...industrialization brought to America. Progressivism began as a social movement and grew into a political movement. Ida Tarbell began her McClure's series entitled "History of the Standard Oil Company." She exposed the corrupt business practices behind John Rockefeller's rise to become a national power. It turns out that Tarbell's motives may have been personal also; her father had been driven out of business by Rockefeller’s monopoly. Her stories about Standard Oil began in the November 1902 issue of McClure's and lasted for nineteen issues. She was thorough in detailing Rockefeller's interest in oil and how the...
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...his book prompted the passage of The Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act. Now, inspections of companies that provided food, drugs, medicines, liquor and meat were subject to government regulatory agencies. Also, other social inequities that were brought to light by muckrakers were the horrible conditions in which the urban poor lived as well as the massive issue of child labor during this time. Jacob Riis photographed the living conditions in tenement houses that were these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings in city. These buildings were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. He wrote about this in his book, “How The Other Half Lives”. The public was appaled aand city officials passed the Tenement House Law, which effectively outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25-foot lots and mandated improved sanitary conditions, fire escapes and access to light. Under the new law–which in contrast to past legislation would actually be enforced–pre-existing tenement structures were updated, and more than 200,000 new apartments were built over the next 15 years, supervised by city authorities. In addition to awakening the public to the social inequities in the United States, the muckrakers also helped with much economic reform. A major economic issue in this industrial time was the formation of trusts. When larger companies formed trusts, many of the smaller producers were forced to sell to them, and most of those who did not...
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...The term then became commonly used to describe journalist who were, like a muckrake, which scrapped the filth from floors, scraping up the dirtiest of America’s hidden (or not so hidden) secrets to publish for the world to see. Sinclair (1919) stated that the most famous muckrakers of this time period were Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Ray Baker. Steffens is most recognized for writing several articles exposing the massive amounts of corruption in several cities such as St. Louis and Pittsburgh, and contrasted them with what he considered honorable, or good, cities like Chicago and New York. This collection of articles eventually received publishing and became known as The Shame of the Cities. Tarbell’s investigative journalism and ensuing publishing of The History of The Standard Oil Company ultimately would help lead to the disbanding of Standard Oil in 1911. Baker is most recognized for writing the book Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy, in which his account goes in to deep details regarding racial relations, tension and division between White and African-American Southern townspeople. Sinclair himself is also to be found within this band of famous muckrakers, most notably for his 1906 book titled The Jungle. The Jungle is comprised of the original 1905 serial run, which...
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...on industry, looking especially for monopolistic practices. Its 1906 report on petroleum transportation made recommendations that became part of the Hepburn Act of 1906, and was used when the Justice Department successfully prosecuted and broke up Standard Oil in 1911. In 1912 the Bureau issued a report on the development of water power in the United States, including its ownership or control, and fundamental economic principles involved in utilization of this new and rapidly growing energy source. The report noted an increasing concentration of ownership and control of widely separated waterpower developments in the hands of a few; a substantial interrelationship among leading water-power interests, as well as a significant and increasing affiliation between water-power companies and street-railway and electric-lighting companies. The report stressed the importance of promptly adopting a definitive public policy concerning water-power development.[1] The various concerns expressed would initially be regulated by the Federal Water Power Act of 1920. The business, managerial, and financial practices of these early utility holding companies would proliferate,[2] but remain largely unregulated until the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. The Bureau also conducted studies of tobacco, steel, lumber and other industries. The Bureau became part of the new Federal Trade Commission in 1915. The new Commission took over both staff and ongoing investigations from the Bureau....
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...Does American Social Work Have a Progressive Tradition? Allison D. Murdach Social work authors in the 1950s claimed progressivism as a unique social work "tradition" and set of values, and this historical interpretation has influenced many versions ofsocial work history since that time.Today, other voices in the profession claim various divergent traditions for social work and note that the progressive tradition has waned in the profession. Given these uncertainties, the question of whether social work has or still possesses a progressive tradition is once again revisited, and the current relationship between social work and progressivism is evaluated. KEY WORDS: professional identity;progressivism; social work practice; social work traditions; social work values T he field ofsocial work has long been identified with a focus on poverty, tbe welfare of children and families, unemployment, discrimination, and social justice. Tbese areas are also among the constant concerns of progressivism, a political movement stemming from the early 20th century that, at various times, has dominated tbe political process in tbe United States during the past 100 years. Given the similarity ofthe concerns of social work and progressivism, it has been argued that because social work from its earliest days adopted a "tradition" of humanitarian social reform—called the "American tradition" by Cohen (1958)—tbe profession has essentially become identical with progressivism in all major respects...
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