Chapter 28

How did Theodore Roosevelt effectively use the federal government as an instrument of moderate progressive reform?

He feared that the "public interest" was "being submerged in the drifting seas of indifference"; no one cared that few held all the power. He was a believer in the progressive movement. TR enacted a "Square Deal" (for capital, labor, and the public at large) program that consisted of 3 parts: control of the corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources. When the mines mistreated their workers, TR threatened to seize the mines and operate them with federal troops which forced the owners to comply with the demands of the workers by giving them a 10% pay boost and 9 hour work days. This was the first time that he used the federal army against capital instead of labor.

Discuss Roosevelt's support for conservation and consumer protection. Why were these among the most successful progressive achievements?

He made markets, like the meat market, safer for the consumer and therefore more effective and successful. He passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 190 which set to administer and regulate food and drug for consumer safety.

Lincoln Steppens

reporter who wrote a series of articles in McClure's titled "The Shame of the Cities." He fearlessly unmasked the corrupt alliance between big business and municipal government.

Anthracite Coal Strike

the 1902 strike in which Theodore Roosevelt summoned both sides to the White House and, after threats of seizure and use of troops, reached a compromise of a 10% pay increase and a nine-hour day

Dollar Diplomacy

the use of American investments to boost American political interests abroad. This approach to foreign-policy was a derogatory term used by Taft's critics. The almighty dollar thereby supplanted the big stick of Roosevelt.

John Muir

went on a campaign for awareness of the environment; inspired creation of Yosemite National Park; became president of the Sierra Club, which was devoted to conservation.

Lochner v. New York

1905 Supreme Court decision which invalidated a New York law establishing a ten-hour day for bakers.

Hepburn Act

1906 act that strengthened existing railroad regulations in the following ways: 1. Increased the size of the interstate commerce commission to seven members. 2. Gave the ICC the power to establish maximum rates. 3. Restricted the use of free passes. 4. Brought other common carriers such as terminals, storage facilities, pipelines, ferries and others under ICC jurisdiction. 5. Required the adoption of uniform accounting practices for all carriers. 6. Place the burden of proof on the shipper's not the ICC in disputes.

Meat Inspection Act 1906

1906 law required that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection from corral to can. It had the effect of regulating the large meatpackers but also help them drive smaller competitors out of business.

Referendum

A device that would place laws on the ballot for final approval by the people, especially laws that had been railroaded through a compliant legislature by free-spending agents of big business.

Elkins Act

Act 1903 act aimed primarily at the rebate evil. Heavy fines could now be imposed both on the railroads that gave rebates and on the shippers that accepted them.

Trust Buster

Any government activity designed to break up trusts or monopolies. Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president most associated. Northern Securities Company.

Ballinger Pinchot Affair

Ballinger, who was the Secretary of Interior, opened public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska against Roosevelt's conservation policies. Pinchot, who was the Chief of Forestry, supported former President Roosevelt and demanded that Taft dismiss Ballinger. Taft, who supported Ballinger, dismissed Pinchot on the basis of insubordination. This divided the Republican Party.

Roosevelt's Square Deal and the 3 Cs

His policies reflected three basic ideas: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. These three demands often are referred to as the "three Cs" of Roosevelt's Square Deal.

Good Trusts and Bad Trusts

If a trust controlled an entire industry but provided good service at reasonable rates, it was a "good" trust to be left alone. Only the "bad" trusts that jacked up rates and exploited consumers would come under attack

Muller v. Oregon

In the landmark case Muller v. Oregon (1908), crusading attorney Louis D. Brandeis persuaded the Supreme Court to accept the constitutionality of laws protecting women workers by presenting evidence of the harmful effects of factory labor on women's weaker bodies. This victory had the benefit of protecting women workers, but because of its argument, closed some jobs to women.

What did the Progressive movement accomplish at the local, state, and national levels?

