Roosevelt denounces 'muckrakers' at Gridiron Club
Citations (1)
- Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. whole source · open book
As Rockefeller assured Gates, “The owner of the World is also a large owner of property, and I presume that, in common with other newspaper owners who are possessed of wealth, his eyes are beginning to be opened to the fact that he is like Samson, taking the initiative to pull the building down upon his head.”27 By 1905, Rockefeller and his entourage were picking up hints that investigative zeal was ebbing among the editors at McClure’s, where, Starr Murphy reported, “the thing has now gone so far that they themselves are getting disgusted and heartily wish they were out of it.”28 In March 1906, Teddy Roosevelt delivered his famous speech at Washington’s Gridiron Club in which he borrowed a term from Pilgrim’s Progress and denounced the new investigative reporters as muckrakers who kept their eyes fixed on lowly matters instead of occasionally lifting them up to heaven.
chapter: CHAPTER 26 - The World’s Richest Fugitive