Trust-Busting

Ida Tarbell

A famous Muckraker, this woman published a devastating but factual exposé about the Standard Oil Company- History of Standard Co.

Thorstein Veblen

Famous sociologist/economist. Wrote "The Theory of the Leisure Class".

Henry Demarest Lloyd

Journalist who was notable for, pre-1900, attacking the Standard Oil Company with his book "Wealth Against Commonwealth"

Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)

New antitrust legislation constructed to remedy deficiencies of the Sherman Antitrust Act, namely, it's effectiveness against labor unions

Mann-Elkins Act (1910)

Signed by Taft, it bolstered the regulatory powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and supported labor reforms. It gave the ICC the power to prosecute its own inquiries into violations of its regulations.

Frank Norris

a muckraker who wrote a book called "The Octopus" which said that railroads strangled farmers because it was too expensive

Federal Trade Commission Act

empowered a president-appointed position to investigate the activities of trusts and stop unfair trade practices such as unlawful competition, false advertising, mislabeling, adulteration, & bribery.

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.

Trust busting

policy of prosecuting monopolies, or "trusts," that violated federal antitrust law. Roosevelt's "trust-busting" policy marked a major departure from previous administrations' policies, which had generally failed to enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, and added momentum to the progressive reform movements of the early 1900s.

David G Phillips

published a series, "The Treason of the Senate" in Cosmopolitan that charged that 75 of the 90 senators did not represent the people but they rather represented railroads and trusts.

Hepburn Act (1906)

restricted railroad "free passes" and expanded the Interstate Commerce Commission to include in its powers the prosecution of express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines. For the first time gave the ICC that ability to nullify existing rates and set maximum rates.

Elkins Act (1903)

strengthened the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 by imposing heavy fines on railroads offering rebates and on the shippers accepting them