Progressive Vocab

Question 1

Social Gospel

Answer 1

• promoted a brand of progressivism base on Christian teachings
  – used religious doctrine to demand better housing + living conditions for the urban poor
• closely linked to the settlement house movement → brought middle class, Anglo-American service volunteers into contact w/ immigrants + working people

Question 2

Muckrakers

Answer 2

• reporters who exposed toxicities in America
• editors would finance extensive research encourage pugnacious writing by muckrakers
• their subjects included business manipulation of government, white slavers, child labor, and the illegal deeds of the trusts

Question 3

16th Amendment

Answer 3

• gave Congress the power of income taxes

Question 4

Initiative

Answer 4

• progressive reform measure allowing voters to petition to have a law placed on the general ballot
• brought democracy directly to “the people”
• helped foster a shift toward interest-group politics and away from old political machines

Question 5

Referendum

Answer 5

• placed laws on the ballot for final approval by the people
• agitated by progressives
• type of laws: had been railroaded through + compliant legislature by free-spending agents of big business

Question 6

Recall

Answer 6

• enabled voters to remove elected officials (those who had been bribed by bosses or lobyists)

Question 7

Australian Ballot

Answer 7

• system that allows voters privacy in marking their ballot choices
• introduced in US to help counteract boss rule

Question 8

Direct Primary

Answer 8

• an interparty election in which voters selected the candidates who will be on a party’s ticket in the subsequent general election
• previously: candidates were selected by caucuses that were considered elitist + undemocratic

Question 9

17th Amendment

Answer 9

• gave the people power to elect senators
• previously: senators were appointed by the legislatures of their states

Question 10

Municipal Reform

Answer 10

• changes in city governments that were made to encourage greater efficiency, honesty, and responses
• middle-class businessmen organized against the corruption + inefficiency they thought plagued their cities → strong in political machine cities

Question 11

Wisconsin Idea

Answer 11

• created by the state’s progressives to eliminate monopolies, trusts, high costs of living, predatory wealth
• developed by Robert La Follette → Gov/Sen. from Wisconsin / leader of Populist movement
• included direct primary, tax reform, + regulation of railroads

Question 12

National Child Labor Committee

Answer 12

• committee that convinced 28 states to have laws regulating child labor
• founded by angry progressives outraged by the treatment of children by industry
• proposed model state child labor laws that were passed in 1907
• school attendance laws kept children out of mines/factories
• many states didn’t pass because family still needed income / familes lied about ages of kids to keep them at work

Question 13

National Consumer’s League (1899)

Answer 13

• lead by Florence Kelley
• promoted the passage of state laws to protect women from long working hours

Question 14

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Answer 14

• fire in 1911 in lower Manhattan
• 146 workers (young women) killed because they were locked in their rooms
• sparked greater women’s activism + motivated states to pass laws improving safety + working conditions in factories.

Question 15

Muller Vs. Oregon

Answer 15

• Louis D. Brandeis persuaded Supreme Court to accept hte constitutionality of laws protecting women workers → presented evidence of harmful factory effects of labor on women’s bodies
• progressives hailed Brandei’s achievement as a triumph over existing legal doctrine

Question 16

Lochner Vs. New York (1905)

Answer 16

• Supreme Court invalidated a NY law establishing a ten-hour day for bakers

Question 17

Elkins Act (1903)

Answer 17

• US federal law that amended the Insterstate Commerce Act of 1887
• authorized Interstate Commerce Commission to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates _ upon shippers who accepted the rebates

Question 18

Square Deal

Answer 18

• prompted by an economic crisis → TR insisted on a square deal rather than favoring business or labor
• called labor union leaders and coal mine owners to White House
• voters approved of Square Deal

Question 19

Bad Vs. Good Trust

Answer 19

• good trusts: a trust controlled an entire industry + provided a good service @ reasonable rates → good trusts were left alone
• bad trusts: jacked up rates + exploited consumers → went under attack

Question 20

Northern Securities Company

Answer 20

• railroad monopoly formed by J. P. Morgan + James J. Hill which went against Sherman Antitrust Act
• attacked legally by TR; trust busted + paved the way for future trust-busts of bad trusts

Question 21

Hepburn Act (1906)

Answer 21

• US federal law → gave Interstate Commerce Commission the power to set maximum railroads rates + extend jurisdiction
• led to the discontinuation of free passes to loyal shippers

Question 22

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Answer 22

• induced by TR, who was sickened w/ all Americans at the quality of American slaughter-houses
• decreed that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection from corral to can
• it was accepted as an opportunity to drive large packers to drive their smaller competitors out of business [ people could still receive gov. approval of their exports]

Question 23

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Answer 23

• designed to prevent the adulteration + mislabeling of foods + pharm accuiticals
• gave government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficiency of drugs in order to abolish the patent drug trade.
• now the FDA

Question 24

Conservation

Answer 24

• movement to begin preserving natural resources + stop rapid destruction of land/resources
• began w/ Desert Land Act of 1877 → sold and land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser irrigate the thirsty soil within three years
• continued w/ successful Forest Reserve Act of 1891 → authorized president to set aside public forests as national parks; 46 million acres of magnificent trees were rescued from the lumberman’s saw in the 1890s + preserved for posterity
• included Carey Act of 1894 → distributed federal land to the states on the condition that be irrigated and settled