Muckrakers: Exposing Problems During the Progressive Era

Lincoln Steffens

Lincoln Steffens was born in San Francisco, California, on 6th April, 1866. The son of a wealthy businessman, he studied in France and Germany before graduating from the University of California, where he developed radical political views.

In 1892 Steffens became a reporter on the New York Evening Post. Later he became editor of McClure's Magazine, where he became associated with the style of investigative journalism that became known as muckraking. One of Steffen's major investigations involved exposing local government corruption. A collection of Steffen's articles appeared in the book The Shame of the Cities (1904). This was followed by an investigation into state politicians, The Struggle for Self-Government (1906).

Steffens’ work led many people to fight for an end to political corruption. These reformers, inspired by Steffens, introduced new ideas like the city commission system, where a group of people all shared power governing the city—this would avoid giving too much power to a corrupt mayor. Other reforms inspired in part by Steffens include the secret ballot. Reformers hoped that by keeping voting secret people would not be bribed to vote for one politician or another.

Jacob Riis

Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - March 26, 1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist and slum and school reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark. He came to America in 1870 and wrote for the New York Evening Sun newspaper.

As a pioneer investigative journalist, he went undercover working at a meat-packing factory. He is most famous for his book How the Other Half Lives, which uses images and words to force the public to confront the conditions of NYC tenement slums. Riis’s work led to him to become great friends with President Theodore Roosevelt and shocked the public, leading to reforms that cleaned up cities and made housing safer.

style Riis was once revered with what almost might be called "rock star reformer" status by social scientists for his work in reforming the New York tenements, but more recent looks at his work have been clouded by the racial prejudice he displays towards certain ethnic groups that he studied. Quotes from How The Other Half Lives such as "...I state in advance as my opinion, based on the steady observation of years, that all attempts to make an effective Christian of John Chinaman will remain abortive in this generation; of the next I have, if anything, less hope." Excerpts like this have stained his reputation as a human being, but there is no denying the impact of his work in combating the subhuman conditions of the tenements of 19th and 20th century New York.

Ida Tarbell

Among the muckrakers of the Progressive Era, none surpassed the careful reporting, clever pen, and moral outrage of Ida Tarbell. She took on the nation’s most powerful trust- Standard Oil- and its creator- the nation’s wealthiest man, John D. Rockefeller- wealthiest man, John D. Rockefeller- in 18 installments of McClure’s magazine.

Ida Tarbell developed her moral outrage at the Standard Oil trust through personal family experience. Soon after her birth in 1857 on a farm in Pennsylvania, oil was discovered in nearby Titusville. Her father, Franklin saw an opportunity to make money in this promising new field. He became the first manufacturer of wooden tanks for the oil industry and established a successful business.

In time, however, the Standard Oil Company began to force other oil suppliers out of business. Standard Oil became Franklin’s only client, and refused to pay his prices. The business failed and Franklin’s partner committed suicide. Ida Tarbell could never forget her father’s pain or its cause.

Beginning in 1903, Tarbell began writing a series for McClure's magazine called “The History of the Standard Oil Company,” all of which was later republished as a book. In her work, she outlined and documented the cutthroat business practices behind John Rockefeller's massive oil empire. Rockefeller was outraged, but the public outcry against him and Standard Oil could not be stopped. Congress launched an investigation and in 1911, the Supreme Court ruled that, in accordance with the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Standard Oil Trust must be broken up—Rockefeller’s largest company was dissolved (although he stayed wealthy). Tarbell became famous as the reporter who had successfully taken on John D. Rockefeller. Finally, three years later in 1914, Congress passed the Clayton Antitrust Act, giving the government more power to attack monopolies.

Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair was an American author who wrote over 90 books in many genres, often advocating Socialist views, and achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the twentieth century. He gained particular fame for his novel, The Jungle (1906). Sinclair hoped to illustrate the horrible effects of capitalism on workers in the Chicago meatpacking industry. The Jungle detailed workers sacrificing their fingers and nails by working with acid, losing limbs, catching diseases, and toiling long hours in cold, cramped conditions. Sinclair’s main goal for the book was to demonstrate the inhuman conditions of the factory worker under capitalism, hoping that reforms improving working conditions and wages would soon follow.
The rage that rang throughout America was not, however, a response to the workers' problems, as Sinclair had hoped. Sinclair also uncovered the contents of the products being sold to the general public. Spoiled meat was covered with chemicals to hide the smell. Skin, hair, stomach, ears, and nose were ground up and packaged as head cheese. Rats climbed over warehouse meat, leaving piles of excrement behind.
Sinclair said that he aimed for America's heart and instead hit its stomach. Even President Roosevelt, who coined the derisive term "muckraker," was propelled to act. Within months, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act to clean up meat-packing plants and control what went into foods Americans ate.