The American Nation - Chapter 22

Terms in this set (45)

Muckrakers
Journalists who denounced the dark side of American institutions such as the insurance business, sweatshop labor, political corruption, etc. Theodore Roosevelt compared the journalists to "the Man with the Muck-Rake" in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, whose attention was so fixed on the filth at his feet that he could not notice the "celestial crown" that was offered him in exchange. Roosevelt's characterization grossly misrepresented the literature of exposure, but despite its literal connotations, "muckraker" became a term of honor. Notable "Muckrakers" are McClure, Tarbell, and Steffens.
McClure's Magazine 1902
This magazine published Steffens' and Tarbell's hard-hitting series of articles. The articles showed that large numbers of American employers, workers, and politicians were fundamentally immoral. The issues were extremely popular. and in turn, revealed the necessity for change in America.
Lincoln Steffens "The Shame of the Cities" Series
Steffens was an author who contributed to McClure's Magazine, and wrote about big-city political machines.
Upton Sinclair - The Jungle
Socialist journalist Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel "The Jungle" was a devastating exposé of Chicago's slaughterhouses. Its publication and popularity helped President Roosevelt pressure Congress into enacting meat-inspection and pure-food and drug legislation.
Ida Tarbell "The Story of Rockefeller" Series
Tarbell was an author who contributed to McClure's Magazine, condemning Standard Oil.
Socialist Party / Eugene V Debs
In 1900, the labor leader Eugene V. Debs ran for president on the Socialist ticket, but got fewer than 100,000 votes. When he ran again in 1904, he got more than 400,000, and in later elections still more. Labor leaders hoping to organize unskilled workers in the heavy industry were frustrated by the craft orientation of the AFL, and some saw in socialism a way to win rank-and-file backing.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
In 1905, Debs, William "Big Bill" Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, Mary Jones, Daniel DeLeon of the Socialist Labor party, and a few others organized the Industrial Workers of the World, which was openly anticapitalist.
Marry Harris "Mother" Jones
was a former organizer for the United Mine Workers who helped to organize the IWW.
Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones
This character won the election for mayor in 1897 in Toledo, Ohio and succeeded in arousing the citizenry against the corrupt officials. He established a minimum wage for city employees, built playgrounds and golf courses, and moderated its harsh penal code.
Wisconsin Idea
LaFollette used commissions and agencies to handle matters such as railroad regulation, tax assessment, conservation and highway construction. Wisconsin established a legislative reference library to assist lawmakers in drafting bills. LaFollette called on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin into the public service and drew advice from outstanding social scientists. The success of these policies, known as the Wisconsin Idea, led other states to adopt similar programs.
Robert LaFollette
LaFollette had developed a reputation as an uncompromising foe of corruption before being elected governor in Wisconsin in 1900. Despite railroad and lumbering opposition, LaFollette obtained a direct primary system for nominating candidates, a corrupt practices act, and laws limiting campaign expenditures and lobbying activities. He became somewhat of a boss himself. He made ruthless use of patronage, demanded absolute loyalty of his subordinates, and stretched the truth to voters. But, he was devoted to the cause of honest government.
City Manager System
The city-manager system of city government was an invention of progressives and was designed to bring expertise and efficiency to city government. In this system, elected commissioners appointed a nonpartisan, professional manager to administer city affairs. It enjoyed exemplary success in Dayton, Ohio. Practiced "gas and water" socialism, where the government took control of some utility corporations and operated them as departments of the municipal government.
Lochner vs. New York
In 1905, the United States Supreme Court declared in the case of Lochner vs. New York that a New York ten-hour act for bakers deprived the bakers the liberty of working as long as they wished and violated the 14th Amendment. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said that if the people of New York believed that bakers working long hours put the public health in danger, it was not the Court's job to overrule them.
National Child Labor Comittee
In 1904, reformers organized the National Child Labor Committee. Over the next ten years, they obtained laws in nearly every state banning the employment of young children and limiting the hours of older ones. Many of these laws were poorly enforced, yet when Congress passed a federal child labor law in 1916, the Supreme Court, in Hammer vs. Dagenhart (1918), declared it unconstitutional.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory led to the deaths of nearly 150 women because there were no fire escapes. This tragedy led to the passage of stricter municipal building codes and factory inspection acts. By 1910, most states had modified the common-law principle that a worker accepted the risk of accident as a condition of employment and was not entitled to compensation if injured unless it could be proved that the employer had been negligent. Gradually, the states adopted accident insurance plans and pensions to widows with small children. Manufacturers favored such measures because they regularized procedures and avoided costly lawsuits.
