P6 | APUSH | Wiley |Progressive Presidents—Domestic Policy, D___
Name:
Instructions: Read the following summaries of the domestic policies of the Progressive Era
presidents (excerpts taken from The Miller Center). Consider: Who was the most “progressive” of
the Progressive Era presidents? Why? Support your answer with evidence from this document, ON1, AND vignettes. Be prepared to discuss in class for a participation grade. Record your thoughts on a
separate sheet of paper.
Remember, progressive means support for new, liberal ideas.
Theodore Roosevelt
When Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office in September 1901, he presided over a country
that had changed significantly in recent decades. The population of the United States had almost
doubled from 1870 to 1900 as immigrants came to U.S. cities to work in the country's burgeoning
factories. As the United States became increasingly urban and industrial, it acquired many of the attributes common to industrial nations—
overcrowded cities, poor working conditions, great economic disparity, and the political dominance of big business. At the turn of the
twentieth century, Americans had begun to look for ways to address some of these problems. As chief executive, Roosevelt felt empowered
by the people to help ensure social justice and economic opportunity through government regulation. He was not a radical, however; TR
believed that big business was a natural part of a maturing economy and, therefore, saw no reason to abolish it. He never suggested
fundamentally altering American society or the economy to address various economic and social ills. In fact, he often stated that there must
be reform in order to stave off socialism; if government did not act, the people would turn to more extreme measures to seek remedies. In
addition, TR was a politician who understood the need to compromise in order to implement his ideas. Coming into office following William
McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt pledged to maintain the fallen President's policies so as not to upset the nation in a time of mourning.
And even when he began to chart his own course, Roosevelt knew that he had to work with congressional Republicans to get the G.O.P.
nomination for President in 1904.
The Great Regulator
One of Roosevelt's central beliefs was that the government had the right to regulate big business to protect the welfare of society.
However, this idea was relatively untested. Although Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, former Presidents had only
used it sparingly. So when the Department of Justice filed suit in early 1902 against the Northern Securities Company, it sent shockwaves
through the business community. The suit alarmed the business community, which had hoped that Roosevelt would follow precedent and
maintain a "hands-off" approach to the market economy. At issue was the claim that the Northern Securities Company—a giant railroad
combination created by a syndicate of wealthy industrialists and financiers led by J. P. Morgan—violated the Sherman Antitrust Act because
it was a monopoly. In 1904, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government and ordered the company dismantled. The high
court's action was a major victory for the administration and put the business community on notice that although this was a Republican
administration, it would not give business free rein to operate without regard for the public welfare.
Roosevelt then turned his attention to the nation's railroads, in part because the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had notified the
administration about abuses within the industry. In addition, a large segment of the population supported efforts to regulate the railroads
because so many people and businesses were dependent on them. Roosevelt's first achievement in this area was the Elkins Act of 1903,
which ended the practice of railroad companies granting shipping rebates to certain companies. The rebates allowed big companies to ship
goods for much lower rates than smaller companies could obtain. However, the railroads and big companies were able to undermine the
act. Recognizing that the Elkins Act was not effective, Roosevelt pursued further railroad regulation and undertook one of his greatest
domestic reform efforts. The legislation, which became known as the Hepburn Act, proposed enhancing the powers of the Interstate
Commerce Commission to include the ability to regulate shipping rates on railroads. One of the main sticking points of the bill was what
role the courts would play in reviewing the rates. Conservative senators who opposed the legislation, acting on behalf of the railroad
industry, tried to use judicial review to make the ICC essentially powerless. By giving the courts, which were considered friendly to the
railroads, the right to rule on individual cases, the ICC had less power to remedy the inequities of the rates. When Roosevelt encountered
this resistance in Congress, he took his case to the people, making a direct appeal on a speaking tour through the West. He succeeded in
pressuring the Senate to approve the legislation. The Hepburn Act marked one of the first times a President appealed directly to the
people, using the press to help him make his case. The passage of the act was considered a major victory for Roosevelt and highlighted his
ability to balance competing interests to achieve his goals.
