Progressive Politics, 1890-1920

Question 1

An 1883 law establishing a nonpartisan Civil Service Commission to fill federal jobs by examination; dealt a major blow to the “spoils system” and sought to ensure that government positions were filled by trained, professional employees.

Answer 1

Pendleton Act

Question 2

Landmark 1890 act that forbade anticompetitive business activities, requiring the federal government to investigate trusts and any companies operating in violation of the act.

Answer 2

Sherman Antitrust Act

Question 3

Also known as the Federal Elections Bill of 1890, a bill proposing that whenever 100 citizens in any district appealed for intervention, a bipartisan federal board could investigate and seat the rightful winner. The defeat of the bill was a blow to those seeking to defend African American voting rights and to ensure full participation in politics.

Answer 3

Lodge Bill

Question 4

An 1892 statement by the Populists calling for stronger government to protect ordinary Americans.

Answer 4

Omaha Platform

Question 5

A policy of loosening the money supply by expanding federal coinage to include silver as well as gold. Advocates of the policy thought it would encourage borrowing and stimulate industry, but the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan ended this movement.

Answer 5

free silver

Question 6

An 1898 Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to impose poll taxes and literacy tests. By 1908, every southern state had adopted such measures.

Answer 6

Williams v. Mississippi

Question 7

A 1905 Supreme Court ruling that New York State could not limit bakers’ workday to ten hours because that violated bakers’ rights to make contracts.

Answer 7

Lochner v. New York

Question 8

A 1906 antitrust law that empowered the federal Interstate Commerce Commission to set railroad shipment rates wherever it believed that railroads were unfairly colluding to set prices.

Answer 8

Hepburn Act

Question 9

A 1911 Supreme Court decision that directed the breakup of this company into smaller companies because its overwhelming market dominance and monopoly power violated antitrust laws.

Answer 9

Standard Oil decision

Question 10

A 1902 law, supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, that allowed the federal government to sell public lands to raise money for irrigation projects that expanded agriculture on arid lands.

Answer 10

Newlands Reclamation Act

Question 11

A policy promoted by Republican governor Robert La Follette for greater government intervention in the economy, with reliance on experts, particularly progressive economists, for policy recommendations.

Answer 11

Wisconsin Idea

Question 12

A reform organization that worked (unsuccessfully) to win a federal law banning child labor; hired photographer Lewis Hine to record brutal conditions in mines and mills where thousands of children worked.

Answer 12

National Child Labor Committee

Question 13

A 1908 Supreme Court case that upheld an Oregon law limiting women’s workday to ten hours, based on the need to protect women’s health for motherhood. It divided women’s rights activists because some saw its provisions as discriminatory.

Answer 13

Muller v. Oregon

Question 14

Progressive Era government support provided to mothers whose husbands had died, been disabled, or abandoned the family. Recipients had to meet standards of “respectability” defined by middle-class home visitors, but those who met approval got help in raising their young children.

Answer 14

monthers’ pensions

Question 15

A term used by Harvard-educated sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois for the top 10 percent of educated African Americans, whom he called on to develop new strategies to advocate for civil rights.

Answer 15

talented tenth

Question 16

An organization founded in 1909 by leading African American reformers and white allies as a vehicle for advocating equal rights for African Americans, especially through the courts.

Answer 16

National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Question 17

An umbrella union and radical political group founded in 1905, dedicated to organizing unskilled workers to oppose capitalism. Nicknamed the Wobblies, it advocated direct action by workers, including sabotage and general strikes

Answer 17

Industrial Workers of the World

Question 18

A 1910 Theodore Roosevelt speech; promoted government intervention to enhance public welfare, including a federal child labor law, more recognition of labor rights, a national minimum wage for women, women’s suffrage, and curbs on the power of federal courts to stop reform.

Answer 18

“New Nationalism”

Question 19

The central bank system of the United States, created in 1913; sets the money supply level, thus influencing the rate of growth of the U.S. economy, and seeks to ensure the stability of the U.S. monetary system.

Answer 19

Federal Reserve Act

Question 20

A 1914 law that strengthened federal definitions of “monopoly” and gave more power to the Justice Department to pursue antitrust cases; it also specified that labor unions could not generally be prosecuted for “restraint of trade,” ensuring that antitrust laws would apply to corporations rather than unions.

Answer 20

Clayton Antitrust Act

Question 21

American orator and politician from Nebraska. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party’s nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections largely on the promise of “free silver.”

Answer 21

William Jennings Bryan

Question 22

Governor of Wisconsin nicknamed “ Fighting Bob” who was a progressive Republican leader. His “Wisconsin Idea” was the model for state progressive government. He used the “brain trust”, a panel of experts, to help him create effective, efficient government. He was denied the nomination for the Republicans in favor of Theodore Roosevelt.

Answer 22

Robert La Follette

Question 23

fought for immediate implementation of African American rights. Opponent of Booker T Washington, he helped to found Niagara Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP.

Answer 23

W.E.B. Du Bois

Question 24

labor leader arrested during the Pullman Strike (1894); a convert to socialism, Debs ran for president five times between 1900 and 1920. In 1920, he campaigned from prison where he was being held for opposition to American involvement in World War I.

Answer 24

Eugene V. Debs

Question 25

when workers seize control of the government and economy by means of a strike.

Answer 25

syndicalism