il Lincoln Steffens & the MuckRakers Progress -Elizabeth Pillows-

Lincoln Steffens was born in San Francisco, California on April 6, 1866, oldest out of four children, only boy with all sisters. He died on August 9, 1936 at the age of 70 due to heart failure. He served a long life as an American investigative journalist; researching single topics in

America like the crimes, wrongdoing of news and political corruption. Steffens, sole of the

MuckRakers in the Progressive era, released a sequence of articles in the magazine title

McClure’s, which he named “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” Steffens’ article, “Tweed Days in St. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Louis,” was then shortly presented in his own released book, The Shame of the Cities. Steffens ​ ​ often was recalled for investigating corruption skills in the municipal government around all

American cities and for his left-wing political views.

During the time many corrupted politicians took control over and ruled city governments in 1890. They bought off businesses, and they got money through excessive force and threats.

They did things like practicing nepotism, where they gave family members and/or friends jobs, not based on their abilities, but because they were acquainted. Steffens then tried to expose the corruptions through one of his articles; the “Tweed Days in St. Louism,” which was published in ​ ​ October 1902. He wrote about not only political corruption in St. Louis but in other corrupted cities as well, like: Chicago, Minneapolis, NewYork, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia. The articles did not impact the cities very fast, but slowly they made the government take action and try to stop the corruption.

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