Were mattress labels inspired by public outcry?
score:9
I don't remember much of an outcry but I do recall that some of the labelling laws did come about due to health issues. Mattresses and blankets were often carriers of diseases especially in crowded urban areas, and in some of the history books about the time I read the labelling laws were often pointed more towards public safety.
If you think of this as an offshoot of the cheap manufacturing practices in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries then it makes sense. Noting from this article I don't see much that reminds me of an outcry but more along the lines of public health.
In the early part of the twentieth century, a common practice among certain unscrupulous merchants was to sell bedding that was stuffed with everything from straw and horse hair to paper and old rags. As laws protecting the rights of consumers begin to evolve so did the need to provide consumers with easy to understand information. This need led to the requirement to list the contents of bedding materials like mattresses and pillows. Serious public health issues were at stake and officials reacted with what turned out to be relatively simple, common sense regulations.
It is important to remember that during the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds the population of the country grew very rapidly. It was also a time when many communicable diseases were rampant, antibiotics had not been invented and early antitoxins had a limited efficacy. There was a very real public health crisis especially in overcrowded urban areas and public health authorities and policy makers knew that bedding was a prime suspect in spreading diseases such as small pox. Given these circumstances there was more than enough impetuous to target mattress manufacturers and retailers with rules that protected consumers and were not overly burdensome on business.
I haven't seen sources that note an outcry on recycled materials, but shoddy products with cheap materials might have been more of an issue to some at the time.
I did find another article that notes old, infected mattresses were often resold and they do note another source you might like:
And it wasn't just the ranting of fastidious housewives or muckraking germophobes [sic] which caught the attention of legislators. In fact, according to one official working in New York enforcement, the law actually started from the objections of mattress factory employees who saw the remains of their meals being mixed in with prospective stuffing. (M. Whisner, LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL Vol. 101:2)
More post
- 📝 Did the bounty on bin Laden ever get paid?
- 📝 What is the oldest debt that any country is paying right now, and to whom?
- 📝 ‘Avoid sleeping on your back’ & ‘breathe in toilet smells’ were seen as precautions against the Black Death. Why did doctors think these would work?
- 📝 What activities for children were there in Paris in the 1930s (that were not also available in the countryside)?
- 📝 UK involvement in Yugoslavia during WW2
- 📝 What were Greek and Roman sails made from?
- 📝 How often did WWII bomber gunners actually shoot?
- 📝 What are these hats and the function of those wearing them (worn by the Russian imperial army at Borodino)?
- 📝 How did pastoral nomads keep winning battles/wars? When did the tide turn against them for settled societies?
- 📝 Why are the German and French languages so different?
- 📝 Were there universities that treated socioeconomic status as a major factor in college admissions?
- 📝 What was the composition of Medieval European armies?
- 📝 What did Lord Carnarvon study at Trinity College Cambridge?
- 📝 What did Mirsky mean by this quote (Russian Revolution 1905)?
- 📝 What is the exact date and year when the first car got invented?
- 📝 Would the trial of Jesus of Nazareth have been recorded on an Acta Diurna?
- 📝 How was Herodotus able to get accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me what military uniform this is?
- 📝 Power of Prussian artillery pieces during the Napoleonic Wars
- 📝 Did civilian cold war bunkers plan for inclusion of family pets?
- 📝 What will be the regnal number of the next Queen Mary in the UK?
- 📝 What was a "cable station" in WW2 Pacific War?
- 📝 What was the population of late Pre-Islamic Arabia and the population of Arabic speakers before Islam?
- 📝 Was the date skip of the Gregorian calender reform understood to skip weekdays accordingly?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 Was Ludwig von Mises a holocaust survivor?
- 📝 Machine gun specs in WW1
- 📝 What was the League of Sublime and Perfect Masters?
- 📝 What was the relationship between slaves and poor Romans needing jobs in Rome's labour market?
- 📝 History of nations - books
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were mattress labels inspired by public outcry?
- 📝 Were Roman public roads built by private companies?
- 📝 When were country of origin labels (e.g. Made in France) introduced?
- 📝 When were public roads cleaned electromagnetically?
- 📝 When were public tariffs and taxes for water supply introduced for the first time?
- 📝 In what ways were the creators of the USA's system of government inspired by Roman government?
- 📝 What irreplaceable manuscripts were lost in the burning of Jaffna Public Library and what history did they contain (and subsequently lost forever)?
- 📝 Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?
- 📝 Why were old fortifications shaped like stars and not like circles?
- 📝 Why were ships-of-the line not supposed to open fire on frigates during fleet actions?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 Were ancient ships named?
- 📝 Why were the Romans unable to conquer Germania?
- 📝 Were any Kings/Queens who were monarchs as children good rulers?
- 📝 Why were so many more Jewish men than Jewish women killed during the Holocaust?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 Why were there no internment camps for German-American citizens in USA during WW2?
- 📝 Were Hitler's anti-Jewish sentiments known at all to those who voted him to power in 1933?
- 📝 When were swords last used in European warfare?
- 📝 Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?
- 📝 Why were there no nuclear detonations in 1959?
- 📝 How were tanks scrapped after World War Two?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 Why were the Allies so much better cryptanalysts?
- 📝 Why were there no religious wars in Poland?