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Square Deal
Roosevelt believed that the government should use its resources to help achieve economic and social justice. When the country faced an
anthracite coal shortage in the fall of 1902 because of a strike in Pennsylvania, the President thought he should intervene. As winter
approached and heating shortages were imminent, he started to formulate ideas about how he could use the executive office to play a
role—even though he did not have any official authority to negotiate an end to the strike. Roosevelt called both the mine owners and the
representatives of labor together at the White House. When management refused to negotiate, he hatched a plan to force the two sides to
talk: instead of sending federal troops to break the strike and force the miners back to work, TR threatened to use troops to seize the mines
and run them as a federal operation. Faced with Roosevelt's plan, the owners and labor unions agreed to submit their cases to a
commission and abide by its recommendations. Roosevelt called the settlement of the coal strike a "square deal," inferring that everyone
gained fairly from the agreement. That term soon became synonymous with Roosevelt's domestic program. The Square Deal worked to
balance competing interests to create a fair deal for all sides: labor and management, consumer and business, developer and
conservationist. TR recognized that his program was not perfectly neutral because the government needed to intervene more actively on
behalf of the general public to ensure economic opportunity for all. Roosevelt was the first President to name his domestic program and
the practice soon became commonplace, with Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and Harry S. Truman's
Fair Deal.
Conservation
Roosevelt was the nation's first conservationist President. Everywhere he went, he preached the need to preserve woodlands and
mountain ranges as places of refuge and retreat. He identified the American character with the nation's wilderness regions, believing that
our western and frontier heritage had shaped American values, behavior, and culture. The President wanted the United States to change
from exploiting natural resources to carefully managing them. He worked with Gifford Pinchot, head of the Forestry Bureau, and Frederick
Newell, head of the Reclamation Service, to revolutionize this area of the U.S. government. In 1902, Roosevelt signed the Newlands
Reclamation Bill, which used money from federal land sales to build reservoirs and irrigation works to promote agriculture in the arid West.
After he won reelection in his own right in 1904, Roosevelt felt more empowered to make significant changes in this domain. Working with
Pinchot, he moved the Forest Service from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. This gave the Forest Service,
and Pinchot as head of it, more power to achieve its goals. Together, Roosevelt and Pinchot reduced the role of state and local government
in the management of natural resources, a policy that met with considerable resistance. Only the federal government, they argued, had the
resources to oversee these efforts. Roosevelt used his presidential authority to issue executive orders to create 150 new national forests,
increasing the amount of protected land from 42 million acres to 172 million acres. The President also created five national parks, eighteen
national monuments, and 51 wildlife refuges.
Roosevelt and the Muckrakers
The emergence of a mass-circulation independent press at around the turn of the century changed the nature of print media in the United
States. Instead of partisan publications that touted a party line, the national media was becoming more independent and more likely to
expose scandals and abuses. This era marked the beginning of investigative journalism, and the reporters who led the effort were known as
"muckrakers," a term first used by Roosevelt in a 1906 speech. One of the best examples of Roosevelt's relationship with the muckrakers
came after he read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which described in lurid detail the filthy conditions in the meat packing industry—where
rats, putrid meat, and poisoned rat bait were routinely ground up into sausages. Roosevelt responded by pushing for the Meat Inspection
Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Both pieces of legislation endeared him to the public and to those corporations that favored
government regulation as a means of achieving national consumer standards.
Roosevelt was the first President to use the power of the media to appeal directly to the American people. He understood that his forceful
personality, his rambunctious family, and his many opinions made good copy for the press. He also knew that the media was a good way for
him to reach out to the people, bypassing political parties and political machines. He used the media as a "bully pulpit" to influence public
opinion.
On Race and Civil Rights
Theodore Roosevelt reflected the racial attitudes of his time, and his domestic record on race and civil rights was a mixed bag. He did little
to preserve black suffrage in the South as those states increasingly disenfranchised blacks. He believed that African Americans as a race
were inferior to whites, but he thought many black individuals were superior to white individuals and should be able to prove their merit.
He caused a major controversy early in his presidency when he invited Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House in
October 1901. Roosevelt wanted to talk to Washington about patronage appointments in the South, and he was surprised by the vilification
he received in the Southern press; he did not apologize for his actions. Although he appointed blacks to some patronage positions in the
South, he was generally unwilling to fight the political battles necessary to win their appointment. One incident in particular taints
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Roosevelt's reputation on racial issues. In 1906, a small group of black soldiers was accused of going on a shooting spree in Brownsville,
Texas, killing one white man and wounding another. Despite conflicting accounts and the lack of physical evidence, the Army assumed the
guilt of the black soldiers. When not one of them admitted responsibility, an irritated Roosevelt ordered the dishonorable discharge of
three companies of black soldiers (160 men) without a trial. Roosevelt and the white establishment had assumed the soldiers were guilty
without affording them the opportunity for a trial to confront their accusers or prove their innocence.
