HOW
SUCESSFUL
WAS THE
PROGRESSIVE
ERA?
The End of Laissez- Faire
The End of Laissiez Faire
Interstate
Commerce Act (1887)
• required railroads to
charge reasonable prices
• created the Interstate
Commerce Commission
(ICC) to investigate
railroads
• first law that regulated a
business
Reforming Government Corruption
Pendleton Civil
Service Act (1883)
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
made it illegal to form a
monopoly or trust
created the Civil
Service Commission
which began to
award jobs based on
the results of an
exam.
Remember a trust is a
monopoly
Goal was to ensure competition
Applicants for federal jobs
are required to take a Civil
Service Exam
Primary Elections- state elections in
which voters choose their party’s candidate
Initiatives- gave voters the right to put a
bill directly before the state legislature
Major Republican Presidential Candidates
2012
Republicans
Referendums gave voters the
power to make a bill become
law
Recall- allow voters to remove
an elected official from office
Supreme Court Cases
Mueller v.
Oregon
Legal for
government to
limit women’s
work hours
Northern
Securities v.
U.S
Supreme Court ruled
that the Northern
Securities was a
monopoly and forced
railroad company to
break up
Theodore Roosevelt
26th President- 1901-1909
Roosevelt earned a reputation as a
trustbuster, conservationist, and an
imperialist!
Square Deal
Roosevelt's program
to ensure citizens
and business are
treated equally
1.Conservation
2.Consumer
Protection
3.Control over
Corporations
Trust Buster
Felt that the
government
should break up
bad trusts and
control necessary
trusts.
Broke up 44
monopolies
Protecting Consumers
Meat Inspection Act
Government inspection necessary
before any meat could be sold
Inspired by
Upton
Sinclair’s
book The
Jungle
Protecting Consumers
Roosevelt was
most
successful
and
remembered
for his
protection and
conservation
of the
environment
The Pure Food and Drug Act
Required that ingredients be
placed on all food and drug items.
First President to take actions toward conservation of the
environment
Set aside land for National Parks and helped pass the
Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902
Regulating the Railroads
Elkins Act
(1903)
outlawed
railroad rebates
Hepburn Act
Election of 1912.
Democratic Party Republican Party Progressive Party
(Bull Moose Party)
(1906)
Gave the ICC more
power to set railroad
rates.
Woodrow
Wilson
President
William
Howard Taft
Theodore
Roosevelt
The Progressive
Party was
nicknamed the BullMoose Party
The New Freedom
President
Wilson’s plan
for reform
Goal was to
reform banks,
tariffs and trust
Roosevelt attempted to break
Washington's precedent by…
Running
for a 3rd
Term!
16th Amendment- federal income tax.
17Th Amendment- gave voters the right to
directly elect U.S. Senators- aimed to reduce
corruption
18th Amendment Prohibition
(alcohol illegal)
19th Amendment
Woman’s Suffrage (voting)
The End of Laissez- Faire
Clayton Anti- Trust
Act (1914)
strengthened and
added to Sherman
Anti- Trust Act
Goal was to ensure competition
Reforms of President Wilson
• Created the Federal
Federal
Reserve which regulated:
•Money supply
•Banking
Reserve Act
•Interest rates
Keating Owen Act
• 1st federal law
to ban child
labor
• Eventually
declared
unconstitutional
by Supreme
Court
In 1900, over 2 million
children were working in
mills, mines or factories