APUSH Chpt. 24
Upton Sinclair
(September 20, 1878 - November 25, 1968), was a Pulitzer Prize-winning prolific American author who wrote over 90 books in many genres. He achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the 20th century, gaining particular fame for his 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. The book dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that partly contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906.
Northern Securities Company
A giant conglomerate of railroads that had a monopoly over the Great Northern and Northern Pacific lines; President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the company broken up in 1902, and it was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 1904.
Woodrow Wilson (28th President)
Academic and Progressive Democrat who was elected President of the United States in 1912 and again in 1916; his first term was concerned with trust-busting, tariff reform, and social justice issues, but his second term was caught up in World War I and his efforts on behalf of the Versailles Treaty.
Federal Highways Act of 1916
Act of 1916 that provided dollar-matching contributions to states with highway departments that met certain federal standards, a sharp departure from Jacksonian opposition to internal improvements at federal expense.
Mann-Elkins Act of 1910
Act passed in 1910 that empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission for the first time to initiate rate changes, extended regulation to telephone and telegraph companies, and set up a Commerce Court to expedite appeals from the ICC rulings.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914
Act passed in 1914, which outlawed such practices as price discrimination (charging different customers different prices for the same goods), "tying" agreements that limited the right of dealers to handle the products of competing manufacturers, interlocking directorates connecting corporations with a capital of more than $1 million (or banks with more than $5 million), and corporations' acquisition of stock in competing corporations.
Progressive Party
Created when former President Theodore Roosevelt broke away from the Republican party to run for president again in 1912; the party supported progressive reforms similar to the Democrats but stopped short of seeking to eliminate trusts.
Jacob Riis
Danish immigrant who was an influential New York journalist and muckraker, exposing slum conditions in the book How the Other Half Lives (1890).
New Freedom
Democrat Woodrow Wilson's political slogan in the presidential campaign of 1912; Wilson wanted to improve the banking system, lower tariffs, and, by breaking up monopolies, give small businesses freedom to compete.
Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916
Enacted in 1916 that set up twelve Federal Land Banks, under the control of a Federal Farm Loan Board, that offered farmers loans of five to forty years' duration at low interest rates.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Established the Federal Trade Commission in 1914 to enforce existing antitrust laws that prohibited business combinations in restraint of trade.
Federal Reserve Act of 1913
Glass-Owen Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created a Federal Reserve System of regional banks and a Federal Reserve Board to stabilize the economy by regulating the supply of currency and controlling credit.
Robert M. La Follette
Governor of Wisconsin who promoted the principle of government by experts, advocated progressivism, and established a Legislative Reference Bureau to provide research, advice, and help in the drafting of legislation.
Ida Tarbell
Muckraker whose History of the Standard Oil Company ran in McClure's magazine in 1904.
The Jungle (1906)
Novel published in 1906 that portrayed the filthy conditions in Chicago's meatpacking industry and led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act.
Gifford Pinchot
One of the country's first scientific foresters, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1881 as the chief of the newly created Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture; worked to develop programs and public interest in conservation, but was fired in 1910 by President William Howard Taft after exposing a supposed scandal involving western conservation land in what came to be known as the Ballinger-Pinchot affair.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
Passed in 1890, the first law to restrict monopolistic trusts and business combinations; extended by the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914.
Meat Inspection Act of 1906
Passed in 1906 largely in reaction to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the law set strict standards of cleanliness in the meatpacking industry.
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
Passed in 1906, the first law to regulate manufacturing of food and medicines; prohibited dangerous additives and inaccurate labeling.
New Nationalism
Platform of the Progressive party and slogan of former president Theodore Roosevelt in the presidential campaign of 1912; stressed government activism, including regulation of trusts, conservation, and recall of state court decisions that had nullified progressive programs.
Referendum
Procedure that allowed the electorate to vote on an initiative up or down; first adopted by South Dakota in 1898.
Initiative
Procedure that allowed voters to enact laws directly if a designated number of voters petitioned to have a measure put on the ballot; first adopted by South Dakota in 1898.
Recall
Procedure whereby public officials could be removed by petition and vote; first adopted by Oregon in 1910.
Seventeenth Amendment (1913)
Progressive reform from 1913 that required U.S. senators to be elected directly by voters; previously, senators were chosen by state legislatures.
Lois Brandeis
Progressive social-justice champion who became the first Jewish member of the Supreme Court in 1916.
Hepburn Act of 1906
Proposal for railroad regulation enacted in 1906 that extended the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and gave it the power to set maximum freight rates.
Lincoln Steffens
Reporter whose articles on municipal corruption in McClure's magazine began to run in 1902 and were collected into the 1904 book The Shame of the Cities.
William H. Taft (27th President)
Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt hand-picked to carry out his policies in the White House; elected president in 1909 but was cast in a conservative role at a time when progressive sentiment was riding high in the country.
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Supreme court ruling in 1908 that upheld a ten-hour work day law for women largely on the basis of sociological data regarding the effects of long hours on the health and morals of women.
Florence Kelley
The head of the National Consumers League who spearheaded the progressive crusade to regulate the hours of work for women.
Anti-Saloon League
The most successful political action group that forced the prohibition issue into the forefront of state and local elections and pioneered the strategy of the single-issue pressure group.
Direct Primary
The nomination of candidates by the vote of party members; after South Carolina adopted the first statewide primary in 1896, the movement spread within two decades to nearly every state.
Frederick W. Taylor
The original "efficiency expert" who, in the book The Principles of Scientific Management from 1911, preached the gospel of efficient management of production time and costs, the proper routing and scheduling of work, standardization of tools and equipment, and the like.
Muckraker
Writer who exposed corruption and abuses in politics, business, meat-packing, child labor, and more, primarily in the first decade of the twentieth century; their popular books and magazine articles spurred public interest in progressive reform.
Sixteenth Amendment (1913)
allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results. This amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895), which limited the Congress's authority to levy an income tax.
Eighteenth Amendment (1919)
the prohibition amendment; outlawing the use & sell of alcohol or any alcoholic beverage