Question

What progressive exposed the abuses of the United States Steel Company in 1901?

Answer 1

The correct answer is Ray Stannard Baker.

The individual who exposed the abuses of the United States Steel Company in 1901 was Ray Stannard Baker.

Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946), was a journalist that denounced the activities of the U.S. Steel Company of Andrew Carnegie in 1901. Ray was part of the “muckrakers”, that was a name coined by President Wilson to the journalist dedicated to investigating and exposing the dirty businesses of corrupt companies and individuals. Ray worked for a magazine called “McClure’s”, an important and influential magazine of that time, owned by an Irish man named Samuel McClure.  

Answer 2

The United States Steel Corporation, commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and  with production operations in the United States and Central Europe.  It was founded on March 2, 1901, by J. P. Morgan and attorney Elbert H. Gary. This corporation was distinguished by its size, since in 1901; it controlled two-thirds of America’s steel production.

However, the company was negatively accused in several opportunities.  For instance, it was said that the growth of U.S. Steel and its subsidiaries was partly due to the labor of cheaply paid black workers and exploited convicts. As well as being accused of  monopoly.

Regarding this, Ray Stannard Baker was the progressive who exposed the abuses of the United States Steel Company in 1901 in his article titled "What the U.S. Steel Corporation Really Is, And How It Works", published on November 1901. Among the abuses exposed by Ray Stannard Baker in his article highlight the intention of U.S. Steel’s owner, J. Pierpont Morgan, of establishing a sort of “monopoly” in the steel business by buying and combining under one management a number of steel properties

According to Ray Stannard Baker, as a result of these practices, the U.S. Steel received and expended more money every year than any world’s national governments.