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft entered the White House determined to implement and continue Roosevelt's program. His central ambition regarding
reform was to create an orderly framework for administering a reform agenda. His conception of executive leadership was primarily
focused on administration rather than legislative agenda-setting. He felt most comfortable in executing the law, regardless of his personal
feelings for the particular piece of legislation. However, during his presidency, Congress produced significant reform legislation. In one of
his first acts in office, Taft called for a special session of Congress to reform tariff law through reduced rates.
Among the significant pieces of legislation passed by Congress during Taft's presidency was the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, empowering the
Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend railroad rate hikes and to set rates. The act also expanded the ICC's jurisdiction to cover
telephones, telegraphs, and radio. Taft also placed 35,000 postmasters and 20,000 skilled workers in the Navy under civil service
protection. In addition, the Department of Commerce and Labor was divided into two cabinet departments with Taft's approval. He also
vetoed the admissions of Arizona and New Mexico to statehood because of their constitutional provision for the recall of judges. When the
recall clauses were removed, Taft supported statehood. And while he pushed the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment (income tax), he
only reluctantly advocated the Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of senators). Among his most controversial actions, Taft promoted
an administrative innovation whereby the President, rather than the disparate agencies of government, would submit a budget to
Congress. Congress prohibited that action, but Taft's effort foreshadowed the creation of the executive budget in the Budget and
Accounting Act of 1921, which gave the President new capacities for efficiency and control in the executive branch.
Trust-Busting
Taft's intent to provide more efficient administration for existing reform policies was perfectly suited for the prosecution of antitrust
violations. More trust prosecutions (99, in all) occurred under Taft than under Roosevelt, who was known as the "Great Trust-Buster." The
two most famous antitrust cases under the Taft Administration, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and the American Tobacco Company,
were actually begun during the Roosevelt years. He also won a lawsuit against the American Sugar Refining Company to break up the "sugar
trust" that rigged prices. And when Taft moved to break up U.S. Steel, Roosevelt accused him of a lack of insight—unable to distinguish
between "good" and "bad" trusts. By 1911, however, Taft began to back away from his antitrust efforts, stung by the criticism of his
conservative business supporters and unsure about the long-range effect of trust-busting on the national economy. Most importantly, Taft
had surrounded himself with conservative businessmen who shared his love for golf and recreation at fine resorts. His new business cronies
isolated Taft from the progressive followers of Roosevelt who had supported his election.
Presidential Missteps
Taft stumbled dramatically on two important occasions as President. The first misstep occurred with his special congressional session to
revise the tariff downward. This move activated a concerted effort by the protectionist majority in the Republican Party to persuade Taft to
back off on tariff reform. In the struggle over the tariff, Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island and Representative Sereno E. Payne of New
York, representing big business, succeeded in pushing through a tariff (the Payne-Aldrich Tariff) that affected only modest reductions.
Although during the course of congressional action Taft had threatened to veto a tariff bill with insufficient reductions, when the PayneAldrich bill came to his desk he signed it, later claiming it was the best tariff bill ever passed by Congress. Taft's reversal on tariff reform
immediately alienated progressives who saw high tariffs as the "mother of trusts."The second misstep involved his dismissal of Roosevelt's
friend, the chief forester of the United States, Gifford Pinchot. The affair stemmed from Taft's appointment of Washington-state
businessman Richard Ballinger as head of the Department of the Interior. Ballinger held that Roosevelt had improperly closed large sections
of federal public-domain lands to economic development, re-opened some tracts, including rich coal lands in Alaska that Roosevelt had
previously designated not for sale. Consequently, Pinchot launched a public attack on Ballinger, and indirectly on Taft, leaving the President
with no alternative but to dismiss Pinchot. The resulting explosion tore the Republican Party apart and drove an inseparable wedge
between Taft and his once-beloved friend and mentor, Theodore Roosevelt.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson's presidency fulfilled the progressive reform agenda and laid the foundations of the modern activist presidency. Although
he built upon the example of Theodore Roosevelt, and while his immediate successors would return to the caretaker model of the
presidency, Wilson's administration fundamentally altered the nature and character of the presidency. He changed it from an equal or
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lesser partner with Congress to its superior—the dominant branch of government. This is exactly what Wilson had in mind upon his
assumption of office. He intended to lead his party and the nation much as the prime minister of England leads Parliament. Before setting
forth his program, Wilson consulted extensively with congressional leaders to ensure that his programs would be dealt with sympathetically
when Congress considered them. In April 1913, at the opening of a special session of Congress called by the President to consider tariff
reform, Wilson appeared personally before a joint session of the House and Senate to explain his program. His speech made headlines
because no President had addressed Congress personally since John Adams, and it demonstrated that Wilson intended to play a dominant
role in policy making.
