Jacob Abernathy
Mission: Muckrakers
The muckrakers were only a part of the progressive movement of the early 20th century, yet they were the most active and oftentimes the most radical progressives. During the first decades of the 20th century, the muckrakers published volumes of books such as The Bitter Cry of the Children and The Shame of the Cities. Muckraking books such as these brought to the public's eye embarrassments, indignities, and an sea of scandals. The most famous and lasting novel from this period is Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which describes the disgusting working conditions of Chicago's meat markets. The Jungle is a perfect example of how profound an effect the muckrakers had on Americans. Although the book was graphic and sickening, it seized the attention of so many American citizens that even President Theodore Roosevelt, who detested the muckrakers, encouraged Congress to create the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
The muckrakers called attention to themselves by writing books and articles with the purpose of creating feelings of shock and disgust in the readers. They did this in two ways; either by revealing scandals of such proportions that the public would not at first believe, or describing revolting conditions in homes and factories. The first method is seen in such books as The Jungle and The Bitter Cry of the Children. Both describe in detail the graphic working conditions of their respective subjects. The Jungle goes into lengths to describe the disgusting meat, the horrid deaths, and the nearly absent sanitation in Chicago's meat markets. In The Bitter Cry of the Children, John Spargo describes working conditions in which "I could not do that work and live, but there were boys of ten and twelve years of age doing it for fifty and sixty cents a day." Americans read these stories and, as the authors intended, cried out in anger. The second method can be seen in magazines articles like "The Treason of the Senate" and "The Shame of the Cities". In both of these articles, the author's intent is to expose scandal. Lincoln Steffens, in "Shame", described corrupt politics covering all levels of municipal government in cities throughout the United States. David G. Phillips' "Treason" takes this a step further, exposing the majority of United States Senators as tools of the trusts. In both cases, an ignorant public was shocked when popular names were factually exposed to be "in cahoots" with big business. In both methods of writing, the muckrakers were able to astonish the American public into full attention.
The method of writing itself is not what made the muckrakers successful. They were successful because they awakened a sleeping giant by calling on the American population. Americans reacted in two ways to combat the revealed scandal. First, they fought the corrupt governments on their own. Second, they appealed to authorities in the federal government such as President Roosevelt. In the first process, Americans could be seen fighting the municipal governments through electing city managers and state governors who would use their power to battle the corruption. Examples of this could be seen in the city of Galveston, which first appointed "expert-staffed commissions" to regulate the city's duties, and the state of Wisconsin, which elected the active reformer Robert M. La Follette. La Follette used his citizen-granted power to weaken monopolies and empower citizens. The second way was used by citizens to pass the Meat Inspection Acts and the Pure Food and Drug Act. It was also seen in the passing of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, which provided for direct election of senators. Americans pressured their state legislatures to choose representatives who would pass such a measure, and after several years of grueling debate, it passed.
The muckrakers were extremely shrewd in showing their issues to the American public. They used methods of shock and disgust in their writing to alert Americans that there were atrocities being committed right under their noses. The American public clamored for change and reform; many did more than talk and went about effecting change themselves. The muckrakers were ultimately successful in bringing their concerns to the American middle class because they produced such a concrete effect that Americans responded immediately to the problems at hand. Within years, progressive legislation began to pass and the country was on its way to the Great War and the 1920s fuller of pride and clean(er) at heart.