Over, there is a whole other story on the back. I want to ask you to start off, who is this man . Sam mcclure, founder of mcclures magazine. He was orphaned by his father. His mother immigrated to america, lived in incredible poverty but dreamed of becoming a journalist. He has a dream when he is a young man of creating a magazine. It will be a cheap magazine, not the harpers, but 10 cent people can read it. He will hire staff, pay them for years to do research so that they can come up with real pieces of fact and stories that will persuade the country that we have to do something about the problems of the industrial age. What year . He starts in the 1890s 1893. The magazine flounders until it really grows. When did you decide that you were going to feature these so called muckrakers . I am not sure i can fully remember what happened except that i started with Teddy Roosevelt. So much had been written about teddy that i needed another story. I got into taft knowing they had been friends, they have broken apart in 1912. When i figured out the difference between the two and their leadership, it was teddys public leadership and tafts failure as a public leader. I started reading about the progressive era and the press. These guys were at the center of it. Even the best historians writing secondarily will say these people were the vanguard of the progressive movement. I know about ida tarbell before but i didnt know the others. I didnt know mcclure. He came into my life. Why did sam mcclure want to have a magazine . What drove him . I think the reason he wanted a magazine was he wanted to speak to middleclass ordinary people about the issues of the day. Newspapers would be too truncated. The story might be there and make a splash but the next newspaper would be there. If he could create a monthly magazine and give his researchers enough time to produce a lasting story, they would be talking about it for months. He loved being at the center of things. He was like Teddy Roosevelt in a way. When he started the magazine and hired the four people you talk about, how old were all these people . They were in their 30s. That is the amazing thing. Sam mcclure and ida are a little older than the other ones. Ida tarbell becomes the first woman he hires. In some way, she was always a little in love with him and maybe he in love with her. The story of when he finds her, he has read an article that she has written, she went on her own to paris after college. She prays that she never wants to get married because she has ambition to be something. She is starving in paris, just writing little articles. Suddenly, he bounds up 80 steps says, i have to see you. We have 10 minutes. He tells her about this dream of the new magazine. She is the first one that he brings on board. Where was she from and how did she get into writing . She had grown up in pennsylvania. Her father had originally been a teacher. He got involved when the oil was discovered as an independent oil producer. He was making more money than he ever dreamed. Suddenly, rockefeller comes down to standard oil, destroys her fathers business. Her mother who had wanted to be a teacher and had been one had to stop to take care of the family. That is why ida dreamed she would be something other than getting married. She goes to college, works on a local magazine for six years, still vowing never can get married and she dreams of writing a biography of the french revolution. She tells her boss she is leaving and he mainly says to her, how are you going to support yourself . She says, writing of course. He said, you are not a writer. You will starve. She remembered that the rest of her life. She is writing newspaper articles and she does still work on her biography. He brings her back and she becomes really the linchpin of that organization. They would fight. She could keep everybody together. Another person on the back of this book, another muckraker who invented the name muckraker . Teddy roosevelt did. He gave a speech, even though he was so dependent on these people, so friendly with them, after a while their magazines are copied by a lot of other people. It became sensational. He got mad at that whole idea that they only looked down at the ground rather than looking up at the sky. He labeled them muckrakers. My guys were very upset by that at first. Later, they wore it as a badge of honor. Do we have somebody that could be called a muckraker today . I dont know. Some people have said to me, do you think that the wikileaks thing or snowden are muckrakers . It is really different. These people wrote long pieces, incredibly researched, factually accurate they werent just releasing information, they were creating it. They were like many historians. The problem is, who would support that today . I know we have propublica and i value what they are doing, but mcclure has the money to give them a salary for two years and give them expenses. He went bankrupt because he gave so much money to his reporters. For instance, Michael Hastings come a young man in his 30s who died not too long ago, did a big piece on the crystal for rolling stone. Is that a muckraker . It was sort of a revelatory piece. It was factually accurate. It did have an impact. I suppose in some way, that was. The difference with that and this, is that what they did was, when they did their articles on standard oil or the railroad abuses or the meatpacking plants, it meant that they mobilized public opinion. Public sentiment demanded that a reluctant congress do something. That is the triangle that is different. Ray stannard baker, who is he . He grew up with a father who was in business but who loved telling stories. From the time he was a little kid, listening to stories are really better to much to him. He goes to Michigan State but he goes takes the course, one of the first courses in journalism called rapid writing. He became enamored with the idea of journalism. He got interested in the pullman strike, a lot of the violent stuff that was going on. It was a really turbulent time. Some of his articles were attracted to mcclure. Mcclure gets him to come from there to mcclures magazine. It wasnt just that they had mcclure and the magazine, they became family. They would