Lincoln Steffens: Corruption

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Lincoln Steffens is known for his work towards demolishing corruption in larger cities. He often used his findings to inform the public of just how bad the cities had become. Steffens was known for littering his writing with dramatics, strictly for keeping the public's attention. Lincoln Steffens was a man who spent most of his life rooting out corruption in major cities and was one of the most controversial newspaper reporters of his time. Lincoln Steffens was a man who was born into an upper class family.Steffens was born on April 6, 1866 in San Francisco, California. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, but eventually moved to Europe in 1889 to finish his studies because he thought his professors were not credited. (American …show more content…
His boss once stated, “Steffen’s regularly prowled lower Manhattan’s Mulberry street, the nerve center of the police and detective forces.” (American National Biography Online: Steffens, Lincoln, n.d.)Steffens was strongly against corruption in cities, so he kept close tabs on many political people.One of Steffen’s more notable achievements was his help in defeating Tammany Hall, at least for a while. But by 1897, Tammany hall had retaken office, forcing Steffens to leave his job in search of a new one. His new job was at a different newspaper, this one was the The New YorkCommercial Advertiser.There he hired a team of miss-matched writers, asking only that they write well and try to learn. (American National Biography Online: Steffens, Lincoln, n.d.) Nearly all the writers he hired later became successful …show more content…
This boss’s name was “Boss” Ed Butler, who was in control of St. Louis for nearly twenty-five years. (American National Biography Online: Steffens, Lincoln, n.d.)Butler seemed to have control over everything, taking whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted..Folk began to get extremely paranoid that he would be “taken out’ and begged Steffens to publish something that went easy on Bulter.Afterwards Steffens decided he wanted to become a full time reporter instead of a reporter and an
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