Muckrakers of the Progressive Era The Muckrakers of the progressive era, who are American journalists who attacked established institutions and leaders as corrupted, impacted the progressive reforms by exposing the corruption of working conditions in the meat industry, the living conditions in New York that was caused by the rapid immigration, the growing monopolies and the corrupt political machines that were happening during between the 1890s and 1920s. They have made Americans aware of the corruption and abuses of power during this time period. With the help of the muckrakers, we now have different and effectives acts that we still use today. In the early twentieth century, Upton Sinclair, who is the author of “The Jungle”, exposed the unsanitary of the working conditions in the meat industry during the progressive era. The mass-production method was tended to replace skilled workers …show more content…
Lincoln Steffen is a New York reporter who first launched a series of articles called, Tweed Days.”, in St. Louis. “Lincoln Steffens detailed the corruption, bribery, graft, and malfeasance he found in such cities”(Steffens). When he published a book called, “The Shame of the Cities”, it exposed how political machines were corrupt. “He noted that although many people blamed those who took bribes, few bothered to look at those in the business community who gave out bribes” (Steffens). A main political machine corruption was called the “Tweed Ring”. The “Tweed Ring” was a group of corrupt politicians which included Boss Tweed. Political corruption is the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. They managed to steal between $20-400 million dollars. Boss Tweed was eventually arrested and died in jail. Political machines controlled New York City and New York politics, helping immigrants rise up against Americans
James B. Jacobs writes this book on the criminal exploitation of the American labor movement. His book goes beyond the history of labor racketeering to explore the issue from every conceivable angle. It looks at the various criminal methods employed; the depth of Mafia’s infiltration into some of the larger American unions; as well as the efforts of law enforcement, legitimate union organizers and anti-mob dissidents. Prosecutors ' successful uses of RICO are detailed, as are the deficiencies in RICO processes. Of particular interest to readers of Mafia titles, Jacobs provides explanations for the ways organized criminals insinuate themselves into and extract money from labor unions.
The tradition begun by the journalists in Jensen’s book still continues today. Greg Palast is one such journalist who is following in the footsteps of the muckrakers. He has been called the “most important investigative reporter of our time” by The Guardian and has been responsible for writing front page stories for influential news outlets such as “BBC Television Newsnight, The Guardian, Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone and Harper's Magazine”. His area of expertise is corporate fraud and he has gone undercover to conduct his investigations on five continents. He is responsible for writing influential stories such as “BP's Deepwater Horizon blow-out”, the U.S. role in the coup against Hugo Chavez, Enron’s attempt to buy favors from the British government, and the U.S. Presidential election theft in 2000 in
The Tweed Ring’s existence came into light between 1866 and 1871, and it begins when William ‘The Boss’ Tweed and his company made it so that all bills to the city would be at least fifty percent fraudulent, later raised to eighty five percent. The affluence went to William ‘The Boss’ Tweed, the city financial officer, the county treasurer, and the mayor. Furthermore, twenty percent of the share would go into bribing officials and businessmen, which led to a diverse following; William ‘The Boss’ Tweed loved to keep them around, and in order to maintain this regime, he ‘provided for all’. Unfortunately, Tweed was very sufficient in keeping up this scam, by fooling even the ‘best’ people by using his silver tongue and having a controllable idiosyncrasy. Being the amazing nineteenth-century
What is a muckraker? Muckrakers were investigative journalists who wrote exposés about corruption in politics and business. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt made a speech called “The Man with the Muck Rake”, about investigative journalists. “To assail the great and admitted evils of our political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping generalizations as to include decent men in the general condemnation means the searing of the public conscience”. He began calling these types of writers muckrakers.
The muckrakers were a group of journalists who wrote in depth, investigative stories that exposed the problems in American society and urged the public to identify solutions (Progressivism PowerPoint). They sought to advance the spread of democracy, improve efficiency in government and industry, and promote social justice (U.S. History chapter 21). Jacob Riis a journalist and a photographer used photojournalism to capture the dismal and dangerous living conditions in working-class tenements in New York City in his book how the other half lives. In the book he showed pictures such as children sleeping in the street. This exposed Americans all over the country to the living conditions of the urban poor (U.S. History chapter 21).
