Muckrakes

During the late 19th century, corruption spread throughout the lands of America. Investigative journalists ventured into the crooked cities and fraudulent companies where corruption was taking place. These journalists became known as muckrakers, who were named by Theodore Roosevelt because the journalists reminded him of the muckraker in the book "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. The January 1903 issue of McClure's Magazine was credited for introducing muckraking. In the magazine, Lincoln Steffens writes an essay on political corruption that took place in Minneapolis. With the impact of industrialism and the magazine revolution, the McClure magazine and muckrakers became famous in America. The rise of big businesses after the civil war gave way to corruption in society. Large corporations dominated key industries, and they started to form trusts and holding companies. In Minneapolis, the mayor practices this by owning or receiving money from businesses in his city. The mayor, Doctor Albert Alonzo Ames, takes this malpractice to an even more heightened corruption by having and appointing police on his payroll. The magazine revolution made magazines more available to the American people. Before the mid 1880's, magazines of good quality were expensive. The price of paper dropped because of paper manufacturing and a bad economy. The introduction of halftone photoengraving replaced time-consuming and expensive woodcuts that provided magazines with illustration. Magazines began to circulate all over America and became very popular. Muckraker's capitalized on this by having their essays published in magazines so that America could see a detailed report on the corruption in their own country. Lincoln Steffens wrote the article "The Shame of Minneapolis", which was published in the January issue of McClue's Magazine in 1903. The magazine also includes two other muckraking articles on the topics of labor and the oil war. This magazine was important