Muckrakers were an important part of the progressive movement during the early 1900s.They were journalists who focused on exposing political and industrial corruption—demonstrating how a free press could influence politics and law. Periodicals such as Collier’s, Cosmopolitan, and McClure‘s Magazine ran articles that called attention to the problems of urban and industrial life. Lincoln Steffens wrote about political scandals in big cities like Minneapolis and Chicago. Ray Stannard Baker was known for Following the Color Line, a book on racial problems in the North and South.
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The old miner had just come in from his work, his face and clothing black with coal dust. . . . Five years before he had been in a mine explosion... . For four years previous to the great strike he had lived quietly a comfortable old age.
But with the strike came hard times, and. . . old John Colson was compelled [forced] to go back in the mines. . . . The mother told me with pride of her boys. . . . And so we came to speak of John, her oldest son, the one reported beaten to death. She flushed at the mention of his name, said at first that she would have nothing to say about him, and then, bitterly:
“He might better be dead, for he’s brought disgrace on the name.”
All the brothers. . . had been members of the union, and had come out when the strike was called, but John had gone back to work.
“He deserved all he got,” said his mother. “He wasn’t raised a scab [union worker who refuses to join a strike].”
—Ray Stannard Baker, “The Right to Work”
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Well, Minneapolis got its old mayor back. . . . Up to this time Ames had not been very venal [corrupt] personally. . . . Now, however, he set out upon a career of corruption.
He. . . laid plans to turn the city over to outlaws who were to work under police direction for the profit of his administration. He chose for chief his brother, Colonel Fred W. Ames, . . . [and] for chief of detectives. . . Norman W. King, a former gambler. .. . King was to invite to Minneapolis thieves, confidence [con] men, pickpockets, and gamblers, and release some that were in the local jail. They were to be organized into groups, according to their profession, and detectives were assigned to assist and direct them.
More and more thieves and swindlers came hurrying to Minneapolis. Some of them saw the police, and made terms. Some were seen by the police and invited to go to work. . . . That the government of a city asked criminals to rob the people is fully established. The police and the criminals have confessed it separately.
—Lincoln Steffens, “The Shame of Minneapolis”
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We find here in Madison County. . . a history of lynching. . . . It was a fact—well known to everybody in the county—that it was next to impossible to convict a white man for killing. Murderers employed good lawyers, they appealed their cases, . . . [and] political friendships . . . and the relationships between the old families . . . reached even into the jury room. . . . Fred Stevens, a white man, who shot a white man in a quarrel over a bucket of water, was let out with a fine of $50, costs, and thirty days in jail. This is for killing.
I met an intelligent farmer. . . . Here are some of the things he said. . . . “Life is cheap in Madison County. If you have a grudge against a man, kill him; don’t wound him. If you wound him, you’ll likely be sent up [jailed]; if you kill him, you can go free. They often punish more severely for carrying concealed weapons or even for chicken stealing in Madison County than they do for murder.”
