The Progressive Era: the Muckrakers – Answer Key
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Name_______________________________________________________ Date__________________ Period______ THE PROGRESSIVE ERA: THE MUCKRAKERS – ANSWER KEY HOW DO WE SOLVE PROBLEMS IN SOCIETY? Many literary minds of the late 1800s began to consider problems faced by the poor as well as the corruption of government and large corporations. Naturally, they put their talents to work, most often using fiction based on fact, but sometimes writing straight documentaries. The term “muckrakers” was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 in reference to their ability to uncover “muck,” or “dirt.” Method used to expose Reform(s) made as a Muckraker Problem in Society the problem result Secret ballots: Corruption of city governments Thomas Nast created States began allowing people to cast votes in private; bosses In many large cities, political bosses - political cartoons that 1. Thomas Nast could no longer intimidate like Boss Tweed in New York City - exposed corrupt political voters into choosing the controlled work done for city services bosses like Boss William candidate the boss wanted. like garbage collection and sewers. Tweed. Even though These bosses would help poor Primaries: immigrants couldn't read, immigrants with their basic needs. In Each party began holding they could understand his primary elections – smaller exchange, the bosses would tell the elections held before the main immigrants to vote for the politician cartoons! They learned how they were being taken election in which voters (not Many voted more than once. Also, city the bosses) would choose the politicians often got their jobs based advantage of. Nast’s candidates for each party. on who they knew in power rather cartoons actually helped to Those candidates then run than their qualifications. get Tweed arrested. against each other in the main election in November. 2. Ida Tarbell Abuses by Corporations In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Government Regulation: large corporations would often have Published a series of articles More efforts were made for the nearly total control of an industry. called The History of The federal government to regulate (control) trusts/monopolies. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, for Standard Oil Company, Trusts/monopolies were example, dominated about 90% of the exposing corruption of broken up into smaller oil refineries in the U.S., using unfair Rockefeller’s oil business. companies by enforcing business practices and shutting out “trustbusting” laws. competition. Method used to expose Reform(s) made as a Muckraker Problem in Society the problem result 3. Jacob Riis Many state and local Slum Life Poor city dwellers – many of whom governments passed building codes - were immigrants – lived in Exposed tenement overcrowded apartments known as laws that required conditions through tenements. These tenements often improved building photographs in his book had no windows, heat, or indoor conditions such as more “How the Other Half Lives” plumbing. Ten people often shared a light, less crowding and single room. With poor sanitation, eventually heat and indoor diseases were common. plumbing. Exposed the poor working conditions in the meatpacking industry through the creation of his book “The Jungle.” Pure Food and Drug Act Required food and drug 4. Upton Sinclair “There would be meat that Abuses of the Meatpacking Industry makers to list all had tumbled out on the Leaders of the meatpacking industry ingredients on packages floor, in the dirt and paid little attention cleanliness or sawdust, where the workers sanitation. Meatpacking plants were Meat Inspection Act had tramped and spit Federal government would filthy and often infested with rats. uncounted bullions of inspect meatpacking Rats and other waste would often be consumption germs. There houses for unsanitary ground up with the meat and sold to would be meat stored in conditions in factory and the unknowing public. great piles in rooms: and the ensure meat is free of water from leaky roofs contamination. would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it…” - Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle .