1. AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
THE PROGRESSIVE ERA
AMERICA SEEKS REFORMS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2. A series of reform efforts transformed the American society between 1890-1920
This period is known as the Progressive Era. Why? Reactions to the social & economic problems of the time

3. Background for the Progressive Movement
Social & Economic upheavals of the 1890s
Reactions to industrialization, urbanization & immigration
Unsafe working conditions
Role of large corporations & trusts
Making government more responsive to all the people
Moral reforms

4. Who were the Progressives?
They were journalists, social workers, educators, politicians, and members of the clergy.
They were generally middle class
They made heavy use of media to influence public opinion

5. Progressivism
Progressives focused on three areas of reform: easing the suffering of the urban poor, improving unfair and dangerous working conditions, and reforming government at the national, state, and local levels.

6. Table 21.1 Major Progressive Organizations and Groups

7. ORIGINS OF PROGRESSIVISM
Work conditions, rights for women and children, economic reform, environmental issues and social welfare were a few of the issues.
Influenced by the Social Gospel movement and the Populist movement.
The Progressive movement eventually impacted all levels of government.

8. FOUR GOALS OF REFORMERS
1) Protect the Social Welfare (governmental provision of economic assistance to persons in need)
2) Promote Moral Improvement (changes in character)
3) Create Economic Reform (government change in policies toward businesses)
4) Foster Efficiency (the effective use of resources)

9. Table 21.2 Major Laws and Constitutional Amendments of the Progressive Era

10. 1. PROTECT SOCIAL WELFARE
Industrialization was unregulated.
Employers felt little responsibility toward their workers.
Settlement houses and churches served the community (example: Hull House, founded by Jane Addams)
The YMCA and Salvation Army took on service roles

11. 2. PROMOTE MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Some reformers felt that the answer to societies problems was personal behavior.
Proposed such reforms as prohibition
Groups wishing to ban alcohol included the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

12. Moral Crusades and Social Control
Controlling immigrants
Americanization
Daughters of the American Revolution
Temperance movement
Anti-Saloon League worked for prohibition
Eighteenth Amendment ‒ 1919
Suppressing prostitution
Regulating entertainment
The movement toward social control mixed with conservative efforts to restrict certain groups and control behavior.
Racism stimulated drives to limit immigration of Japanese, Mexicans, and eastern and southern Europeans. Some nativists demanded the Americanization of immigrants in the United States.
Working through the Anti-Saloon League, Protestant fundamentalists campaigned for local and state laws prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol.
Reformers also attacked prostitution.
prohibition
A ban on the production, sale, and consumption of liquor, achieved temporarily through state laws and the Eighteenth Amendment.
Eighteenth Amendment
Constitutional revision, adopted in 1919, that prohibited the production and sale of alcohol in the United States.
Reforming Society

13. 3. CREATE ECONOMIC REFORM
The Panic of 1893 prompted some Americans to question the capitalist economic system.
Some workers embraced socialism.
Eugene Debs organized the American Socialist Party in 1901.
Debs encouraged workers to reject American Capitalism

14. MUCKRAKERS CRITICIZE BIG BUSINESS
Journalists known as “Muckrakers” exposed corruption in business. Muckraker is a name that was first given to American writers in the early 20th century who exposed corruption and scandals in business and politics.
Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil Company’s for it’s questionable methods of eliminating competition.
Lincoln Steffens wrote and photographed living conditions in slums in the late 1800s and early 1900’s.
Increased numbers of magazines, newspapers, and books coupled, as well as a more literate population, increased the impact muckrakers had on society.
Ida Tarbell
Some view Michael Moore as a modern muckraker

15. Lincoln Steffens- The Shame of the Cities
Wrote on corrupt practices of urban political machines

16. Upton Sinclair
He wrote a famous book called The Jungle—about the horrors of the meat packing plants in Chicago. Became a best seller and changed the industry.

17. Muckrakers
Some focused on the social problems such as crime, literacy, alcohol abuse, health and safety and child labor.
John Spargo- The Bitter Cry of the Children presented details evidence on child labor conditions.

18. PROTECTING WORKING CHILDREN
As the number of child workers rose, reformers worked to end child labor.
Children were more prone to accidents caused by fatigue.
Nearly every state limited or banned child labor by 1918.

19. EFFORTS TO LIMIT HOURS
The states enacted or strengthened laws reducing women’s hours of work
Supreme Court upheld
Progressives also succeeded in winning worker’s compensation to aid families of injured workers.

20. 4. FOSTERING EFFICIENCY
Many Progressive leaders put their faith in scientific principles to make society better.
In industry, Frederick Taylor began using time & motion studies to improve factory efficiency.
Taylorism became an Industry fad as factories sought to complete each task quickly.

21. Reforming Government City Government
Reforming government meant winning control of it:
Tom Johnson of Cleveland was a successful reform mayor who set new rules for police, released debtors from prison, and supported a fairer tax system.
Progressives promoted new government structures:
Texas set up a five-member committee to govern Galveston after a hurricane, and by 1918, 500 cities adopted this plan.
The city manager model had a professional administrator, not a politician, manage the government.
State Government
Progressive governor Robert La Follette created the Wisconsin Ideas, which wanted:
Direct primary elections; limited campaign spending
Commissions to regulate railroads and oversee transportation, civil service, and taxation

22. REGULATING BIG BUSINESS
Under the progressive Republican leadership of Robert La Follette, Wisconsin led the way in regulating big business.
Known as the “Wisconsin Idea.”
Robert La Follette

23. CLEANING UP LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Efforts at reforming local government stemmed from the desire to make government more efficient and responsive to citizens.
Some wanted to limit immigrants influence in local governments.

24. Political Machines were a Problem
Political Machines (a group that controls the activities of a political party) controlled a large number of immigrant voters by:
Providing them with housing when they came to the city.
Helping them find food and obtain jobs.
Giving them financial aid at special holidays.

25. ELECTION REFORM
Election reform-the purpose was to remove the influence of political machines.
Progressives were successful in getting: secret ballots, referendum votes, and the recall (the act of removing an official by petition).
Citizens could petition and get initiatives (signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters to force a public vote) on the ballot.
Direct primaries would allow voters to choose the candidate who would run in the general election.
In 1899, Minnesota passed the first statewide primary system.

26. DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS
Before 1913, each state legislature had to chose its own U.S. senators.
Progressives pushed for the popular election of senators.
As a result, Congress passed the 17th Amendment (1913).

27. Election Reforms Some measures Progressives fought for include
Direct primary: voters select a party’s candidate for public office
17th Amendment: voters elect their senators directly
secret ballot: people vote privately without fear of coercion
initiative: allows citizens to propose new laws
referendum: allows citizens to vote on a proposed or existing law
recall: allows voters to remove an elected official from office

28. Political Reform One additional Progressive reform
Voter registration
Reduce fraud & to keep less-desirable elements from voting
Voter turnout begins to decline
Progressive political reforms had one thing in common
They tried to reduce or eliminate the role of political parties in the political process
“The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy”

29. SECTION 2: WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE
Before the Civil War, American women were expected to devote their time to home and family.
By the late 19th and early 20th century, women were visible in the workforce.

30. Women and Public Life The Main Idea
Women during the Progressive Era actively campaigned for reforms in education, children’s welfare, temperance, and suffrage.

31. DOMESTIC WORKERS
Before the turn-of-the-century, women without formal education contributed to the economic welfare of their families by doing domestic work.
70% of women employed in 1870 were servants.

32. WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE
Opportunities for women increased especially in the cities.
By 1900, 1-out-of-5 women worked.
The garment trade was popular. Some women also worked in offices, department stores and classrooms.