meet for lunch everyday. They would share dinner together and criticize one anothers work. They made each other better. Years later, baker said he looked back on that is the best time of his life. He wrote about railroads and documented a twoyear project. Teddy roosevelt reads the proofs of his articles ahead of time, sends ray baker his message on the railroads and yet, they retain their integrity. Baker eventually looks back on the time and says, nothing would ever surpass it. Railroad regulation gets passed. Explain that again. Roosevelt would read these articles before the republished . They would send the proofs of the articles to them. He asked them. He knew for example, when ray baker started on the railroads, roosevelt knew his next big task was to get a bill to regulate the railroads. Knowing he was doing this, he said, can i see your articles so i can be educated by them . He would have him to lunch, they would talk about them. When he was deciding what the regulation should look like, he sends his message to baker, what do you think of this . Baker disagreed entirely. He said it is not strong enough. Roosevelt fought him back and said, you are wrong. The message comes and he puts bakers idea and it. Baker was stunned. What would have been the American Population back in the early 1900s . I should know, but i dont know. I cant remember it is around 100 million. I am thinking 100 or less. The reason i ask is there is no radio, no television, no wire service. There is a telegraph, i guess. What was the size of the circulation of mcclures magazine . For them, it reached 400,000 which is really big for that magazine. It is not just 400,000. People share it. They go from one home to another. Newspaper article columns are written about it, editorials are written about it. It sparked a national conversation. They felt that in villages all across the country, people were talking about the subject. It is not todays Attention Span. When these articles on standard oil come out that becomes the topic across the country. Railroads become the topic. Lincoln steffens later writes about the corruption of the city. It was an even smaller world. That would be like millions in circulation today. Another person, another muckraker is Lincoln Steffens. He is a confident character. He and roosevelt fought a lot more than the others did. He was as cocky as roosevelt was. He meets roosevelt first. He comes from a wealthy background and travels all over europe. His father tells him, it is time for you to get a job. He comes home and gets a job on the new york evening post. When Teddy Roosevelt becomes police commissioner, he seeks him out. The reporters were like his intelligence network. They become friends. It is Lincoln Steffens and jacob rees wrote about poverty. They convinced him to take nightly rambles between 12 00 and 4 00 a. M. To see if the police are doing their job. He disguised himself in a floppy hat and coat. If the police were not doing their job, he would call them to the office the next day. Later, cartoons appeared. Big spectacles and teeth being more frightening to police than anything else. Eventually, he gets called to mcclures. At first, he is reluctant because he loves being the big guy in new york. He eventually joined him. He said it was like getting out of bed and diving into a lake. It was so electrifying. Originally, he is a manager at mcclures. Mcclure says, get into the cities. Find out the corruption. This is the time of tammany hall, the political bosses. They had ties to the criminal world below, the Business Community above. Steffens had an ability to interview people and get them to talk. Even the bosses for the bad guys would talk to him and tell them what they were doing proudly. He exposes some of these guys go to jail. Some lose their office. Reformers come in in the city. That had a huge impact. Are mcclures magazines available to look at . Yes. You have to find them and they are not easy to find. I have got a couple of them, real original ones. I have one from 1903. They are beautiful. They have drawings. Photo engraving came in so that was cheaper than the original that is what made it possible. The print is really nice. They have poetry in them as well as these articles. There is usually one big article about some important issue that runs as a series over a period of year or two years. Sometimes they are together. Does the library of congress have them all . Yes. I read all their articles in real form. You can have them copied. Lincoln steffens, one of the famous things he had to say is, he goes to russia and says, i have seen the future. Right. Lincoln steffens later became more radical. Even in 1908 he was tending toward socialism. He and roosevelt would fight about that. Roosevelt would tell him, you dont understand. This is democracy. Eventually, he does go to russia and thinks he has seen the future. He later recants somewhat on that. He was always wilder than the others were. Now we have ray baker, Lincoln Steffens and ida tarbell. What was their individual relationships with president roosevelt and president s past . First with roosevelt, ida tarbell had less of a personal relationship with him than the others. He respected her enormously and they met a number of times. She kept herself more in new york. She didnt go to washington as much as the others. Ray baker probably saw him dozens of times in his life. He had lunch with him, dinner with him, would stay over and see him the next day. Lincoln steffens had this longtime relationship from his days as police commissioner. At one point, he decided that he wanted to study the corruption of the federal government. Roosevelt gives him a little piece of paper saying, you can do whatever you want. I want you to find it. I will take care of it. He gives to mr. Lincoln steffens i want everybody who sees this letter to tell him everything you know. He actually couldnt get them to talk as much as he hoped they would. He wrote corruption the state governments and city governments. The last person on the back of your book is William Allen white. That is what is amazing. Here is a country editor in kansas, almost never left home. He loved him. He was one of the most quoted journalists of