Crusade for Reform: Tariffs, Banking and Anti-Trust Regulations
Wilson came into the White House like a "priestly visionary," intent on expanding economic opportunity for people at the bottom of society
and eliminating special privileges enjoyed by the richest and most powerful members of society. For him, his New Freedom was a crusade.
He focused first on tariff reform, pushing through Congress the Underwood-Simmons Act, which achieved the most significant reductions in
rates since the Civil War. He argued that high tariffs created monopolies and hurt consumers, and his lower tariffs were especially popular
in the South and West. The act offset lost revenue by providing for a small, graduated income tax as authorized by the Sixteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, which was adopted on February 25, 1913, before Wilson took office.
Next, Wilson tackled the currency problem and banking reform. Since the Civil War, Democrats and agrarians had wanted a more flexible
money supply and system of banking that would allow adjustments in the amount of money and credit available in times of economic
expansion or crisis. By the early twentieth century, bankers and businessmen had also begun to demand reform. After the Panic of 1907, a
special congressional investigating committee (the Pujo Committee) demonstrated to the American public the extent to which a handful of
banks (J. P. Morgan, for example) and corporations controlled the nation's wealth. Reformers wanted a strong federal system that would
regulate credit and oversee the nation's currency.
In response to the demand for reform, Wilson pushed for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which established twelve regional reserve banks
controlled by the Federal Reserve Board, a new federal agency whose members were appointed by the President. This new federal system
could adjust interest rates and the nation's money supply. Because it was authorized to issue currency based on government securities and
"commercial paper" (the loans made to businesses by banks), the amount of money in circulation would expand or contract with the
business cycle. Additionally, the Federal Reserve was empowered to adjust the interest rates, or the discount rate, charged to its member
banks for money deposited in the branch reserve banks, which would indirectly control the interest rates that banks charged their
borrowers. The new system could also set the amount of money banks would have to hold as an offset against deposits (the reserve
requirement), thus establishing a reserve fund for times of economic crisis. This act, probably the most important domestic achievement of
the Wilson administration, still provides the framework for regulating the nation's banks, credit, and money supply.
Wilson's support of the Clayton Antitrust Act, which Congress passed in 1914, endeared him to labor and farmers because it excluded their
organizations from antitrust prosecution under the Sherman Antitrust Act. It also fulfilled a 1912 campaign promise by prohibiting some
anti-competitive business practices, such as price-fixing and interlocking directorates (in which the same people sit on the executive boards
of competing companies in one industry). This act complemented the Federal Trade Commission law passed the same year, which created a
new government board appointed by the President and empowered to investigate and publicize corrupt, unfair, or anti-competitive
business practices. When Congress created a separate cabinet-level Department of Labor on March 4, 1913, Wilson strengthened his
support among progressives by appointing a former union official, William Wilson, as secretary of labor.
In 1916, Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis, a staunch progressive who had fought in court against the exploitation of women and children
workers, to the Supreme Court. His confirmation, in a close vote, put the first Jewish justice on the Court. Following Brandeis's nomination,
Wilson supported improved credit for farmers and workers' compensation for federal employees. He then pushed through a law to
eliminate child labor, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1918. When American railroad unions threatened to strike in 1916,
Wilson supported and signed into law a bill securing an eight-hour workday for railroad employees—the Adamson Act, which paved the
way to shortened workdays for all industrial workers.