33. Employment Opportunities
Job opportunities for educated middle-class women grew in the 1800s.
By the late 1800s, these opportunities in public life changed how women saw the world and the role they wanted in their communities.
Some new workplace opportunities for women included
Women worked as teachers and nurses in the traditional “caring professions,” but they also entered the business world as bookkeepers, typists, secretaries, and shop clerks.
Newspapers and magazines began to hire more women as journalists and artists, trying to cater to the new consumer group formed by educated women.
Working-class and uneducated women took industry jobs that paid less than men, as employers assumed women were being supported by their fathers.

34. Colleges like Vassar and Smith allowed women to excel
WOMEN LEAD REFORM
Many of the leading progressive reformers were women.
Middle and upper class women also entered the public sphere as reformers.
Many of these women had graduated from new women’s colleges.
Colleges like Vassar and Smith allowed women to excel

35. Opportunities for Women
By the late 1800s, more educational opportunities arose as colleges, such as Oberlin College in Ohio, started enrolling women.
Most of the women who attended college at this time were from the upper or middle classes and wanted to use their skills after graduation.
A few African American women attended college, but this was more rare.
However, many employment opportunities were still denied to women, as organizations such as the American Medical Association didn’t admit women until many years later.
Denied access to their professions, many women poured their knowledge and skills into the reform movement, gaining valuable political experience as they fought for change.

36. Gaining Political Experience
As in earlier reform periods, women became the backbone of many of the Progressive Era reform movements.
Some women campaigned for children’s rights, seeking to end child labor, improve children’s health, and promote education.
Lillian Wald, founder of the Henry Street Settlement in New York City, believed the federal government had a responsibility to tend to the well-being of children.
She was successful when the Federal Children’s Bureau opened in 1912.

37. The Suffrage Movement Suffrage—the right to vote
Women suffrage was an important issue for progressives
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott worked hard for the right to vote. Finally in 1920, the 19th amendment was added to the constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote.

38. THREE-PART STRATEGY FOR WINNING SUFFRAGE
Suffragists tried three approaches to winning the vote
1) Convince state legislatures to adopt vote (Succeeded in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Colorado).
2) Pursue court cases to test 14th Amendment.
3) Push for national constitutional Amendment.

39. Anti-Suffrage Arguments
Social
Some believed women were too frail to handle the turmoil of polling places on Election Day.
Some believed voting would interfere with a woman’s duties at home or destroy families.
Some claimed that women did not have the education or experience to be competent voters.
Others believed that most women did not want to vote, and that it was unfair for suffragists to force the vote on unwilling women.
Economic
The liquor industry feared that giving the women the vote would lead to Prohibition.
As women became active in other reform movements, such as food and drug safety and child labor, business owners feared women would vote for regulations that would drive up costs.
Religious
Churches and clergy members preached that marriage was a sacred bond and the entire family was represented by the husband’s vote.

40. Women Gain the Vote
The Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the vote, was proposed by Congress in 1918 and passed in 1920 with support from President Wilson.

41. Prohibition
Progressive women also fought in the Prohibition movement, which called for a ban on making, selling, and distributing alcoholic beverages.
Reformers thought alcohol was responsible for crime, poverty, and violence.
Two major national organizations led the crusade against alcohol.
The Anti-Saloon League
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), headed by Frances Willard, which was a powerful force for both temperance and women’s rights
Evangelists like Billy Sunday and Carry Nation preached against alcohol, and Nation smashed up saloons with a hatchet while holding a Bible.

42. Congress eventually proposed the Eighteenth Amendment in 1917, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol. It was ratified in 1919, but was so unpopular that it was repealed in 1933.

43. SECTION 3: TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S SQUARE DEAL
When President William McKinley was assassinated 6 months into his second term, Theodore Roosevelt became the nations 26th president
McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in Buffalo in September of 1901

44. Roosevelt’s Upbringing
Theodore Roosevelt was a sickly, shy youth whom doctors forbade to play sports or do strenuous activities.
In his teenage years, Roosevelt reinvented himself, taking up sports and becoming vigorous, outgoing, and optimistic.
Roosevelt came from a prominent New York family and attended Harvard University, but he grew to love the outdoors.
In 1884, when Roosevelt was 26, both his mother and his young wife died unexpectedly.
Trying to forget his grief, he returned to his ranch in Dakota Territory, where he lived and worked with cowboys.
He returned to New York after two years and entered politics.