Progressives were mainly middle class men and women. Their main goals were to use state power to control trusts and improve life and labor for the common man. They pushed for the passing of the 17th amendment which called for the direct election of senators. They also pushed for the direct election and recall of certain laws, and even initiative, which allowed citizens to propose legislature. At a city and state level, progressives helped changed the monopolies of railroads and trusts. Public ownership of utilities became popular as local governments tried to stop franchises. In Wisconsin, the reformers took control of crooked corporations and returned them to the people. Other states regulated railroads and trusts through public utility commissions.

William Howard Taft

Secretary of War under Roosevelt. He was chosen by Roosevelt as his successor. He was nominated on the first ballot to be the Republican presidential nominee at the convention of 1908.

Triangle Shirt waist Company

Shirt factory in NYC that had locked doors and other flagrant violations of the fire code turned the factory into a death trap when it caught on fire in 1911 146 women burned to death. The tragedy led to public outcry and a strike led the New York legislature to pass much stronger laws regulating the hours and conditions of sweatshop toil.

Recall

The "recall" would enable the voters to remove faithless elected officials, particularly those who had been bribed by bosses or lobbyists.

J.P Morgan and Northern Securities

The Northern Securities Company was a short-lived American railroad trust formed in 1901 by E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, J.P. Morgan and their associates.

What caused the Taft-Roosevelt split, and how did it reflect the growing division between the "Old Guard" and "progressive" Republicans?

The first step towards conservation came with the Desert Land Act of 1887, in which the federal government sold dry land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser would irrigate the soil within 3 years. A more successful step was the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. It authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves. The Carey Act of 1894 distributed federal land to the states on the condition that it be irrigated and settled.

Robert La Follette

The governor of Wisconsin, he was the most militant of the progressive Republican leaders. After a desperate fight with entrenched monopoly, he reached the governor's chair in 1901. Routing the lumber and railroad "interests," he wrested considerable control from the crooked corporations and returned it to the people. He also perfected a scheme for regulating public utilities, while laboring in close association with experts on the faculty of the state university at Madison.

Initiative

The idea that voters could directly propose legislation themselves, thus bypassing the boss-bought state legislatures.

Payne Aldrich Tariff

The progressive members of the Republican Party wanted to reduce protective tariffs. Taft called Congress into special session in 1909 to pass such a bill. But Senatorial reactionaries led by Sen. Nelson Aldrich tacked on hundreds of upward tariff revisions. This defeated the initial purpose of reducing the tariffs. Taft signed the bill anyway which made him look bad to his fellow Republicans.

What caused the Progressive Movement and how did it get under way?

The progressive movement started at the beginning of the 20th century. It sought to use the government to improve human welfare, and they fought monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice. The single battle cry was to "strengthen the state" The buildup for the Progressive movement went back to the Greenback Labor party of the 1870s, the Populists of the 1890s, and the unrest as fewer and fewer held more and more power. Socialists, mostly immigrants, provided strength at the ballot box for state socialism; believers in the social gospel believed in progressivism through Christian teachings

Muckrakers

Theodore Roosevelt coined this term in 1906; journalists who exploit the horrible truth; assail malpractices of life, insurance companies, and tariff lobbies

How was progression a response to the development of the new urban and industrial order in America?

With new urban development came industrialism and all its corrupt features, monopolies, unfair labor and wages, exploitation of land, and corporations controlling basically everything. Once people had spread out, there was more focus on the individual and his power.

Ida Tarbell

a pioneering journalist who published a devastating but factual exposé of the Standard Oil Company. (Her father had been ruined by the oil interests.)

Newlands Act of 1902

authorized to collect money from the sale of public lands in the sun-baked western states and then use these funds for the development of irrigation projects. Settlers repaid the cost of reclamation from their now-productive soil, and the money was put into a revolving fund to finance more such enterprises. The result was dozens of dams thrown across virtually every major Western River in the west.

Direct Primary

is when people vote for candidates of their political party by direct vote instead of by delegates at a convention. It was a favorite goal of progressives.

Upton Sinclair

muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen.