Evening star., 1936-08-10
LINCOLN STEFFENS
DIES AT AGE OF 70
Writer and Lecturer Victim
of Heart Attack After
TW0.Year Illness.
BY the Associated Press.

CARMEL, Calll, august lU.-Lln-
coin Steffens. the writer and lecturer,
died here yesterday from what DR.. r.
| A. Kocher. attending physician, said
was a heart attack. He was 70 years
old.
SteffenS, who had been in i'll health
two years, collapsed yesterday morn
ing at his home and died shortly be-
fore s pm.
At his bedside were his divorced
wife, also widely known as a writer
under the name of Ella Winter, and
their 10-year- -old son, Peter.
Steffens, like Miss Winter, admitted
| ly radical in his views, wrote extern
sively on social and economic subjects.
One of his last works was his auto
biography.
Known rs "Muckracker."
From newspaper work in New York,
Steffens became a magazine writer
and editor and won recognition as
one of the so-called school of muck
racking" journalists who early in this
century exposed alleged political graft.
civic corruption and other social
wrongs.
He was denounced as an agitator,
Socialist and red" His articles,
however, were credited by admirers as
improving political and social condi-
tions in America. He was described
as devoted to the principles of human
| justice in his writings, which drew in
ternational attention.
| In his later years he called himself
"philosophic Communist" and
friends said, developed tolerance for
even those he had exposed and de-
nounced.
His Carmel home, where he had
lived eight years. became a Mecca for
other noted personages, including
numbers of writer's who, to some ex-
tent. shared his views.
He first attracted attention after
becoming managing editor of Nc
| Clure's Magazine in 1902 His articles.
published under the title THE Shames
of the Cities" dealt with municipal
politics.
Born in San Francisco. he attended
the University of California. the Uni
versities of Berlin, Heidelberg and
Leipsig in Germany and the Sorbonne
in France. and then entered the jour-
nalistic field in New York.
Many Editorial Positions.
He became assistant city editor of
the New York Evening Post, city edi-
| for oF tho Nau, VorE C0por,aro;oI Al
vertizer managing editor of McClure's
magazine and associate editor of
American and Everybody's magazines.
After retiring from editorial work,
he contributed to magazines and wrote
books, including: The Shame of
Cities" The Struggle for Self-Gov-
ernment," THE Least Of These" and
Moses in the Red" He was a mem
Der of the Bullitt Mission to Russia
in 1919.
Steffens won fame around the turn
Of the century. The muck -raking"
type of writer, of whom Ida Tarbell
was another outstanding example,
searched out alleged corruption in
public affairs and other fields and
published their exposes, often stirring
Nationwide sensations.
The term muck rake" an allusion
to the man with the muck rake" in
Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress was first
applied by President Theodore Roose-
velt in a deprecating sense, but 1t
later came into general use, being
employed also by admirers of the writ
erS.
Roosevelt, in a speech in 1906,
called for halt on what he termed
viliflcation and attacks on character.
In the controversy which followed the
term undertaking school" became a
widely known phrase
The verb "muckrake" entered the
language in new sense, being defined
in dictionaries as the practice of
search for and publishing corruption,
either in public Office or private busi-
ness.