45. ROOSEVELT AND THE ROUGH RIDERS
Roosevelt grabbed national attention by advocating war with Spain in 1898.
His volunteer cavalry brigade, the Rough Riders, won public acclaim for its role in the battle at San Juan Hill in Cuba.
Roosevelt returned a hero and was soon elected governor of NY and later McKinley’s vice-president.

46. Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt used the power of the presidency to push for progressive reforms in business and in environmental policy.
Theodore Roosevelt used the power of the presidency to push for progressive reforms in business and in environmental policy.

47. Roosevelt’s View of the Presidency
Roosevelt’s rise to governor of New York upset the Republican political machine.
To get rid of the progressive Roosevelt, party bosses got him elected as vice president, a position with little power at that time.
From Governor to Vice President
President William McKinley was shot and killed in 1901, leaving the office to Roosevelt.
At 42 years old he was the youngest president and an avid reformer.
Unlikely
President
Roosevelt saw the presidency as a bully pulpit, or a platform to publicize important issues and seek support for his policies on reform. President as “steward” of the people. President’s can do things as long as they are not expressly forbidden by the Constitution.
View of Office

48. THE MODERN PRESIDENT
Became the youngest president ever, at age 42, when he became the President in 1901.
Established himself as a modern president who could influence the media and shape legislation.
The “Bully Pulpit”
His “Square Deal” was a domestic program that targeted the middle class. He attacked trusts, while protecting business from unorganized labor.

49. 1902: The Anthracite Coal Strike
In 1902, 140,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike for:
increased wages
a 9-hour work day
the right to unionize
Mine owners refused to bargain.
Roosevelt called in both sides and settled the dispute.
After that, when a strike threatened public welfare, the federal government was expected to step in and help.

50. The Coal Strike of 1902
Soon after Roosevelt took office, some 150,000 Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for higher wages, shorter hours, and recognition of their union.
As winter neared, Roosevelt feared what might happen if the strike was not resolved, since Eastern cities depended upon Pennsylvania coal for heating.
Roosevelt urged mine owners and the striking workers to accept arbitration, and though the workers accepted, the owners refused.
Winter drew closer, and Roosevelt threatened to take over the mines if the owners didn’t agree to arbitration, marking the first time the federal government had intervened in a strike to protect the interests of the public.
After a three-month investigation, the arbitrators decided to give the workers a shorter workday and higher pay but did not require the mining companies to recognize the union.
Satisfied, Roosevelt pronounced the compromise a “square deal.”

51. The Square Deal
The Square Deal became Roosevelt’s 1904 campaign slogan and the framework for his entire presidency.
He promised to “see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.”
Roosevelt’s promise revealed his belief that the needs of workers, business, and consumers should be balanced.
Roosevelt’s square deal called for limiting the power of trusts, promoting public health and safety, and improving working conditions.
The popular president faced no opposition for the nomination in his party. In the general election Roosevelt easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Judge Alton Parker of New York.

52. TRUSTBUSTING
By 1900, Trusts – legal bodies created to hold stock in many companies – controlled 80% of U.S. industries .
Roosevelt filed 44 antitrust suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The Railroad industry regulated by the government in both the Elkins Act and the Hepburn Act.

53. Regulating Big Business
Roosevelt believed big business was essential to the nation’s growth but also believed companies should behave responsibly.
He spent a great deal of attention on regulating corporations, determined that they should serve the public interest.