Federal Wartime Authority [WWI content will be covered in more detail in Period 7]
Historians describe World War I as the first "total war" because it demanded the mobilization of belligerents' entire societies and
economies, but because the United States entered the war three years after it began and fought for just over a year, the effects on the
United States were less severe than for the other participants. Nevertheless, the war forced Wilson to set aside much of his reform agenda
and encouraged at least the temporary centralization of power in Washington.
On the whole, the administration was able to manage mobilization by creating special agencies that were staffed largely by volunteers and
functioned only for the duration of the war. For example, Wilson established a War Industries Board in 1917 under the direction of Bernard
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Baruch, a wealthy New York stock market investor, to coordinate industrial production. Baruch had little legal authority but was so skillful
at persuasion that industrial production increased by 20 percent. Wilson also appointed Herbert Hoover, a prominent mining engineer
famous for his success in coordinating a massive relief program for German-occupied Belgium in the early years of the war, as national
Food Administrator. Hoover, who later became the thirty-first President of the United States, promoted voluntary conservation of food
with "Meatless Mondays," "Wheatless Wednesdays," and "war gardens," but his most important achievement was in persuading farmers to
expand production so rapidly that the United States was able, not only to feed its own civilian and military populations, but to supply much
of the food for the European Allies as well. Included under the Food Administration was a Fuel Administration, which encouraged fuel
conservation by such methods as the introduction of daylight saving time. Similar special agencies and boards supervised aircraft and ship
building, acquired and operated merchant vessels to ship men and supplies to Europe, and ran a massive labor exchange program that
matched workers and jobs around the country. The labor system achieved nearly full employment and good wages, and the unions
cooperated by promising not to strike during the emergency. Union membership increased from 2.7 million to more than 4 million by 1919.
Not everything went smoothly, of course. Ship and aircraft construction programs never really got going before the end of the war, and
both were plagued with inefficiency and minor financial scandals. The antiquated railroad system, upon which the country was almost
completely dependent for moving people and goods, broke down completely in the winter of 1917-1918 and had to be nationalized for the
duration of the war. The armed services drafted nearly four million men, but weapons, uniforms, and transportation for the two million
sent to Europe had to be provided mostly by the British and French because American factories were unable to get into full production
quickly enough. Still, considering that little preparation for war had been made before 1917 and given the voluntary method of
organization that Wilson insisted upon, the American economy achieved miracles during 1917 and 1918. Perhaps the most amazing
achievement of all was that when the war ended, the wartime agencies disbanded, and the government was reduced nearly to its prewar
size and expenditure level.
To pay for the war, Wilson levied a new income tax, which accounted for about half of the $33 billion spent on the war. The rest of the cost
was met through Liberty Loan drives, which rallied the population to invest in America by buying Liberty Bonds. In a personal touch, Wilson
donated the wool from the sheep that grazed on the White House lawn to a Red Cross fundraising auction—the sheep had replaced
gardeners drafted into the military.
Civil Liberties during the War Years
A minority of Americans bitterly opposed U.S. entry into World War I. Even such notables as the Speaker of the House and the president of
Columbia University were skeptical about intervening beforehand, but most Americans supported Wilson's decision. Some German
Americans and Irish Americans, however, led antiwar rallies and joined with the American Socialist Party in denouncing the war. Socialists
greatly increased their share of the vote in several cities in 1917, winning 22 percent of the vote in New York City and 34 percent in Chicago.
To mobilize public opinion in support of the war, Wilson created the Committee on Public Information headed by George Creel, a
muckraking journalist. Creel launched a campaign to sell the war to the American people by sponsoring 150,000 lecturers, writers, artists,
actors, and scholars to champion the cause. His "Four-Minute-Men," meaning that they were prepared to make a four-minute speech
anytime and anywhere a crowd gathered, made 755,190 speeches in theaters, lecture halls, churches, and social clubs and on street
corners all over the nation. In the resulting patriotic fervor, opponents to the war were painted as slackers and even traitors.
"Americanization" drives pressured immigrants to abandon their native cultures. Some states prohibited the use of foreign languages in
public. New York State required voters to demonstrate literacy in English. Libraries publicly burned German books. Some communities
banned playing the music of Bach and Beethoven, and schools dropped German courses from their curriculum. Sauerkraut became "liberty
cabbage," and German measles was renamed "liberty measles." Some Americans with German names were beaten in the streets and even
lynched. To avoid such violence, others anglicized their names.
