught the public's eye. 

Sinclair wrote a horrific story about what was going on behind the scenes in the meatpacking plants. In one part, he tells of a worker whose job was to slaughter boil-covered cattle, and upon slicing the cattle, they would burst and spray foul-smelling insides all over the worker (Sinclair, The Jungle​​​​​​​). Sinclair also wrote of how most workers, because of the disgusting conditions, would get infected with diseases. 

Sinclair sent an advanced version of The Jungle​​​​​​​ to President Roosevelt as well as this letter, pleading for government officials to confirm what he had seen. This led to the Neill-Reynolds Report.