54. Regulating the Railroads
Another way to ensure businesses competed fairly was through regulation.
Railroads often granted rebates to their best customers, which meant large corporations paid much less for shipping than small farmers or small businesses.
To alleviate this problem, Congress passed two acts.
The Elkins Act
Passed in 1903
Prohibited railroads from accepting rebates
Ensured that all customers paid the same rates for shipping their products
The Hepburn Act
Passed in 1906
Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), giving it the power to set maximum railroad rates
Gave the ICC power to regulate other companies engaged in interstate commerce

55. Dismay Over Food and Drug Practices
Food producers used clever tricks to pass off tainted foods:
Dairies churned spoiled milk into fresh butter.
Poultry sellers added formaldehyde, which is used to embalm dead bodies, to old eggs to hide their smell.
Unwary customers bought the tainted food thinking it was healthy.

56. “THE JUNGLE” LEADS TO FOOD REGULATION
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, highlighted all of the unclean and/or unsafe practices of the meat packaging industry.
Roosevelt pushed for passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
The Act mandated cleaner conditions for meatpacking plants.

57. PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT
In response to unregulated claims and unhealthy products, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.
The Act stopped the sale of contaminated foods and medicines. It also called for truth in labeling.
Created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Pure Food and Drug Act took medicines with cocaine and other harmful ingredients off the market.

58. Drugs
Drug companies were also unconcerned for customer health:
Some sold medicines that didn’t work.
Some marketed nonprescription medicines containing narcotics.
Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, intended to soothe babies’ teething pain, contained heroin.
Gowan’s Pneumonia Cure contained the addictive painkiller morphine.

59. ROOSEVELT AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Before Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources.
Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration.
Roosevelt, left, was an avid outdoorsman – here he is with author John Muir at Yosemite Park.

60. ROOSEVELT’S ENVIROMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves.
He also set aside 1.5 million acres of water-power sites.
He established 50 wildlife sanctuaries and several national parks.
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

61. Environmental Conservation
In the late 1800s natural resources were used at an alarming rate, and foresting, plowing, polluting, and overgrazing were common.
Roosevelt’s Thoughts
Recognized that natural resources were limited and that government should regulate resources
Disagreed with naturalist John Muir, who helped protect Yosemite Park and thought the entire wilderness should be preserved
Believed that conservation involved the active management of public land for varied uses: some preservation, some economical
Roosevelt’s Solution
The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 reflected Roosevelt’s beliefs.
The law allowed federal government to create irrigation projects to make dry lands productive.
The projects would be funded from money raised by selling off public lands.
During Roosevelt’s presidency, 24 reclamation projects were launched.

62. ROOSEVELT AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Roosevelt failed to support Civil Rights for African Americans.
He did, however, support a few individuals such as Booker T. Washington.

63. NAACP FORMED TO PROMOTE RIGHTS
In 1909, a number of African Americans and prominent white reformers formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP had 6,000 members by 1914.
The goal of the organization was full equality among the races.
The means to achieve this was through the court system.
1964 Application

64. SECTION 4: PROGRESSIVISM UNDER PRESIDENT TAFT
Republican William Howard Taft easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan to win the 1908 presidential election
Among his accomplishments, Taft “busted” 90 trusts during his 4 years in office
Taft, right, was Roosevelt’s War Secretary

65. Progressivism under Taft
President Roosevelt didn’t run for a third term, instead supporting William Howard Taft, a friend and advisor who, despite a more cautious view on reform, pledged loyalty to the Roosevelt program.
Followed a “literalist” view of presidential power: presidents can only do things the Constitution or laws specifically says they can.
Upon his election, Taft worked to secure Roosevelt’s reforms rather than build upon them.
Taft worked to secure several reforms, such as creating a Labor Department to enforce labor laws and increasing national forest reserves.
Taft’s administration is also credited with the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment, which granted Congress the power to levy taxes based on individual income.
Progressives supported a nationwide income tax as a way to pay for government programs more fairly.

66. TAFT LOSES POWER
Taft was not popular with the American public nor reform minded Republicans
By 1910, Democrats had regained control of the House of Representatives
Taft called the Presidency, “The loneliest job in the world.”

