American Progressive Political and Economical Changes

1890-1914Mixed-Market Economy

Child Labor• These laws were often paired with

compulsory education laws which were designed to keep children in school and out of the paid labor market until a specified age (usually 12, 14, or 16 years.)

16th Amendment 1913• The Congress shall have power to lay and collect

taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

• Progressives and Republicans were divided on the issue (wealthy did not like)

• President Roosevelt did not get it passed• 1912 Democrats won both houses and Presidency

with President Taft getting the amendment passed by 1913

17th Amendment 1913

• The direct election of Senators by the popular vote in each state.

• Vacancies can be filled by governor appointments until a special election can fill the gap until the regular General Election in the fall

• Overrides Senators elected by state legislators• Democrats did not like losing power of state

legislators• Republicans chose to let the people vote in the

state for their Senators, not state governments!

Carrie A. Nation

• Kansas• Radical Temperance

movement leader• Promoted her anti-alcohol

ideas by attacking taverns and bars with a hatchet

• “Bulldog running with Jesus”• Helped 18th Amendment

Billy Sunday• William Ashley "Billy" Sunday was an

American athlete who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American Evangelist

• He also made a great deal of money and was welcomed into the homes of the wealthy and influential. Sunday was a strong supporter of Prohibition.

18th Amendment 1920

• 1920-1933 Prohibition • 18th Amendment: The production, transport

and sale of (though not the consumption or private possession of) alcohol illegal.

• Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition (e.g., for medical and religious purposes).

19th Amendment 1920• Between 1878, when the amendment was

first introduced in Congress, and 1920, when it was ratified.

• Wyoming was the first state to allow females the right to vote (West was progressive too)

• All females 21 years and older could finally vote!

Sherman Antitrust Act 1890

• The US Congress passed a law banning monopolies and anti-competitive behaviors

• America needs competition for consumers to have more freedom to purchase goods & services

US v Knight & Co. 1895

• Sugar Trust Act• The case that limited the government's power

to control monopolies. • Manufacturing is not considered an area that

can be regulated by Congress pursuant to the commerce clause.

• Refining—was a local activity not subject to congressional regulation of interstate commerce

Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1908• Fought in Spanish-American War 1898• Republican and followed progressive ideas• William McKinley was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt became

the youngest president at 43 years old• Broaden power to protect Americans• Strong foreign “Big Stick” policy• Fought to stop monopolies; he filed 44 anti-trust suits using the

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890• Justice for all• Roosevelt Corollary (South America protected by US)• Panama Canal • 1912 Roosevelt will run for President again representing the

Progressive Party “Bull Moose Party” as he was disgusted with Republicans. He would lose but pulled 88 elector votes for a third party

Conservation• Roosevelt fought to organize water projects to

transform dry wilderness areas into agricultural areas• Roosevelt used his authority as president in 1901 to

protect wildlife and public lands by creating the U.S. Forest Service and establishing 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 4 National Game Preserves, 150 National Forests, 5 National Parks, and enabling the1906 American Antiquities Act which he used to proclaim 18 National Monuments. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230,000,000 acres of public land.

Yellowstone National Park

• The first National Park in America created in 1872 before Roosevelt’s Presidency

Anthracite Coal Strike 1902

• American Coal Strike in Pennsylvania• Anthracite “hard” coal had higher heat value

and less smoke• Miners were on strike asking for higher wages,

shorter workdays and the recognition of their union. The strike threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to all major cities (homes and apartments were heated with anthracite

President Roosevelt

• President Theodore Roosevelt became involved and set up a fact-finding commission that suspended the strike.

• The strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours; the owners got a higher price for coal, and did not recognize the trade union as a bargaining agent.

• It was the first labor episode in which the federal government intervened as a neutral arbitrator.

Northern Securities v US 1904• Quincy Railroad was the issue • Two major railroads Great Northern Railway and J.P

Morgan’s Northern Pacific Railway wanted to buy it• The Union Pacific and Southern Pacific also wanted

to buy the Burlington and Quincy Railroad• The Court ruled 5 to 4 against the stockholders of

the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroad companies, who had essentially formed a monopoly, and to dissolve the Northern Securities Company.

Elkins Act 1903• Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”• Amended the Interstate Commerce Act 1887• Impose heavy fines on railroads that offered

rebates• Petroleum and livestock industries demanded

rebates• Very popular with Railroads• Only a monetary fine and railroads were now

protected against the big industries

Hepburn Act 1906

• Gave power t set maximum railroad rates • Stopped free passage to loyal customers• Hepburn Act, the ICC's authority was extended

to cover bridges, terminals, ferries, railroad sleeping cars, express companies and oil pipelines.

