U3L3 The Rise of Progressivism

Question 1

What happened during the Gilded Age?

Answer 1

During this time, reformers struggled to clean up political corruption.

Question 2

During the Gilded Age, what were the two main political powers?

Answer 2

Republican and Democratic
…
Usually, the North and West voted Republican, and the South voted Democratic.

Question 3

True of False.

Presidents generally had less power than Congress during the gilded period.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

During the Gilded age, what were elections like?

Answer 4

Campaigns featured brass bands, torchlight parades, picnics, and long speeches. Americans marched, ate, drank, and listened. The turnout of voters was never again as high—almost 80 percent of eligible voters.

Question 5

What two concerns shaped politics during this time?

Answer 5

• Many Americans worried about the power of the rich

- Corruption

Question 6

Why did many American worry about the power of the rich?

Answer 6

They feared that bankers, industrialists, and other wealthy men were controlling politics at the expense of the public good.

Question 7

Why did Americans fear corruption?

Answer 7

Reformers blamed much of the problem on the spoils system, the practice of rewarding political supporters with government jobs.

Question 8

How did city governments become so corrupt?

Answer 8

As cities grew, they needed to expand services such as sewers, garbage collection, and roads. Often, politicians accepted money to give away these jobs. As a result, bribes and corruption became a way of life.

Question 9

What are political bosses? What did they do?

Answer 9

Powerful politicians called political bosses gained power in many cities. Political bosses also ruled county and state governments. Bosses controlled work done locally and demanded payoffs from businesses.

Question 10

Which people like political bosses?

Answer 10

The poor and immigrants

Question 11

Why did the poor and immigrants like political bosses?

Answer 11

They provided jobs and made loans to the needy. They handed out extra coal for heating in winter and turkeys at Thanksgiving.

Question 12

What did political bosses get in exchange for helping the poor and immigrants?

Answer 12

The poor voted for the boss or his chosen candidate.

Question 13

What corruption did Boss Willam Tweed commit?

Answer 13

During the 1860s and 1870s, he cheated the city out of more than $100 million.

Question 14

Who exposed Boss Williams Tweed’s wrongdoings?

Answer 14

Journalists

Question 15

What did the journalists do to expose Boss Tweed’s wrongdoings?

Answer 15

Some people made political cartoons. For example, cartoonist Thomas Nast pictured Tweed as a vulture feeding on the city. Nast’s cartoons especially angered Tweed. His supporters might not be able to read, he said, but they could understand Nast’s cartoons.

Question 16

Why were political cartoons a good way to get a point across?

Answer 16

Not everyone could read

Question 17

What happened to Tweed?

Answer 17

Faced with prison, Tweed fled to Spain. There, local police arrested him when they recognized him from Nast’s cartoons. When Tweed died in jail in 1878, thousands of poor New Yorkers mourned for him.

Question 18

After the days of Andrew Jackson, what happened when a new president was elected?

Answer 18

Job seekers swarmed into Washington. They demanded government jobs as rewards for their political support.

Question 19

What is patronage?

Answer 19

Giving jobs to followers

Question 20

Why did patronage lead to corruption?

Answer 20

Some jobholders simply stole public money. Others had no skills for the jobs they were given. In New York, for example, one man was made court reporter even though he could neither read nor write

Question 21

What did President Rutherford B. Hayes promise?

Answer 21

He took steps toward ending the spoils system.

Question 22

What did President Rutherford able Hayes do at the New York customhouse?

Answer 22

He ordered an investigation of the New York customhouse. There, investigators found hundreds of appointed officials receiving high salaries but doing no work. Despite the protests of local Republican leaders, Hayes dismissed two customhouse officials.

Question 23

What views did President James Garfield have on patronage?

Answer 23

He thought that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit, or ability, not politics.

Question 24

How did James Garfield die?

Answer 24

A disappointed office seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot the President. Garfield died two months later.

Question 25

What ended the new efforts to end the spoils system?

Answer 25

The assassination of President James Garfield

Question 26

Who became president after James Garfield died?

Answer 26

Vice President Chester A. Arthur

Question 27

What were President Chester A. Arther’s view on patronage?

Answer 27

Arthur worked with Congress to reform the spoils system.

Question 28

What was the Civil Service Commission?

Answer 28

It conducted exams for federal jobs

Question 29

What jobs did the civil service include?

Answer 29

The civil service includes all federal jobs except elected offices and the military.

Question 30

What was the aim of the Civil Service Commission?

Answer 30

to fill jobs on the basis of merit

Question 31

How did people earn a spot in the federal jobs?

Answer 31

People who scored highest on the civil service exams earned the posts.

Question 32

By 1900, the commission controlled about ____ of all federal jobs.

Answer 32

40%

Question 33

Why did many Americans think big businesses controlled the government?

Answer 33

Because big businesses would sometimes bribe the government to benefit them.

Example:
In 1877, Collis Huntington, builder of the Central Pacific Railroad, tried to bribe members of Congress to kill a railroad bill that would be unfavorable to his interests. He gave large amounts of money to members of Congress. “It costs money to fix things,” Huntington explained.

Question 34

What did the interstate commerce act and the interstate commerce commission do? How made them?

Answer 34

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act. It forbade practices such as pools and rebates. It also set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to oversee the railroads. One of the overall intents of the Interstate Commerce Act was to prevent the formation of railroad monopolies by promoting competition in the industry.

Question 35

What does interstate commerce mean?

Answer 35

Business that crossed state lines

Question 36

How did the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) do at first?

