Muckraking

A detailed Summary of Muckraking

The idea of Progressivism came with the belief that society was capable of improvement and that continued growth and advancement were the destiny of this great nation. The muckrakers were among the first people to promote this new and profound nationalistic spirit. Many were persuasive and crusading journalists who began to direct public attention and discretion toward the political, social, and economic injustices of the US during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They strove to expose scandal and corruption to the American public. Ellen Fitzpatrick's Muckraking: Three Landmark Articles, presents famous articles by Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Ray Stannard Baker which appeared in the January, 1903 edition of McClure's Magazine. The articles examine political corruption, the emergence and behavior of giant corporations, and labor racketeering in industrial America.

The article by Lincoln Steffens mostly focused on the problems and examples of corruption, as well as the challenge of reform. Steffens began to develop a somewhat paradoxical view of good and evil in city politics at a young age (Fitzpatrick, 20). This frame of mind led to his views in the article, The Shame of Minneapolis. The intertwi

Ray Stannard Baker's article, The Right to Work, relates to the 1902 anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania that lasted over five months. The miners wanted the mine owners to recognize their new union, the United Mine Workers of America but the owners refused to bargain with the UMW. The miners were also looking for a 10-20% increase in wages and an eight-hour work. As the winter of 1902-03 approached, President Roosevelt ordered the mine owners and UMW president to the White House to negotiate. When the mine owners still refused to compromise, Roosevelt told the owners that if they did not agree to arbitration, he would send 10,000 federal troops to seize their property and get the mines working. Previously, federal troops had only been called in to support the management side in labor disputes. The very surprised mine owners agreed to arbitration and the miners eventually went back to work with a10% increase and a nine-hour day. Although he enjoyed a public reputation as a !

"trust buster" fighting powerful capitalists on behalf of less affluent Americans, Roosevelt was not in favor of getting rid of the trusts and large corporations. He believed that large-scale capitalism brought prosperity and efficiency to the American economy. The job of the federal government was to police or regulate big business to stop the worst misuses of power. The mine owners, in Roosevelt's view, were abusing their

Some common words found in the essay are:
White House, Americans Roosevelt, Throughout Progressive, , Americans Baker, Shame Minneapolis, Tarbell Baker, Lincoln Steffens, Carnegie's Steel, Ida Tarbell, mine owners, standard oil, coal strike, ray stannard, article oil, ida tarbell, lincoln steffens, rockefeller eventually, improvement company, federal troops,

Approximate Word count = 948
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History