Muckrakers and unions helped by protesting against the dangerous conditions, unfair treatment, and dishonest dealings during the Progressive Era. These ordinary citizens often used writing or pictures to show the corruption of businesses and cruelty toward workers to the public. A prime example of this is Ida M. Tarbell, whose articles lead to the breaking up of Rockefeller’s oil monopoly. Tarbell wrote about social issues for McClure’s magazine, and in 1902, she published “The History of the Standard Oil Company”, which criticized corruption in the dominant oil corporation. Her writings made the public both aware of the issue and angry about it, and the growing outrage lead to the government disbanding the Standard Oil Company on the idea that it was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Another famous muckraker was Upton Sinclair, who wrote and published a book called The Jungle in 1906. His book exposed the unsanitary working conditions in the meatpacking industries of Chicago. Once again, the public was outraged.
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Jacob Riis used the first ever flash photography to take pictures of the living conditions of the poor in New York City. He later published the photos and showed to the rich the poverty in which some people lived. Through newspaper articles, lectures, and books he gained huge support, and was able to do things like set up the Croton Watershed to supply clean water to those who needed it. Riis also fought to provide light in every tenement and even put child labor laws in place, like Lewis Hine. Hine too used photos to spread his message. He was hired by the National Child Labor Committee in 1908 to take pictures of child laborers in factories. The images attracted the attention of the public and the government, and as a result, new child labor laws were