Cobblestone articles from March 2005

Cobblestone archives from March 2005

A progressive era?(history of politics)
March 1, 2005... A new century was looming, and Americans were not sure what it would bring. After all, the 1890s had been marked by considerable social, economic, and political turmoil. Would the new century bring good news or deepen unresolved problems? At...

The filth of the floor.(journalism)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... To Theodore Roosevelt (U.S. president from 1901 to 1909), the men and women whose writings focused exclusively on exposing the corruption, suffering, and seamy side of American life were not heroes. Rather, he declared, they were "muckrakers."...

S.S. McClure: Muckracker in chief.(certified financial advisors)(Biography)
March 1, 2005... Sam McClure was an extremely active child. He was so full of energy that he could not sit still or stop talking. McClure grew into a hyperactive, exasperating adult. He also was the person most responsible for creating the type of magazine...

In search of America's workers.(Walter Augustus Wyckoff)(Biography)
March 1, 2005... Walter Augustus Wyckoff prepared to set off on "an experiment in reality." Before becoming an instructor of sociology and political economy at Princeton University in the early 1890s, Wyckoff lived in poverty as a tramp and day laborer. He...

Journalism jargon.(Glossary)
March 1, 2005... We get our news from a variety of sources, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and Web sites. Here are some terms that news agencies rely on: Beats are areas of responsibility assigned to individual...

Read all about it! The newspaper war.(Joseph Pulitzer)(William Randolph Hearst)
March 1, 2005... Rival newspaper owners Joseph Pulitzer and William 'Randolph Hearst would do almost anything to sell more papers. Their tactics changed American journalism. Born in Hungary, Pulitzer (1847-1911) started his newspaper career in St. Louis,...

Ida battles big oil.(Ida Tarbell)
March 1, 2005... When Ida Tarbell's mother warned her not to play in the puddles that dotted their yard, she was not talking about mud puddles. She meant the pools of black oil gushing from the oil well by their front door. In 1860, three-year-old Ida lived...

Taking on the money kings.(journalists)
March 1, 2005... Burton J. Hendrick, (1870-1949 began his career as a reporter with the New York Evening Post newspaper in 1899. His writing caught the eye of S.S. McClure (see page 6). McClure hired Hendrick in 1905--for $100 per week, a generous sum at the...

Did you know?(newspapers and the internet)
March 1, 2005... In Colonial times, the type for newspapers was set by hand, making the process of printing newspapers slow and expensive. Only the wealthy could afford to boy a subscription. By the 1830s, newspapers benefited from fast-producing steam...

Exposing real life in the jungle.(Upton Sinclair)(Biography)
March 1, 2005... "There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausages.... There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There...

A tawdry tale.(board game)
March 1, 2005... The Tawdry The Company in Yucksville turns out tons of tiles each month. It also produces mounds of mucky waste. A disgruntled worker has called your news desk with a tip about possible illegal dumping of that waste. Can you turn this into a...

Public service or public corruption?(newspapers)
March 1, 2005... While muckrakers wrote about many of the ills of industrial life, no topics were more sensational than the exposes of corruption in the public sector. Three men in particular--(Joseph) Lincoln Steffens, David Graham Phillips, and Samuel Hopkins...

A bright spotlight.(journalism)
March 1, 2005... Through their exposes, investigative journalists certainly increased public awareness of serious problems in the United States. But these writers did not create the concern for those issues in the first place. They both reflected and...

Presidential type.(WORLD WIDE PRESS)(newspapers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... It would be hard to find anyone who embodied the phrase "power of the press" better than Ireland's Arthur Griffith (1871-1922). Beginning his career at a Dublin printing house, Griffith ended up serving as his country's president during the...

Young Turks rule, OK?(WORLD WIDE PRESS)(Turkish newspapers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... We use the phrase "Young Turks" to describe any group of energetic up-and-comers eager to shake up the established order with new ideas. But who were the original Young Turks? During the 1890s in Turkey (then called the Ottoman Empire), such a...

