The condemned methods of our despised politics are the master methods of our braggart business, and the corruption that shocks us in public affairs we practice ourselves in our private concerns. Advertisement trying to get citizens to read Lincoln Steffens' The Shame of the Cities In 1902, Samuel McClure recruited Steffens to join McClure’s Magazine which specialized in muckraking. With a defective election law, the Democratic boss in the city became its absolute ruler. From: Steffens, Lincoln. View Extract. A priest, the Rev. Done as journalism, they are journalism still, and no further pretensions are set up for them in their new dress. Or you may put it on the ignorant foreign immigrant, or any one nationality, but not on all nationalities, not on the American people. He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his leftist values. This muckraking classic attacked corrupt election practices and shady dealings in businesses and city governments across the nation. The typical business man is a bad citizen; he is busy. Sit around the bars and drink, and pose, and pretend, all you want to, but in … But it was pertinent. When I set out on my travels, an honest New Yorker told me honestly that I would find that the Irish, the Catholic Irish, were at the bottom of it all everywhere. “The scheme was to do it and skip,” said one of the boodlers who told me about it, “and if you could mix it all up with some filtering scheme it could be done; only some of us thought we could make more than $1,000,000 out of it — a fortune apiece. In other words, while honest Democrats and Republicans were “loyal to party” (a point of great pride with the idiots) and “voted straight,” the Democratic boss and his Republican lieutenants decided what part of each ticket should be elected; then they sent around Butler’s “Indians” (repeaters) by the vanload to scratch ballots and “repeat” their votes, till the worst had made sure of the government by the worst, and Butler was in a position to do business. He picked the men who were to be legislators; they did as he bade them do, and the boodling was noiseless, safe, and moderate in price. They will tell you in St. Louis that Butler never did have much real power, that his boldness and the clamor against him made him seem great. The gangs also raised funds in retaliation to combat Clarke. He kept the rest, and the city got nothing. Even in government we have given proofs of potential greatness, and our political failures are not complete; they are simply ridiculous. “Fee” and “present” are his terms, and he has spoken openly of taking and giving them. “How can you buck a game like that?” this man asked me. Sometimes the police would even stage burglaries and turn the other way to the suspects. "The shame of the cities" is the name of a book written by Lincoln Steffens and published in 1904, in this book he included different articles that reported in the U.S. there were many cities that benefit from corruption especially corruption in politics and there was no mechanism to stop this. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by Project Gutenberg. Sometimes he discovered the need and suggested it. Steffens' "Tweed Days in St. Louis," published in McClure's magazine in October 1902, is considered the first work of muckraking journalism. He too is busy, he is the one that has no use and therefore no time for politics. Brand Whitlock, who wrote The Turn of the Balance (1907), a novel opposing capital punishment, was also a reform mayor of Toledo, Ohio. McClure, Phillips & Company, 1904 - Cities and towns - 306 pages. Steffens opens the article with " Whenever anything extraordinary is done in American municipal politics, whether for good or for evil, you can trace it almost invariably to one man," which can refer two two men: Doc Ames and Hovey C. Clarke, a local businessman who became the foreman of the grand jury which went on the prosecute and convict several corrupt officials. Some interests paid him a regular salary, others a fee, and again he was a partner in the enterprise, with a special “rake-off” for his influence. Now, when he was caught and convicted and sentenced for bribery, what did St. Louis do? The purchasers might be willing or unwilling takers; they might be citizens or outsiders; it was all one to the city government. In almost all cases photos are of the exact item you receiving, so please make sure you take a … That brought him the switch; and when he asked about it, the railroad man said: “Oh, we got it done. Publication date 1904 Topics Municipal government, Political corruption -- United States Publisher New York, McClure, Phillips Collection robarts; toronto Digitizing sponsor MSN Contributor Robarts - University of Toronto Language English. When his neglect has permitted bad government to go so far that he can be stirred to action, he is unhappy, and he looks around for a cure that shall be quick, so that he may hurry back to the shop. “Give us a business man,” he says (“like me,” he means). With the mayor, this Assembly has practically complete control of all public property and valuable rights. But no one class is at fault, nor any one breed, nor any particular interest or group of interests. In St. Louis the conviction of the boodlers leaves the felons in control, the system intact, and the people — spectators. His prayers were “usually answered” by the Municipal Assembly. The machine controls the whole process of voting, and practices fraud at every stage. However, Steffens believed the average American failed to recognize the sole avaricious goal of big business: generating self-profit. They were inquiries into American municipal democracy, and, so far as they went, they were pretty complete answers. 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