Progressives Flashcards
Australian Secret Ballot
The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter’s identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying.
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Pinchot accused Ballinger of giving away public lands to a private corporation for personal profit. - Alaskan oil land
Bitter Cry of the Children - John Spargo
The Bitter Cry of the Children,Journalist and novelist, wrote of the unfair treatment of children used as child labor. Stressed better education, better schools and teachers. A muckraker novel
Bull Moose Party
The Bull Moose Party was a Progressive Republican third-party founded by Theodore Roosevelt.
The Republicans were badly split in the 1912 election, because of the Bull Moose Party, causing Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson to win. However, Roosevelt gained more third party votes than ever before.
Charles Evans Hughes
As Secretary of State he wanted to find a replacement to the League of Nations as a guarantee of world peace and stability. The most important of these efforts was the Washington Conference of 1921 which was an attempt to prevent a destabilizing naval armaments race among the US, Britain, and Japan.
Clayton Antitrust Act, 1914
It added to the Sherman law’s list of objectionable trust practices by forbidding price discrimination; a different price for different people, and interlocking directorates; the same people serving on “competitors” boards of trustees. It also exempted labor unions from being considered trusts and legalized strikes as a form of peaceful assembly. Ultimately helped cut down on monopolies.
Conservation
Conservation movement in America tried to preserve natural resources and stop destruction of resources/land.
Cosmopolitan
popular magazines dedicated to exposing evil, digging for dirt and encouraged their reports who Roosevelt called muckrakers
Desert Land Act
1877; first feeble step toward conservation; the federal government sold arid land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser irrigate the thirsty soil within three years
Eighteenth Amendment
18th (1919): Prohibition of alcohol
Election of 1912
In this election, the Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, giving him a strong progressive platform called the “New Freedom” program. The Republicans were split between Taft and Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party with its “New Nationalism” program. By the division of the Republican Party, a Democratic victory was ensured.
Elkins Act
In 1903, Roosevelt signed the Elkins Act, which prohibited railroads from giving rebates to their most favored and wealthy customers.
Federal Reserve Act
An act establishing 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks and a Federal Reserve Board, appointed by the president, to regulate banking and create stability on a national scale in the volatile banking sector.
Federal Trade Commission 1914
A banner accomplishment of Woodrow Wilson’s administration, this law empowered a standing, presidentially appointed commission to investigate illegal business practices in interstate commerce like unlawful competition, false advertising, and mislabeling of goods.
“Fighting” Bob LaFollette
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.
Follow the Color Line - Ray Stannard Baker
He worked with Tarbell and Steffans at McClure’s. Best known for his work “Following the Color Line” (poverty and misfortunes of the black women in the south). He was the first prominent journalist to write on race relations in the South- “The Clashes of the Races in a Southern City.” He believed that social justice required journalism of “righteous indignation.”
Frances Willard
an American educator, temperance reformer, and women’s suffragist. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the US Constitution. Willard became the national president of the World Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, or World WCTU, in 1879, and remained president for 19 years. She developed the slogan “Do everything” for the women of the WCTU to incite lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publication, and education.
Grangers
Nation Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry. A group of agrarian organizations that worked to increase the political and economic power of farmers. They opposed corrupt business practices and monopolies, and supported relief for debtors.
Hetch Hetchy Valley
The federal government allowed the city of San Francisco to build a dam here in 1913. This was a blow to preservationists, who wished to protect the Yosemite National Park, where the dam was located.
Hepburn Act
The Hepburn Act is a 1906 US federal law that gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates and extend its jurisdiction. This led to the discontinuation of free passes to loyal shippers.
Jacob Riis
“How the Other Half Lives” – An account of dirt, disease, vice and misery of rat infested slums of NYC
Jane Addams
a middle-class woman dedicated to uplifting the urban masses; college educated (one of first generation); established the Hull House in Chicago in 1889 (most prominent American settlement house, mostly for immigrants); condemned war and poverty; won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
Jeanette Rankin
first woman congress member; from Montana, First woman elected to the US House of Representatives and the first female member of Congress. A Republican and a lifelong pacifist, she was the only member of Congress to vote against US entry into both World War II and World War I. Additionally, she led resistance to the Vietnam War.
John Muir
Scottish-American naturalist, author, and an advocate of preservation of wilderness in the U.S. His writings told of his adventures in nature especially the Sierra Nevada. His activism helped preserve Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park, and other areas.
Ida Tarbell / History of Standard Oil
wrote a book about Rockefeller’s monopoly over the oil business; “The History of the Standard Oil Company” grew to be a nineteen-part series, published between November 1902 and October 1904; Tarbell wrote a detailed exposé of Rockefeller’s unethical tactics, sympathetically portraying the plight of Pennsylvania’s independent oil workers
Initiative
people have the right to propose a new law
Interstate Commerce Commission
Congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission, compelled railroads to publish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the Act gave the government an important means to regulate big business.
Lochner vs. New York
the Supreme Court ruled that a New York law setting maximum working hours for bakers was unconstitutional.
“Machine Made” Candidate / Political Machines
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines “political machine” as, “in U.S. politics, a party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state”.