Wilson sponsored the Espionage and Sedition Acts, prohibiting interference with the draft and outlawing criticism of the government, the
armed forces, or the war effort. Violators were imprisoned or fined. Some 1,500 people were arrested for violating these laws, including
Eugene V. Debs, leader of the Socialist Party. The Post Office was empowered to censor the mail, and over 400 periodicals were deprived of
mailing privileges for greater or lesser periods of time. The Supreme Court upheld the Espionage and Sedition Acts as constitutional.
Leaders and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as "Wobblies," were especially singled out for attack. In one
incident, Justice Department agents raided IWW offices nationwide, arresting union leaders who were sentenced to jail terms of up to
twenty-five years. The IWW never recovered from this persecution.
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Quick Notes—Overview of Domestic Policies:
Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency, 1901-1909
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Viewed presidency as “bully pulpit”
Believed that modern America required a powerful federal government
that would promote national welfare
Unless Constitution explicitly forbids us . . . then we can do it
Promoted the “Square Deal”: conservation of natural resources, control of
corporations, and consumer protection
TR and Business / Labor
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Worried about growing business consolidation
Supported labor in 1902 coal strike (1st time government had done so!)
“trust-buster” / regulator
Increased railroad regulation
1902 – used Justice Department to attack Northern Securities Company
Supreme Court ruled in Northern Securities case that company restrained interstate commerce (good application of Sherman Antitrust
Act)
TR and Protection of Consumers
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After meeting with Upton Sinclair and investigating his claims, endorsed the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act
TR and Conservation
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Used the Antiquities Act to create 5 national parks and 18 national monuments (including the Grand Canyon) and millions of acres
worth of national forests through the National Forest Reserve
TR and Civil Rights
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Invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House in 1901
Failed to use federal authority to enforce the 15th Amendment guaranteeing voting rights to African Americans
Appointed many blacks to lower-level federal offices
Believed in white superiority but felt every race was capable of unlimited improvement
William H. Taft’s Presidency, 1909-1913
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Easy victory as Roosevelt’s choice
Busted double the trusts of TR
Supported safety codes for mines/railroads
Failed to lower tariffs and satisfy conservationists
Election of 1912
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Republican Party split between progressives and conservatives
TR reneged on promise and decided to run on his “New Nationalism” campaign, which would require a more assertive government
Republican Party chose the more conservative Taft
TR’s supporters formed the Progressive Party (“Bull Moose Party”), which supported:
o Direct election of senators; initiative, referendum, recall in all states; woman suffrage; 8-hr work day; federal law against child
labor
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[Winner] Democrat Woodrow Wilson promoted “New Freedom”: restoring conditions of free competition and equality of economic
opportunity
o States’ rights, small government (didn’t support TR’s paternalistic view of federal government)
o Wanted a “body of laws which will look after the men who are on the make rather than the men who are already made”
o Curtail trusts and tariffs
Split in Republican Party handed Democratic Party the election
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Socialist Eugene V. Debs promoted most radical reform agenda:
o Nationalization of key industries
o Public works programs
o Women’s suffrage
o National compulsory (and standardized) education
o Abolish Senate
o Abolish judicial review
o Won 6% popular vote (compared to Wilson’s 41%)
Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency, 1913-1921
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Key belief: government shouldn’t get bigger; business should get smaller
Federal Trade Act: created a watchdog agency to put an end to unfair business
practices
Clayton Antitrust Act: strengthened Sherman Act; specified that workers had right
to strike; specified that unions could not be targeted under antitrust laws
Decreased tariff
16th – 19th Amendments passed
Federal Reserve Act passed
The Federal Reserve System
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The Fed is the central bank responsible for monetary policy (decisions about the money supply and interest rates)
GOAL: keep the economy on a path of steady growth with low inflation and low unemployment / maintain stability of the financial
system
Created in 1913 as a lender of last resort to shore up public’s faith in the system, which had decreased in light of recurring financial
problems, notably a wave of bank failures in the early 19th century
Wilson & Race
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Appeased conservative Democrats on racial matters
Placed segregationists in charge of federal agencies
Opposed federal antilynching legislation
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