Muller v. Oregon
When an Oregon law limiting women laundry workers to ten hours a day was challenged in Muller vs. Oregon in 1908, Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark of the Consumers' League persuaded Louis Brandeis to defend the statute before the Court. Due to Brandeis' brief, the justices upheld the constitutionality of the Oregon law.
Brandeis Brief
With the aid of researchers from the Consumers' League, Brandeis prepared a remarkable brief stuffed with economic and sociological evidence indicating that long hours damaged both the health of individual women and the health of society. After 1908, the right of states to protect women, children, and workers performing dangerous and unhealthy tasks by special legislation was widely accepted. The use of the "Brandeis Brief" technique to demonstrate the need for such legislation became standard practice.
National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
The failure of the 14th and 15th Amendments to give women the vote after the Civil War embittered most leaders of the movement. The AWSA focused on the vote question alone, while the more radical NWSA led by Stanton and Anthony, was concerned with many other issues important to women as well as suffrage. In 1890, the two groups combined to form NAWSA. Stanton and Anthony were the first two presidents, but new leaders such as Catt, were emerging. NAWSA made winning the right to vote its main objective and concentrated on a state-by-state approach.
Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt was a leader in NAWSA who combined superb organizing abilities with commitment to broad social reform.
Alice Paul
After some western states and New York had passed women's suffrage, the suffragists shifted the campaign back to the national level, the lead taken by a new organization, the Congressional Union, headed by Alice Paul and the wealthy reformer Alva Belmont.
Theodore Rossevelt
After an anarchist shot McKinley in 1901, Roosevelt became president. His presidency alarmed many conservatives. However, he moved slowly and often got what he wanted by using his executive power rather than by persuading Congress to pass new laws. He had measures to control big corporations, more power to the ICC, and the conservation of natural resources. By consulting congressional leaders and following their advice not to bring up controversial matters like the tariff and currency reform, he obtained a modest budget of new laws.
Bureau of Commerce and Labor
Roosevelt established the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was to include a Bureau of Corporations with authority to investigate industrial combines and issue reports.
Elkins Railroad Act
The Elkins Railroad Act of 1903 strengthened the ICC's hand against the railroads by making the receiving as well as the granting of rebates illegal and by forbidding the roads to deviate in any way from their published rates
Northern Securities Company
Although the Supreme Court decision in the Sugar Trust case seemed to have weakened the Sherman Act, in 1902, Roosevelt ordered the Justice Department to bring suit against the Northern Securities Company. The NSC controlled the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroads after its creation in 1901 after a battle on the New York Stock Exchange between JP Morgan and James Hill vs. EH Harriman, who was associated with the Rockefellers. In their efforts to obtain control of the Northern Pacific, the rivals forced its stock up to $1000 a share, ruining many speculators and threatening a panic. In 1904, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Northern Securities Company.
Square Deal
The miners would return to the pits and all issues between them and the coal companies would be submitted for settlement to a commission appointed by Roosevelt. In March 1903, the commission granted the miners a 10% wage increase and a nine-hour workday. To the public, it seemed like everyone had received a "square deal." However, the miners gained relatively little and the companies lost even less because they still didn't recognize the UMW and though there was a 10% wage increase, there was also a 10% increase in the price of coal.
Coal Strike of 1902
In June of 1902, the United Mine Workers, led by John Mitchell, laid down their picks and demanded higher wages, an eight-hour day, and recognition of the union. The strike lasted for months and the miners conducted themselves with great restraint, avoiding violence and offering to submit their claims to arbitration. Roosevelt shared the public's sympathy for the miners, and the threat of a coal shortage alarmed him. In October, he summoned both sides to a conference, and urged them to sacrifice any "personal consideration" for the "general good." The coal operators were enraged and refused to speak to the miners' representatives. Public support for the miners strengthened. Roosevelt said that unless a settlement was reached promptly, he would send in federal troops, not to break the strike, but to seize and operate the mines.
Pure Food and Drug Act
After Roosevelt read Sinclair Upton's The Jungle, he sent officials to Chicago to investigate. Their report was so shocking and Congress passed The Pure Food and Drug Act, which forbade the manufacture and sale of adulterated and fraudulently labeled products.
"Malefactors of Wealth"
In 1908, Roosevelt came out in favor of federal income and inheritance taxes, stricter regulation of interstate corporations, and reforms designed to help industrial workers. He denounced "the speculative folly and the flagrant dishonesty" of "malefactors of great wealth," further alienating conservative Republicans.
