Due to a lack of factory regulations unchecked safety hazards led to deaths of many like the Chicago fire which killed many trapped with nowhere to go. Muckrakers attempted to show these problems to the public and get laws set in place to fix them.
The term muckraker derives from the word muckrake used by President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in 1906, in which he agreed with many of the charges of the muckrakers but asserted that some of their methods were sensational and irresponsible. Some famous muckrakers of the progressive era were Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, David Graham Phillips, Jacob Riis, Ray Stannard Baker, Samuel Hopkins Adams, and Upton Sinclair. Lincoln Steffens exposed corporate monopolies and political corruption, working under Sam McClure's magazine. He is most famous for his investigation on the political and municipal corruption in Minneapolis. He stated and believed that "power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it." Ida Tarbell worked to expose big business and political scandal. She most famously exposed the actions of John D. Rockefeller and his oil company. In her book "The history of the oil company" she revealed the unethical decisions Rockefeller made. Another muckraker that exposed corruption was David Graham Phillips; he exposed campaign contributors being rewarded by certain members of the U. S. Senate in his book "The Treason of the Senate". Ray Stannard Baker focused on the social and political position of African-Americans. His series of articles drew so much positive feedback that Baker turned them into a book, Following the Color Line. With its strong, episodic human interest appeal on such subjects of lynching, Jim Crow laws, and mulattos, the book is considered the most significant piece of journalism of Baker's career. Jacob Riis wrote about the horrible working conditions of the poor in his book How the other half lives.
