What is a Muckraker?

A Muckraker is anyone who seeks to expose and reveal corruption or inhumanity within an organization or business. Muckraking can come in many forms, such as novels, journalism or even just pictures. Muckrakers have had a significant effect on laws and policies within the US. The term muckraker came from a part of Theodore Roosevelt's speech: "the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; Who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor". This blog looks at four muckrakers who had particularly significant effects.

Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives

Jacob Riis was a Danish-American muckraking journalist, wrote How the Other Half Lives. The book exposed the terrible conditions of the slums of New York to the upper and middle class. Because of the recent invention of flash photography, Jacob Riis' book contained many pictures and drawings based off of pictures. Becuase of flash photography, Riis was able to take pictures of dark workplaces and streets not seen by the average middle class New Yorker. The book also talked about sweatshops with poor conditions for women and children, as he beleived that focusing on the women and children would have more of an effect. By exposing the filth, overcrowding in the slums, the public became much more aware of the conditions, and lead to many reforms such as the New Law Tenement. Yet the book was not without its problems. Riis' protestant views showed through heavily, as did his dislike for the CHinese, Jews, Italians and Irish of the district. Overall, the book had a large impact on all Muckraking to follow.

Upton Sinclair: The Jungle

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, is a muckraking novel about the meat packing industry at the turn of the 20th century. The book was originally meant to convey the harsh poverty and working conditions of the workers in the factories, but had more of an impact as a book about food safety. Sinclair was quoted as saying "I aimed at the publics heart and by accident i hit it in the stomach". The Jungle focused on subjects such as the lack of social programs, morbid work conditions and corruption of the factory leaders. The public responded largely to the cleanliness and health of the meat, as well as the stories such as workers falling into machines and getting turned to lard, or having extremeties cut off. The book had a profound impact in this regard. During this time, foreign sales of american meat fell by one half. Becuase of this, lobbyists for the meat industries urged the government to pass inspection laws. This lead to the Meat Inspection act which lead to the Pure Food and Drug Act, which eventually lead to the Food and Drug Administration.

Ida Tarbell: The History of Standard Oil

The History of Standard Oil exposed the corruption in the company Standard Oil. Standard Oil started and run by John D. Rockefeller, a man who eventually became the richest man in history. In her book, Tarbell accussed Rockefeller of using unfair tactics to monopolize and put small oil company competitors out of business. For example, one competitor of Standard Oil tried to build an oil pipline, but was denied by a railroad company that was under the control of Standard to build on railroad land. This forced the company to put the oil in barrels, cart it accrross the land then in barrels, cart it accrross the land then manually pump it into the other end of the pipeline. Rockefeller then ordered the railroad company to park empty carts on the railroads, making it impossible for the oil to reach the pipeline. STandard Oil made deals with many railroad companies that gave them much lower rates then all of their competitors as well, a practice which later lead to the companies undoing.

The History of Standard Oil was credited with making the breakup of Standard Oil happen more quickly. In 1991, the US Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil to be broken up into smaller companies. Some examples of these smaller companies are Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

Ralph Nader: Unsafe at Any Speed.

Ralph Nader is a more modern day muckraker. In 1965, Ralph Nader published a book on the general unsafety of cars of the daty and the reluctance of car manufacturers to spend money on the safety features. The book was broken down into 8 chapters, each focusing on a specific aspect or topic of car safety.
Many ideas were presented in the book. Some exmples were a chapter about the Chevrolet Corvair. The Corvair was prone to crashes due to a need to keep a certain tire pressure because of a rear engine suspension design. The need for a constant tire pressure was critical, and not explicitly clear to the consumors. This prompted Gm to try and silence Nader about the Corvair with a private investigation. Nader then successfully sued GM for harrassment and intimidation.

Another example was about the chrome and glossy enamels used on the dashboards of certain cars, which reflected sunlight into oncoming drivers eyes. Another significant chapter was

The Engineers, which focused on how engineers of cars were generally fearful of focusing on car safety features, thinking it would make cars too expensive and alienate buyers. At the time, styling changes averaged over $700 on average per car, while 23 cents was being spent on safety features.

Unsafe at Any Speed made Nader a household name and attracted a lot of attention, especially when Nader successfuly sued GM.