These progressive views were often published and voiced by journalists. These journalists would expose the injustices and corruptions occurring and were dubbed muckrakers. Whether in established groups or voicing an individual opinion, numerous people started fighting injustices due to morality or religious reasons. (Norton,
In Upton Sinclair’s expose on the meat industry, The Jungle, he writes about the unsanitary and dangerous conditions in the workplace. The author first begins with an eye-opening description of how the meat is made and packed; he then describes the sickening odor that would fill the room. To conclude he details how the workers would need to find a way to sell anything by writing of their schemes of using spoiled meat to sell. Sinclair’s purpose is to expose the conditions of the meatpacking industry and how it was harmful not only to the workers, but also the consumers. He seems to have a large, general audience in mind because the majority
The book the jungle written by Upton Sinclair 1906 documents the meat processing industry. A quote from the book reads "there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage… The rats, [poisoned] bread and meat would go into the hoppers together" This quotation shows that there is radical change because it showed what the food industry was like before the reforms occurred and were put into place. It alerted quite a few people of the many unsanitary conditions and actions that placed consumers at risk of disease. Later that year, in 1906 the meat inspection act was passed by Congress.
Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food. Body 1: The meat packing industry’s working conditions were much worse in the 1900’s than they are today. In the novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, working conditions were horrible for immigrants who were employed in these factories. People in these factories were worked very hard and used up till they could not work anymore. In the novel Jurgis broke his ankle because of the unsafe
Corporate greedy and corrupt politicians were specific problems and injustices that were present in American life during the late 1800s and early 1900s however these were addressed during the progressive era with laws and regulations. Throughout the gilded era corrupt politicians and corporate greedy allowed the upper class and businessmen to take advantage of the working class. This means that a majority of the population were hurt during the gilded age whereas a small percentage benefitted. As seen in document 1, living conditions were crowded, dirty, and unsafe.
Upton Sinclair was born on September 20th, 1878. Him and his family moved to New York City in 1888 due to his father being an alcoholic. His family was extremely poor, unlike Sinclair’s grandparents, who were extremely wealthy. He claims that because of his experiences with the lifestyle of being poor and wealthy, it turned him into a socialist. Sinclair entered New York City college at the age of fourteen.
The progressive movement was formed with an effort of cure to all the ills which had developed in the United States during the time of industrial growth in the last quarter of 19th century. The Progressive Era aimed at reforming the conditions for all workers and also to humanize how prisoners and mentally ill people were being treated. Another reform effort was during the period of reconstruction which lasted up to the time that America entered into the First World War. The reform was to address the issues of women rights and the temperance movement during the Progressive Era (Fox & Picillo, 2016).
The early 1900s were a time of widespread social and political change in America. During this time, many Americans adopted new, more modern ideas about labor, cultural diversity and city life. Some of these Progressive ideas were brought about by the need for reform in the workplace due to the grown of large companies and rapid industrialization. Not everyone supported the ideas of the Progressive Movement, however. Anti-Progressives, especially in the South, preferred traditional, rural lifestyles, and a slower, simpler way of living.
During the late 1800s, there were many problems with social life, the economy, and politics. Immigrants moving to America was a big cause that led to Progressive reforms. Reforms had become necessary and were made known by many Muckrakers, or progressive reformers. The president, Theodore Roosevelt, decided government had to be changed from laissez-faire because of the problems without the government's involvement in the economy. The social, political, and economical changes by those known as muckrakers would allow America to become a great reformed nation.
Muckrakers played an important role in reforming and creating massive change during the nineteenth century. Extreme tabloid journalism was the norm during the nineteenth century. Facts seemed lost and reporters wrote sensational articles in order to sell newspapers. One reporter however broke the norms, Ida.