Muckrakers Of The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era from 1901 to 1917 and lasted through the three republican presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, was a reform movement that focused on limiting the power of big business, improving democracy, and strengthening social justice in the United States. Progressives were mostly concentrated on exposing the corruption in government, helping overcome the fear of immigrants, and to get Americans to be politically active again. The majority of Progressives lived in cities, went to college, were social activists, and belonged to the middle class. Both men and women were successful in fighting the corruption in the United States, but women were less eminent in certain topics because their stories

The name “Muckrakers” was coined by Theodore Roosevelt when he made the speech “The Man With the Muckrake” in 1906, which was also a reference to Passage by John Bunyan. Many muckrakers focused on the topics of injustices caused by an increase of immigrants, growing populations in cities, big business that was unregulated, and political machines. Some examples of muckrakers include Jacob Riis who wrote How the Other Half Lives, he described the appalling living conditions in New York CIty slums where most immigrants lived; Ida Mae Tarbell wrote A History of the Standard Oil Company, where she attacks the business practices of John D. Rockefeller; Henry Demarest Lloyd wrote Wealth Against Commonwealth, he describes concerns on big business and corrupt governments; Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, he described the horrible conditions in the meatpacking

This began when the Anthracite Coal Shortage in 1902 caused by a strike of workers demanding better working conditions and less work hours with the same pay. Roosevelt decided to step in and intervene, he called both the mine owners and the labor representatives to the White House where he threatened the owners by sending federal troops after they refused to negotiate. After everyone agreed, Roosevelt called the settlement a “square deal”, which was used to mean everyone fairly gained from the settlement. Roosevelt’s domestic program, which was named after the settlement, balanced interests to make it equal for all parties involved including the public, which he did by creating the Hepburn Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act, and the Elkins Act. He also created the US Forest Service to protect the