On Edg: Read this excerpt from a 1906 speech by President Theodore Roosevelt on the conditions in stockyards and meatpacking plants. I transmit herewith the report of Mr. James Bronson Reynolds and Commissioner Charles P. Neill, the special committee whom I appointed to investigate into the conditions in the stock yards of Chicago and report thereon to me. This report is of a preliminary nature. I submit it to you now because it shows the urgent need of immediate action by the Congress in the direction of providing a drastic and thoroughgoing inspection by the Federal government of all stockyards and packing houses and of their products, so far as the latter enter into interstate or foreign commerce. The conditions shown by even this short inspection to exist in the Chicago stock yards are revolting. It is imperatively necessary in the interest of health and of decency that they should be radically changed. Under the existing law it is wholly impossible to secure satisfactory results.

When my attention was first directed to this matter an investigation was made under the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture. When the preliminary statements of this investigation were brought to my attention, they showed such defects in the law and such wholly unexpected conditions that I deemed it best to have a further immediate investigation by men not connected with the bureau, and accordingly appointed Messrs. Reynolds and Neill. It was impossible under existing law that satisfactory work should be done by the Bureau of Animal Industry. I am now, however, examining the way in which the work actually was done.

Which statement best analyzes the call to action in Roosevelt’s speech?

A. By pointing out that Congress is responsible for the current inadequate laws, Roosevelt risks losing his audience’s support before calling for new legislation to fix the problem.
B. The loaded emotional language Roosevelt uses and the failure to describe how the action will benefit his audience weakens his call to action.
C. Roosevelt clearly explains why action is needed by using rhetorical appeals to strengthen his argument and directly requesting specific action.
D. Roosevelt provides meaningful context for the call to action, but he does not effectively employ rhetorical appeals to persuade his audience.