Muckrakers Essay Example For Students

Muckrakers Essay Muckraking was a powerful journalistic force, whose supporters made it become so. Muckraking was the practice of writers and critics exposing corrupt politicians and business practices. President Theodore Roosevelt made the term muck-raker popular. He once said The man with the muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; who was offered a celestial crown for his muckrake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake himself the filth of the floor. Some, like Roosevelt viewed methods of muckrakers such as Ida Tarbell, Ray S. Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair as these types of people. Others saw these muckraking methods as perfectly acceptable for fighting against the industrial powerhouses. Either way, these muckrakers worked hard to arouse sentiment in the hearts of the public (Reiger 1). Muckraking actually began long before the years of 1900-1902, when the muckraking movement is credited to have begun. Jesus was probably the first muckraker. Years later, Martin Luther exposed the corruptness of the Catholic Church. Also, early Abolitionist worksStowes Uncle Toms Cabin and Helpers The Impending Crisis used muckraking to get a point across. However, events during the 1890s most directly paved the way for the critiques and exposures of existing conditions. This period was able to reach a limited upper class and the muckrakers were able to expand appeal to the average middle class citizen (Reiger 49-50). One reason for the outspread of muckraking was the explosion of journalism. From 1870-1909 the number of daily newspapers circulated boomed from 574 to 2,600 and the number of subscribers from 2,800,000 to 24,800,000. With this increase, newspaper owners and editors needed new bait to reel in its subscribers. The newspaper editors wanted to replace ordinary town gossip with gossip about the latest events of the city. Therefore, in newspapers they placed the most shocking events and kept the rural mind drooling for more. As newspaper circulation grew, the large newspaper depended much less on political parties and could now even challenge them. Newspapers played on the new human interest, the concern of the wealthy with the affairs of those below them, status-wise. This story of the poor became the basic outline for muckraking (Hofstadter 185-188). This new concern of the public demanded more from reporters. Reporters had to dig up exposs and human-interest stories. However, reporters received more and more notice from the public eye. A reporters job was becoming more and more glamorous and held the aspirations of a growing number of young. As this occurred, those of education and those of culture sought out the reporters field (Hofstadter 189-190). As newspapers saw a radical change, magazines observed one as well. Previous magazines received limited audiences and were run by literary men. The new magazines, emerging in 1900 were run by business promoters and reached audiences ranging from 400,000 to 1,000,000. They took a turn away from literature and began writing what greatly resembled news. These magazines, many of which by accident, began producing muckraking articles. One of the most significant of these muckraking magazines was McClures. Others included Hamptons and Pearsons. Magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Colliers produced some muckraking articles, but were not muckraking magazines in themselves (Hofstadter 190-191). McClures magazine had already built a very reasonably sized circulation through popular fiction and historical representation. Ida Tarbell, the most popular reporter of the magazine, investigated Standard Oil originally as a way of honoring this great American business. However, Tarbell started to discover the unhappiness of the workers. She decided to research more deeply into the Standard Oil Company. Her research provided her with the story of a company whose ideas were based on primary privileges. These primary privileges allowed the company to operate under special permission, but more importantly operate immorally. This investigation was eventually printed in 1902 and is now considered the work that started the muckraking era (Reiger 121-125). Gies, Miep., Gold, Allison. Anne Frank Remembered. EssayMany other muckrakers existed besides the ones mentioned so far. Thomas Lawson, who wrote for Everybodys magazine from 1905 to 1908, his most famous article being Frenzied Finance showed a bitter contempt for popular democracy. David Graham Philips, who wrote for the Cosmopolitan from 1905 to 1906 produced the article The Treason of the Senate which was basically a series of attacks on different Senators. Charles Edward Russel, who wrote for the Cosmopolitan, Hamptons, and Pearsons commented on the innumerable accidents of the railroad and the fact of churches taking money from tenements that were a disgrace to the city in articles like The Railroad Revolution and Where Did You Get It, Gentlemen? These as well as many others were titled muckrakers (Hofstadter 193). Although the muckraking era is considered to span from about 1902 to 1912, some muckraking magazines and muckrakers worked on. Despite losing interest because of war events and change of values, Pearsons magazine continued to write on. Also, Upton Sinclair continued muckraking at least until the mid-1930s. In 1924, he produced an essay entitled The Consequences of Land Speculation are Tenantry and Debt on the Farms, and Slums and Luxury in the Cities. Here, Sinclair spoke of his problems with land speculation. He noticed the land speculator becoming a parasite. The speculator invested money in the lands potential value instead of investing money to improve it. Also, as the value of the land increased, farmers could not afford to pay their mortgage interests and the farmers became serfs to pay off the interest (Sinclair). Although muckraking attacked every corner and left no corrupt businessman or politician feeling completely safe, it did not enjoy too much direct success. However, indirectly, it was one of the most powerful journalistic movements of our history. The total circulation of the ten muckraking magazines reached over three million. Also, Upton Siclairs novels The Brass Check and The Jungle went over the hundred thousand mark by 1932. A new political movement of reformed capitalism was undergone as the muckraking era pounded out its grievances. Most importantly though, people, partly because of the information which muckrakers revealed, partly because of the visions of better things which reformers brought forth, and partly because of horrid personal experiences, began to regard big business as an enemy rather than a friend (Reiger 194-196). Works CitedHofstadter, Richard. The Age of Reform. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972. Josephson, Matthew. The Robber Barons. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Company, 1962. Reiger, C. C. The Era of the Muckrakers. Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1957. Sinclair, Upton. The Consequences of Land Speculation are Tenantry and Debt on the Farms, and Slums and Luxury in the Cities. Upton Sinclair. 1924. (17 Dec. 1999)