his time. He wrote lots of short stories, lots of fiction, lots of books. He was the one who was probably closest to Theodore Roosevelt. They met when William Allen white was a young man. He was a conservative. His father was a doctor in kansas. The wealthiest guy in town. He hated the populace and wrote against the populace. Then, he meets teddy. Teddy has already begun to know that something has to be done about the problems of the poor. He says the problem of the aged distribution, not production. He changed William Allen white who became almost an accolade for teddy. Even then, he said they walked around washington and talk. He sounded the trumpet of the new age that was to come. He becomes a progressive, a real progressive. He is active in party politics. Even they can criticize each other. They represent letters to each other and at one point, he would criticize teddys writing. He says, something happened to your writing. It is too long. The reader is getting fatigued. One sentence had 20 lines. Roosevelt writes back, of course, youre right. Roosevelt was such a master of communicating that that was unusual. He talked in simple language. When roosevelt would go west on his train tours, white would often be there and introduce him to a lot of the people. The west was more progressive than the east. He introduced him to a lot of his friends and really helped roosevelt be known in the west. Did mcclure ever publish them . Oh, yes. He wrote tons of articles. He was based in kansas. But he would write articles every couple months. Mcclure loaned him money for his house. They were really like a family. Did they all if he was in kansas, he didnt have the relationship like the other three did. He would come to new york and meet with them. They all stayed at his house in emporia, kansas where they travel together. They went on vacation together to the grand canyon, ida and mcclure not mcclure, ida and white. They had lots of relationships. He was more distant because he was in kansas and he never wanted to leave. Ida said that is what she loved about him. He wasnt lured by the glamour of the big city. He wanted to stay in this little town. How apocryphal is it that Theodore Roosevelt actually read a book a day . I think it is not apocryphal. He would read from the moment he awakened at any moment, if he had time while he was getting dressed or waiting for edith to get dressed. At breakfast, he would be reading. In between appointments in the white house, he would be reading. He said that books were essential to a leader because books were about human nature. What a leader needs to know more than anything is the soul of human nature. Books, he said, are companions that are never lost. Whether it is a book a day or not, he was always reading. Even when he is in the middle of a coal strike, the most formidable deadlock in the countrys history, he writes to the library of congress and says, i need some books on the early mediterranean. He writes back later and says, thank god for you. I read those. I had nothing to do with what i was doing and for that reason, they were great. He had been a little kid who had asthma, who was isolated as a child from active activity until he made his body. They became a real source of solace for him. I dont know if it is a book a day, but it is close to that. Certainly an equivalent of a book a day. If he read an article by somebody he liked, he would invite them to the white house the next day for lunch. Mcclures magazine started in the 1890s, how long did it last . It goes in form with all these guys until 1906. It lasts after that but they leave him. Mcclure was a genius. He was also a manic depressive. In his states, he did things that they couldnt deal with. He was trying to create yet another magazine in 1906, put all the money into this newer magazine. They thought everything would be diminished. He also was having an affair with a woman which had become public to them. It wasnt that they were prudish, but they knew they had been exposing everybody else. He wrote letters to this woman. They love his wife, too. If it ever became public, they could be responsible for losing some of their credibility. They all broke from him, all these guys, and John Phillips who was the managing editor. They formed their own magazine, the american magazine. That lasted until about 1913. Mcclures lasted a little bit longer. It is really 1912, 1913. They both get bought up by a larger business firm. They dont want these exposure articles. They felt that they didnt have the freedom they once had. T. R. Was president what years . 1901 to 1908. William howard taft was president for what years . 1908 to 1912. In your book, the epilogue, you tell the story the Blackstone Hotel in chicago, set that up. Because they were such close friends, before teddy and picks tasked to be his successor, teddy has decided he shouldnt run again for a third term. He announces that when he wins the second time. He later could kill himself for having done that because he really wanted to be president again. He loved being president. He picks taft as his successor, runs his campaign, gives him all sorts of advice. Taft finally wins and he is radiant about tafts victory. His progressive friends tell him, he hasnt been as progressive as you thought he would be. He has become part of the old guard. It is really true, he just failed to deal with some of the issues. He compromised them too much and the progressives got angry with him. Teddy decides eventually to run against him in 1912. It is heartbreaking for taft. This is a friendship that is broken. Teddy feels betrayed by him. It is really ugly. Teddy called him a guinea pig, he calls him a puzzlewit, a fathead. The die is cast when teddy forms a thirdparty. Together, they had 50 of the vote. Woodrow wilson wins. It leaves a terrible strain on this friendship. For several years afterward, they tried to bring teddy and staff together. It is almost like an armed neutrality. Nothing works until Blackstone Hotel in 1918. Teddy roosevelt is going to die not long thereafter. Taft comes to the Blackstone Hotel in chicago. He is going up in the elevator and the elevator operator says, roosevelt is in the dining room sitting alone at a cor