A WORD FROM UPTON SINCLAIR

"[The Muckraker ] sees a beautiful world about him, with stars and flowers and all sorts of things that interest him. He knows of many things he would like to do and to be, many ways in which he could amuse himself. And yet, instead of this, he begins to go about pointing out disagreeable truths to people. He says: "See, we are just like Rome. Our legislatures are corrupt; our politicians are unprincipled; our rich men are ambitious and unscrupulous. Our newspapers have been purchased and gagged; our colleges have been bribed: our churches have been cowed. Our masses are sinking into degradation: our ruling classes are becoming wanton and cynical.

This has been said in our country for a generation. Abraham Lincoln said it, for one. All earnest students knew it. But the public merely laughed incredulously.

And then comes the Muckrake Man. He says to himself, 'This is a serious matter. It cannot be neglected. The people will not believe it-but I will prove it to them!'

And so he proceeds to gather the evidence."

-- Upton Sinclair. "The Muckrake Man,"
The Independent; September 3, 1906; p.518.