Favorite sun.(WORLD WIDE PRESS)(Chinese newspapers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The first great leader of modern China was Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), a Western-educated physician, who is often referred to as "the Father of the Republic." Early in his travels, Dr. Sun learned the powerful influence of a free press. After...

Gandhi vs. apartheid.(WORLD WIDE PRESS)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Most people associate Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948) with the struggle for independence in India. But few know that 50 years earlier Gandhi had perfected his tactics of peaceful defiance in South Africa, fighting the brutal racist system...

Muckraking ... alive and well. (THE PAST IS PRESENT).
March 1, 2005... Investigative journalism often is the most difficult, yet most important, reporting that news organizations do. Because it holds powerful government and business officials accountable for their actions, investigative journalism helps ensure a...

The scoop on sources.(Directory)
March 1, 2005... Junior journalist and others interested in learning more about the media might want to check out the following organizations: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS 11690B Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20191-1409 703-453-1122 www.asne.org/...

Nellie Bly's trip around the world.(YOUR LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... In November 1889, Nellie Bly decided to go around the world and try to beat the record of the fictitious character Phileas Fogg from the book Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Nellie brought only one suitcase with her. The...

Contest results.(YOUR LETTERS)
March 1, 2005... Thank you to everyone who sent in ideas for our Create a Quote Contest. We truly enjoyed reading your words to live by. Nearly all showed practical wisdom, something Benjamin Franklin would have admired. Here are some of the quotes we...

America's Pastime.(Poem)
March 1, 2005... AMERICA'S PASTIME The gentle crack of the bat meeting the ball. The swiftness of the ball flying. The cool breeze of the air hitting my face as I round the bases. The noise of the people cheering at the tops of...

Seamus.(Poem)
March 1, 2005... SEAMUS Seamus is a guinea pig. He doesn't even wear a wig. Seamus doesn't eat like a pig (even though he's called a guinea pig)! He eats hay in his very own way, and he always likes it on a good day. Doesn't...

Nellie Bly's Book: Around The World in 72 Days.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Ira Peck (Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing, 1998, www.lernerbooks.com) tells the story of the influential muckraker who traveled around the world in 72 days. (Bly's real-life journey beat the record set by the fictitious Phileas Fogg of Jules...

Dear Cobblestonians.
March 1, 2005... By the time he died in 1931, inventor Thomas Edison held an amazing number of patents--1,093 to be exact! His inventions include the light bulb, phonograph, and motion pictures. Edison's nickname--the "Wizard of Menlo Park" --came from his...

From the archives.
March 1, 2005... COBBLESTONE has devoted a number of issues to the decades around the turn of the 20th century. They include Andrew Carnegie: From Poor Immigrant to Wealthy Philanthropist (COB9904), Jane Addams, 1860-1935 (COB9903), Mark Twain (COB8405), Teddy...

Papers for a penny: to Cobblestone's the history of the newspaper issue.(Flashback)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... On September 3, 1833, the modern newspaper was born. The first issue of the New York Sun was published that day, and it was different from any American newspaper before it. Also, the people who paid a penny to read it were, for the most part, a...

Brain ticklers.
March 1, 2005... GIVE YOUR BRAIN A LITTLE TICKLE TO SEE HOW WELL YOU READ AND UNDERSTOOD THIS ISSUE ON MUCKRAKERS. IF YOU BELIEVE THE ANSWER TO BE FALSE, GIVE YOURSELF THE ULTIMATE TEST AND SEE WHETHER YOU CAN EXPLAIN WHY IT IS FALSE. ANSWER BELOW. 1....

A final word.
March 1, 2005... IMAGINE YOU ARE AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST. WHAT TOPICS IN TODAY'S NEWS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ABLE TO RESEARCH, WRITE ABOUT, AND SEE IN PRINT? WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE COME OUT OF YOUR REPORTINGS?

Cartoon connection with Ebenezer & the colonel.
March 1, 2005... I've decided to become a MUCKRAKING JOURNALIST and write newspaper stories that expose CORRUPTION and INJUSTICE! Well, you might start by INVESTIGATING Who keeps eating up all the PEANUT BUTTER! Here's ANOTHER empty jar! GREAT IDEA!! I...