• ICC gained the power to prescribe a uniform system of accounting, require standardized reports, and inspect railroad accounts

Panic of 1907

• 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis• Limitations and laws on the railroads

depreciated the value of railroad securities• Many state and local banks panicked and went

out of business• Stock fell 50% from peak in 1906• Panic occurred during recession

Panic of 1907 Wall Street

J.P. Morgan• The panic might have

deepened if not for the intervention of financier J. P. Morgan, who pledged large sums of his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the same, to shore up the banking system.

Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company 1907

• Stock dropped and the company collapsed • J.P. Morgan held an emergency takeover by his

U.S. Steel Corporation which saved the workers

• Anti-Monopoly President Roosevelt did not like but accepted

Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v U.S. 1911

• Standard Oil Company of New Jersey had bought up virtually all of the oil refining companies in the United States

• The Supreme Court ruled: The Standard Oil Company conspired to restrain the trade and commerce in petroleum, and to monopolize the commerce in petroleum, in violation of the Sherman Act, and was split into many smaller companies. Several individuals, including John D. Rockefeller, were fined.

1913 Federal Reserve Act “The Fed”

• Senator Nelson Aldrich “father-in-law” to Rockefeller chaired a commission to investigate and propose new solutions to banking problems

• Federal Reserve System: central banking system • Oversee all banks in U.S• Monetary policy/research economy• Long-term interest rates and stable prices• Check inflation keep small

William Howard Taft• President from 1909-1913• Republican• Secretary of War for President Roosevelt and replaced

Roosevelt • Poor Politician• Battled Progressive and Conservatives• Conservative Republicans did not like Roosevelt’s anti-

monopoly/big business attitude• Roosevelt did not like how Taft did nothing to his Secretary

of Interior who fumbled Roosevelt’s conservation policies (protection of lands out west) and Roosevelt left the Republican Party and started the Bull-Moose Party in 1912

President Taft

Payne-Aldrich Tariff 1909

• House of Rep. Sereno Payne & Senator Nelson Aldrich• A bill to lower tariffs on certain goods entering the

U.S.• Compromise bill which lowered some tariffs and

raised other tariffs• Allowed free trade with the Philippines• Angered Progressives; it increased the duty on print

paper• Republicans and Progressives split!

Mann Act 1910

• Congressman James Mann• Prohibit white slavery/prostitution• Stop human interstate sex trafficking of females

and made it a federal crime• Prostitution was Immoral• Ambiguous language of immorality criminalized

forms of consensual sexual behaviors• Amended in 1978 & 1986

American Tobacco v US 1911

• The Sherman Antitrust Act was created in 1890• in 1907 the American Tobacco Company was

indicted in violation of it.• n 1908 when the Department of Justice filed suit

against the company, sixty-five companies and twenty-nine individuals were named in the suit.

• The Supreme Court ordered the company to dissolve in 1911 on the same day that it ordered the Standard Oil Trust to dissolve

Four Firms Created

• Four tobacco firms were created from the American Tobacco Company

• American Tobacco Company• R.J. Reynolds• Liggett & Meyers• Lorillard• The monopoly became an oligopoly!

1912 Progressive “Fit as a Moose”

• Theodore Roosevelt did not like the way the Republican party was shaping.

• He left the Republicans and started the Third party Progressive Party called “Bull Moose Party”

• Shot in his chest by fanatic but kept to his words

• Lost but Bull Moose “third party” took 88 electoral votes from two main parties (Dem & Rep)

Election of 1912• Republicans favored William Howard Taft again

(8 electoral votes)• Third Party Bull-Moose Party Theodore

Roosevelt (88 electoral votes)• Third Party Socialist Party Eugene Debs • Democrats Woodrow Wilson won (435

electoral votes)!• Arizona and New Mexico voted (48 states)• Main issue: Trusts (monopolies)

Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921• Democrat (not Southern Democrat)• Like Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson

regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. "No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general interests of the country."

• He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy."

President Wilson

New Freedom Program• 1. Tariff Reform: This came through the passage of

the Underwood Tariff Act of 1913, which lowered tariffs for the first time since the American Civil War and went against the protectionist lobby.

• 2. Business Reform: This was established in 1914 through the passage of the Federal Trade Act, which established the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and halt unfair and illegal business practices by issuing "cease and desist" orders, and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914.

• 3. Banking Reform: This came in 1913, through the creation of the Federal Reserve System, which set up a system to oversee the banks. Loans money to commercial banks.

Clayton Antitrust Act 1914

• Enforcement: Set up enforcement for the Federal Trade Commission to oversee unfair business practices

• FTC notified of mergers• Stopped “holding companies” Companies who just

hold stock of other companies are like trusts• Exemptions: Clayton differed from Sherman Anti-trust

case because it allowed trusts of unions (workers were not a commodity)

• Sports teams like the National Baseball League were exempt