This is actually what journalism had come to in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The government had been overrun with corrupt politicians, corporate America could do whatever they wanted due to monopolization, and the quality of food and drugs provided to the people was dismal. Democracy was in danger. Streimatter says; "For the world's democratic stronghold had been let go, turned into a nation of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation."
The first bout of muckraking was carried out by Lincoln Steffens. He focused his efforts on bringing down the corruption that tainted many city and state governments across the U.S. Steffens was well educated and began his career at the New York Evening Post. A decade later he swapped papers and began writing for McClure's, which was the greatest muckraking journal at the time. It was there that he would embark on a three year mission, tackling municipal governments, that would give him the reputation as an icon in the field. The first city he tackled was St. Louis, at the time a breeding ground for corruption. The article he published, entitled: "Tweed Days in Saint Louis" was a smack in the face to the American people. But it did more than just alert the citizens as to what was going on. St. Louis DA Joseph W. Folk, now with gained pubic support from the article, was able to oust may corrupt politicians. Folk was later elected governor of Missouri. After St. Louis Steffens moved on to tackle corruption in other cities and states, notably NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, NJ, and Rhode Island. Probably the largest contribution Steffens made to municipal government came after is book entitled The Shame of the Cities. The book ushered in a new era of hiring and electing government officials. They now had to have direct experience operating large organizations, possess formal credentials, and usually pass standardized examinations before taking office.
The journalists of this time didn't stop at exposing shady politicians. They reached for the top, tone of the richest men ever to live. John D. Rockefeller had a monopoly on the oil industry in the early 1900s. He had a deal set up with several of the railroad companies that allowed him preferential rates as long as he only used their lines. This tactic forced every other oil company out of business as they could not keep up with the price to transport. In steps Ida Tarbell, hired by S. S. McClure, the founder of McClure's Journal. Tarbell was born and raised in Pennsylvania thus she was surrounded by refinery equipment her whole life. She exposed Rockefeller for his ruthless tactics in keeping the oil industry all to himself. He was caught after offering several competitors to either move or sabotage the companies they worked for. Her series boosted sales of the journal so greatly that tangible results started to appear. In 1906 Congress passed an act restricting railroad companies from giving preferential treatment. Then in 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court found Standard Oil guilt of violating an anti-trust act. Subsequently the company was forced to dissolve into thirty-eight smaller companies. Rockefeller, his image so badly damaged, hired the first publicist in the country. Only then did Rockefeller begin heavily donating to charity. The story showed the country something important: the news services could force corruption out by exposing it to the public. Railroads, telephone & telegraph, mining, and sugar companies were all later investigated for fraudulence.
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| Rockefeller |
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| The woman that exposed his monopolization. |
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| King Rockefeller showing his grip on Standard Oil & the railroad industry. |
One industry that had yet to be exposed was the production of food and drugs. With the onset of refrigerated railcars food could now be transported across distances. But preservatives were being added into the food to keep it fresher, preservatives that no one really knew much about. The American people were unwittingly partaking in cannibalism. And phony, dangerous drugs full of empty promises and narcotics were being pushed onto the market for huge profits. Upton Sinclair, contracted by the newspaper Appeal to Reason, was to be paid $500 dollars to investigate the food industry via Chicago stockyard workers. What he produced was called "The Jungle" and it changed the industry forever. He reported of overtired workers falling into the vats of meat and being shipped out to the citizens of the U.S. It was not just dirty food being sent to people, it was also the conditions under which the workers toiled away. Roosevelt responded by sending agents to Chicago to investigate the legitimacy of Sinclair's claims. Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, was the first to speak out against patent medicines by publishing a list of forty popular ones and their alcohol content. Medicine in the early 1900s, in addition to containing alcohol, was also known to include cocaine and opiates for pain relief. Collier's followed in the footsteps of the Journal by dropping all advertisements for patent medicine companies. Samuel Hopkins Adams published "The Great American Fraud" for Collier's, spending much of the time explaining how patent drug companies' products didn't live up to their claims, or could actually cause harm if taken. In the years to come Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. Several notable individuals called the passing of these laws a direct product of muckraking.
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| The cover of Sinclair's most significant piece of work. |
Another broad sweeping piece of reform for the American Government came when William Randolph Hearst bought up Cosmopolitan magazine in 1906. Cosmopolitan became his vessel to exposing corrupt Senators, many of which were owned by Standard Oil and other large corporations. The Senate literally used to be referred to as the "millionaire's club". Hearst employed an already successful writer named David Graham Phillips to lead the expose. He dug and dug and found that of the ninety acting senators seventy-five of them were receiving renumeration from some company in exchange for political favors. By 1912 all the corrupt senators had been removed from office. And in 1913 a momentous move for the people was made when the constitution was amended, giving the people the power to elect senators, no longer the senate legislature.
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