Answer 36

At first, the ICC was weak. In court challenges, most judges ruled in favor of the railroads. Still, Congress had shown that it was ready to regulate big business. Later, Congress passed laws that made the ICC more effective.

Question 37

What did the Sherman Antitrust Act do? Who made it?

Answer 37

In 1890, President Harrison signed the Sherman Antitrust Act. The act prohibited businesses from trying to limit or destroy competition

Question 38

Why was enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act difficult?

Answer 38

Instead of regulating trusts, the Sherman Antitrust Act was often used against labor unions. The courts said union strikes blocked free trade and thus threatened competition. Later on, as the reform spirit spread, the courts began to use the Antitrust Act against monopolies.

Question 39

What did President Garfield believe about government jobs?

Answer 39

that they should be awarded based on ability rather than politics

Question 40

Why were political bosses popular with the poor?

Answer 40

They were popular because they were able to provide jobs and loans to the poor.

Question 41

What details from the text support the idea that government during the Gilded Age was “of, by, and for the rich”?

Answer 41

The government was “of, by, and for the rich” during the Gilded Age because the rich were able to bribe politicians to do their bidding. Political bosses also got kickbacks and other bribes from businesses in return for government business. Money controlled all aspects of government.

Question 42

What did reformers use to turn public options against corruption?

Answer 42

The press

Question 43

What is a muckraker?

Answer 43

A crusading journalist

Question 44

What did muckrakers do?

Answer 44

People said they raked the dirt, or muck, and exposed it to public view.

Question 45

How did the novel “The Jungle” change the meat industry?

Answer 45

Although the book was fiction, it was based on facts. It revealed grisly details about the meatpacking industry, including descriptions of the horrid working conditions and the unsanitary practices in the plants. Sinclair told how the packers used meat from sick animals. He described how rats often got ground up in the meat, which was then dyed to make it seem healthy. He explained just how little thought was given to the health of the consumer.

Question 46

What did “The Jungle” about sausages?

Answer 46

There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and … made over again for home consumption.

Question 47

What was the purpose of “The jungle” according to Sinclair (the author)?

Answer 47

Sinclair claimed that his purpose in writing The Jungle was to alert the public to the unfit working conditions of meatpackers.

Question 48

What did the public focus on in “The Jungle”?

Answer 48

The public outrage focused on the contaminated food they were unknowingly being fed.

Question 49

How did “The Jungle” help the reform?

Answer 49

The federal government passed the Pure Food and Drug and MeatInspection Act.

Question 50

What were Progressives?

Answer 50

By 1900, reformers were calling themselves Progressives. By that, they meant that they were forward-thinking people who wanted to improve American life.

Question 51

Why was the years 1898 to 1917 named the Progressive Era?

Answer 51

Progressives won many changes during the period from 1898 to 1917

Question 52

Which people were Progressives?

Answer 52

Progressives were never a single group with a single goal. Instead, they came from many backgrounds and backed different causes. They were united by a belief that the ills of society could be solved.

Question 53

What did Progressives want the government to do?

Answer 53

at in the public interest

Question 54

What inspired Progressives?

Answer 54

Religion and science

Question 55

Robert La Follette of Wisconsin was a leading Progressive, what was his motto?

Answer 55

“The will of the people shall be the law of the land,”

Question 56

What was the Wisconsin Idea?

Answer 56

As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette introduced various Progressive reforms that became known as the Wisconsin Idea. For example, he lowered railroad rates. The result was increased rail traffic, which helped both railroad owners and customers.

Question 57

What is a primary?

Answer 57

In a primary, voters choose their party’s candidate for the general election.

Question 58

What is a initiative?

Answer 58

It which gave voters the right to put a bill before a state legislature. A certain number of qualified voters must sign initiative petitions to propose a law.

Question 59

What is the referendum?

Answer 59

It allowed voters to put a bill on the ballot and vote it into law. The recall allowed voters to remove an elected official from office. That reform let voters get rid of corrupt officials.

Question 60

What other changed did Progressives work for?

Answer 60

They favored lowering tariffs on imported goods. If American industry had to compete against foreign imports, they argued, consumers would benefit from lower prices.

Question 61

What is a graduated rate tax?

Answer 61

Many reformers backed a graduated income tax, which taxes people at different rates. The wealthy pay taxes at a higher rate than the poor or the middle class.

Question 62

The sixteenth amendment help pass with tax?

Answer 62

The graduated rate tax

Because the Supreme Court had held that a federal income tax was unconstitutional, Progressives campaigned for a Sixteenth Amendment. It gave Congress the power to pass an income tax. By 1913, the states had ratified the amendment.

Question 63

What did the seventeenth amendment state?

Answer 63

allowed for the direct election of senators

Question 64

Why did progressives what the 17th amendment?

Answer 64

Since 1789, state legislatures had elected senators. Powerful interest groups had sometimes bribed lawmakers to vote for certain candidates. Progressives wanted to end such abuses by having voters elect senators directly.

Question 65

What had middle-class Americans done about the need for reform before the muckrakers became active?

Answer 65

Nothing—they ignored the need.

Question 66

Jacob Riis’s photographs of people living in poverty were published in his 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives. Hypothesize why Riis used the term “the other half” in the title of his book.

Answer 66

Riis was writing mainly for the affluent. To them, the poor would be “the other half” of society.

Question 67

What belief united the Progressive movement?

Answer 67

Progressives generally believed that society’s problems could be solved by both government and individual action.

Question 68

What do the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act have in common?

Answer 68

The eliminate unfair business practices