Mary Lease
an American lecturer, writer, Georgist, and political activist. She was an advocate of the suffrage movement as well as temperance but she was best known for her work with the People’s Party(populists)
Meat Inspection Act
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was a piece of U.S. legislation, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906, that prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured sanitary slaughtering and processing of livestock.
McClure’s Magazine
An American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. It was in this magazine that progressive muckraker journalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell got their start.
Muckrakers
journalists and novelists of the Progressive Era who sought to expose corruption in big business and government. The work of muckrakers influenced the passage of key legislation that strengthened protections for workers and consumers.
Muller vs. Oregon
upheld an Oregon law limiting the workday for female wage earners to ten hours. The case established a precedent in 1908 to expand the reach of state activity into the realm of protective labor legislation.
New Nationalism
political philosophy of Theodore Roosevelt, an espousal of active federal intervention to promote social justice and the economic welfare of the underprivileged; its precepts were strongly influenced by Herbert Croly’s The Promise of American Life (1910).
Nineteenth Amendment
19th (1920): Women’s Suffrage
Northern Securities
The Northern Securities Case
It was the first example of Roosevelt’s use of anti-trust legislation to dismantle a monopoly, in this case a holding company controlling the principal railroad lines from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest.
Pendleton Act
provided that federal government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that government employees be selected through competitive exams. The act also made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons employees who were covered by the law.
Populists
agrarian-based political movement aimed at improving conditions for the country’s farmers and agrarian workers. The Populist movement was preceded by the Farmer’s Alliance and the Grange. The People’s Party was a political party founded in 1891 by leaders of the Populist movement.
Pure Food & Drug Act
1906 prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce and laid a foundation for the nation’s first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Recall
the people can petition and vote to have an elected official removed from office. These all made elected officials more responsible and sensitive to the needs of the people, and part of the movement to make government more efficient and scientific.
Referendum
a law passed by the legislature can be referenced to the people for approval/veto.
A vote on a single specific issue put to the public by the government of the day. A form of direct democracy.
Samuel Gompers
English-born American cigar maker who became a Georgist labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Founder of the AFL
Seventeenth Amendment
17th (1913): Direct election of U.S. Senators
Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
passed in 1890 and reflected a growing concern by the American public that the growth and expansion of monopolies were detrimental to the free market system of the US and to its citizens in general. The act marked the first attempt by the federal government to control the growth of big business. While its goal was to control the growth of monopolies that restrained trade, the vague wording of the act and its interpretation by a very conservative judiciary made the act relatively ineffective during the first decade of its life.
Sixteenth Amendment
16th (1913): Establishment of the Income Tax
Social Gospel
largely Protestant response to problems created by the rapid urbanization and industrialization in the US late in the nineteenth century.
Square Deal
The Square Deal was Theodore Roosevelt’s domestic program, which reflected his three major goals: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. These three demands are often referred to as the “three Cs” of Roosevelt’s Square Deal.
“Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick”
Theodore Roosevelt apparently coined the phrase “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” which pretty accurately summarizes the foreign affair policy of Big Stick Diplomacy, in 1901. It would go on to pretty accurately summarize his actions while in office.
Roosevelt’s “big stick diplomacy” signified that the U.S. would negotiate peacefully but maintain strength to exert when needed.
A method of negotiating where it is approached peacefully, but recognizing the possible need for force. Specifically used in reference to American foreign affairs during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.
Suffrage
The right to vote in Political elections. A vote given in favor of a proposed measure or candidate. The exercise of a right to vote.
Teddy Roosevelt
Roosevelt was a realist and a conservative. He deplored many of the increasingly popular idealistic liberal themes, such as were promoted by William Jennings Bryan, the anti-imperialists, and Woodrow Wilson. Kissinger says he rejected the efficacy of international law.
Triangle Shirtwaist Company
The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
In October 1911, New York passed the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law in response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. It required factory owners to install sprinkler systems, established the New York City Fire Prevention Bureau, and expanded the powers of the fire commissioner.
Triple Wall of Privilege
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom sought to achieve this vision by attacking what Wilson called the Triple Wall of Privilege — the tariff, the banks, and the trusts. Tariffs protected the large industrialists at the expense of small farmers.
Trust Busting
Trust-busting is any government activity designed to kill trusts or monopolies. Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president most associated with dissolving trusts. However, William Howard Taft signed twice as much trust-busting legislation during his presidency.
Underwood Tariff
Provided for a substantial reduction of rates and enacted an unprecedented, gradual federal income tax.
Woodrow Wilson New Freedom
New Freedom, in U.S. history, political ideology of Woodrow Wilson, enunciated during his successful 1912 presidential campaign, pledging to restore unfettered opportunity for individual action and to employ the power of government in behalf of social justice for all.
William Howard Taft
To raise federal money he backed an income tax amendment and approved corporate and inheritance taxes. He accepted an amendment for direct election of senators. And he supported the Children’s Bureau, which helped eliminate child labor and improved health care for families.
William Jennings Bryan/Cross of Gold
He decried the gold standard, concluding the speech, “you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”. Bryan’s address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history.
Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Founded to fight against the evils of excessive alcohol consumption, and they also fought for to abolish prostitution and for women to vote later granted in the nineteenth amendment.
Yosemite National Park
1880s in California; created by Congress; Controversy over the Hetch Hetchy Valley there-San Francisco residents worried about needing more water, want it to be a reservoir