67. Trouble in Taft’s Presidency
President Taft lost the support of most of the Progressive Republicans, despite the reforms he helped secure.
Tariff Trouble
In April 1909, Congress passed a bill on tariffs, or taxes charged on import and export goods.
The House passed a version that lowered tariffs on imports, but the Senate added so many amendments that it became a high-tariff bill instead.
Taft nevertheless signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff into law.
Progressives were outraged because they saw tariff reduction as a way to lower consumer goods prices.
Conservation Trouble
1910: Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger let business leaders illegally buy millions of acres of protected public land in Alaska.
When Gifford Pinchot, head of the U.S. Forest Service, accused Ballinger, Taft fired Pinchot, not Ballinger.
Progressives thought this showed Taft was not committed to conservation, and Roosevelt refused to support Taft from that point on.

68. The Republican Party Splits
In the 1910 congressional elections, Roosevelt campaigned for the Progressive Republican who opposed Taft.
Roosevelt proposed a program called the New Nationalism, a set of laws to protect workers, ensure public health, and regulate business.
Reformers loved the New Nationalism, but Roosevelt’s help wasn’t enough to secure a Republican victory.
Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 16 years.
By the presidential election of 1912, the Republican Party was split.
The Republican party nominated President Taft as its candidate, outraging Progressive Republicans.
The Progressives split to form their own party, the New Progressive (“Bull Moose”) Party, with Roosevelt as its candidate.
With the Republicans split, Democrat Woodrow Wilson easily took the election, receiving almost 350 more electoral votes than Roosevelt and over 400 more than Taft.

69. 1912 ELECTION: 3 Parties/Candidates
Republicans split between Taft and Teddy Roosevelt (who returned after a long trip to Africa).
Convention delegates nominated Taft.
Some Republicans formed a third party–The Bull Moose Party (also called the Progressive Party) and nominated Roosevelt.
The Democrats put forward a reform - minded New Jersey Governor, Woodrow Wilson.
Republicans split in 1912

70. The Spectacles of 1912 TR challenges Taft Presidential primaries
TR repudiates his old friend
TR runs for a possible 3rd term
Violates an unwritten rule of American politics
Presidential primaries
Still a novelty; 1st time they played a significant role in presidential politics
Only 12 states held them (362 delegates at stake)
TR beat Taft 278 to 48 delegates

71. The Spectacles of 1912 The Convention TR bolts the party
Party bosses controlled the delegates from most of the other 36 states
Swing nomination to Taft
TR bolts the party
Forms the National Progressive Party
The Bull Moose Party
Supported by middle class: teachers, lawyers, engineers, prosperous farmers, small merchants, social reformers, and political activists

72. The Spectacles of 1912 The Bull Moose Agenda The Campaign
“Rescue” the country from the special interests in Washington – the “invisible government”
Work to make government an “agency of human welfare
Platform was a generation ahead of its time
Minimum wage, social security, federal regulation of stock offerings, full disclosure of corporate finances
Choose Hiram Johnson, governor of CA, as VP
The Campaign
New Nationalism (TR) vs. New Freedom (Wilson)
Wilson – few speeches
TR – whistle-stop campaign (like William Jennings Bryan)

73. The Spectacles of 1912 The final spectacle The result
Assassination attempt on TR
The result
Similar to 1992
77% of electorate voted for someone other than Taft
Wilson (42% of popular vote)
TR (27%)
Taft (23%)
Debs – Socialist Party (6%)

75. Sect 5: WILSON’S NEW FREEDOM
As America’s newly elected president, Wilson moved to enact his program, the “New Freedom.”
He planned his attack on what he called the triple wall of privilege: trusts, tariffs, and high finance.
W. Wilson U.S. President

76. Wilson’s New Freedom
Wilson, former governor of New Jersey, was a zealous reformer who had fought political machines, approved of direct primaries, and enacted a compensation program for injured workers.
During his presidential campaign, Wilson proposed an ambitious plan of reform called the New Freedom, which called for tariff reductions, banking reform, and stronger antitrust legislation.
Wilson’s first priority as president was to lower tariffs, and he even appeared at a joint session of Congress to campaign for this, which no president had done since John Adams.
In October 1913, Congress passed the Underwood Tariff Act, which lowered taxes to their lowest level in 50 years.
Tariff reduction meant the government had less income, so to make up for it, the act also introduced a graduated income tax.
The income tax taxed people according to their income, and wealthy people paid more than poor or middle-class people.