William Howard Taft
Taft easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the election of 1908. His success as civil governor of the Philippines had led Roosevelt to make him secretary of war in 1904. He supported the Square Deal loyally. He was really obese. He enforced the Sherman Act vigorously and continued to expand the national forest reserves. He signed the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, which empowered the ICC to suspend rate increases without waiting for a shipper to complain, and established the Commerce Court to speed the settlement of railroad cases. He approved an eight-hour day for all people working on government contracts, and approved mine safety legislation and other reform measures. He wanted to reduce tariff duties. His restraint in using his executive powers was admirable, but reduced his effectiveness.
Payne-Aldrich Tariff
Although Taft personally favored downward revision of tariffs, he still signed the protectionist Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. His action alienated many congressional progressives from his administration.
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Ballinger returned to the public domain certain waterpower sites that the Roosevelt administration had withdrawn on the legally questionable ground that they were to become ranger stations. Ballinger's action alarmed Chief Forester Pinchot, the darling of conservationists. When Pinchot learned that Ballinger intended to validate the shaky claim of mining interests to a large tract of coal-rich land in Alaska, he launched an intemperate attack. In the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, Taft felt obliged to support his own man. The coal lands dispute was complex, and Pinchot's charges were exaggerated. Taft dismissed Pinchot when he criticized Ballinger. A more adept politician might have found some way of avoiding a showdown.
Bull Moose Party
The Republican party split into the Old Guard and the progressives (also known as the Bull Moose party). In the election of 1912, Roosevelt ran on the Bull Moose ticket, calling for strict regulation of corporations, a tariff commission, national presidential primaries, minimum wage and workers' compensation laws, the elimination of child labor, and other reforms.
Woodrow Wilson
Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1912 against Bull Moose Roosevelt, Republican Taft, and Socialist Debs. Wilson insisted that competition could be restored, but the government must break up the great trusts, establish fair rules for doing business, and subject violators to stiff punishments.
New Freedom vs. New Nationalism
In 1912, Progressive/Bull Moose Roosevelt campaigned on a comprehensive progressive platform for economic and social legislation, which he termed the New Nationalism. It called for expanding federal power to regulate big business and enacting social-justice legislation. Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson argued for a "New Freedom" contending that the government could best serve the public interest and provide social justice by breaking up the trusts and restoring competition to the economy.
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 gave the United States a central banking system governed by a Federal Reserve Board, which controlled the rediscount rate and thus the money supply.
Underwood Tariff
This 1913 reform law lowered tariff rates and levied the first regular federal income tax.
Federal Trade Comission
The FTC, created in 1914, replaced the Bureau of Corporations. This nonpartisan commission investigated and reported on corporate behavior, and was authorized to issue cease and desist orders against unfair trade practices. The law did not define the term "unfair", and the commission's rulings could be taken on appeal to the federal courts, but the FTC was nonetheless powerful for protecting the public against trusts.
Clayton Antitrust Act
strengthened existing antitrust laws by making certain business practices illegal, including price discrimination, the creation of interlocking directorates, and "tying" agreements, which forbade retailers from handling the products of a firm's competitors. The Act also exempted labor unions and agricultural organizations from antitrust laws and limited the use of injunctions in labor disputes. Officers of corporations are held individually responsible if companies violated antitrust laws.
William E.B. Dubois
Du Bois was America's foremost black intellectual at the turn of the twentieth century, and an outspoken leader of the black cause. He disagreed with Booker T. Washington's accommodationist posture and called upon blacks to insist on equal rights. He was a founder of the NAACP and editor of its journal, "The Crisis." Though he had supported Wilson in 1912, he attacked his administration policy in "The Crisis."
"Talented Tenth"
African-American leader William E. B. Du Bois believed that an elite "talented tenth" of the nation's blacks--those with aspiration, thrift, ability, and character--would save the race from the discrimination and prejudice of whites.
NAACP
In 1909, a group of liberals including Oswald Garrison Villard, Jane Addams, John Dewey, and William Dean Howells founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This national interracial organization was dedicated to restoring African-American political and social rights and eradicating racial discrimination. Its leadership was predominantly white in the early years, but DuBois became a national officer.
16th Amendment
In 1913, the 16th Amendment was passed, which authorized federal income taxes.
17th Amendment
In 1913, the 17th Amendment was passed, which required the popular election of senators.
18th Amendment
In 1919, the 18th Amendment was passed, which banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol.
19th Amendment
By 1920, the necessary three-quarters of states had ratified the 19th Amendment, and women were given the right to vote.
;