77. Stronger Antitrust Laws
Though Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 to limit the power of monopolies, lax enforcement and loopholes allowed many unfair business practices to go on.
Wilson had two solutions to these problems.
Clayton Antitrust Act
Passed in 1914
Clarified and extended the Sherman Antitrust Act
Prohibited companies from buying stock in competing companies in order to form a monopoly
Supported workers by making strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing legal for the first time
The FTC
The Federal Trade Commission, created by Congress in 1915 and supported by Wilson
Enforced antitrust laws and was tough on companies that used deceptive advertising
Could undertake special investigations of businesses

78. CLAYTON ANTITRUST ACT
In 1914 Congress enacted the Clayton Antitrust Act which strengthened the Sherman Act.
The Clayton Act prevented companies from acquiring stock from another company (Anti-monopoly).
The Act also supported union workers.

79. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION FORMED
The FTC was formed in 1914 to serve as a “watchdog” agency to end unfair business practices.
The FTC protects consumers from business fraud.
Today the FTC has been working on protecting consumers from ID theft.

80. FEDERAL INCOME TAX ARRIVES
Wilson lowered tariffs. However, the lost revenue had to come from somewhere else.
The 16th Amendment was ratified in It legalized a graduated federal income tax.

81. Banking Reform President Wilson’s next target was the banking system.
At that time, banking failures were common, and banks collapsed when too many people withdrew their deposits at the same time.
People needed access to their money without fear of bank failure.
Wilson’s answer was the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, which created a central fund from which banks could borrow to prevent collapse during a financial panic.
The Act created a three-tier banking system.
At the top, the president- appointed Federal Reserve Board members ran the system.
2. On this level, 12 Federal Reserve banks served other banks instead of individuals.
3. On the last level, private banks served people and borrowed from the Federal Reserve as needed.
The Federal Reserve Act put the nation’s banking system under the supervision of the federal government for the first time.

82. The Federal Reserve Act
Created 12 regional banks as "banker's banks? (lend money to banks at a set interest rate).
Established federal regulation of currency through interest rates.
Established a Federal Reserve Board to oversee the system of banks

83. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920.
WOMEN WIN SUFFRAGE
Native-born, educated, middle-class women grew more and more impatient.
Through local, state and national organizations, vigorous protests and World War I, women finally realized their dream in 1920.
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920.

84. Temperance Advocates Push for the Prohibition of Alcohol
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, established Prohibition in the United States.
Ratified on January 29, 1919.
It is the only amendment to the United States Constitution that has been repealed (by the Twenty-first Amendment).

85. LIMITS OF PROGRESSIVISM
While the Progressive era was responsible for many important reforms, it failed to make gains for African Americans.
Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson retreated on Civil Rights once in office.
The KKK reached a membership of 4.5 million in the 1920s.

86. Progressivism and African Americans
Though the Progressive movement achieved much, African American rights were still extremely limited, as even Progressive presidents were shaky on supporting civil rights laws.
Woodrow Wilson
Opposed federal anti-lynching laws, saying the states should deal with it
Allowed cabinet members to segregate offices, which had been desegregated since Reconstruction
Let Congress pass a law making it a felony for black and whites to marry in Washington, D.C.
President Roosevelt
1901: Invited Booker T. Washington to the White House
Appointed an African American collector of tariffs in South Carolina
Discharged African American soldiers accused of going on a shooting spree in the Brownsville Incident, though it turned out later that they were wrongly accused
The outbreak of World War I in Europe helped end the Progressive movement, as people were more interested in war than in reform.