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How the Other Half Lives
How the Other Half Lives
1850
A book by John Riis that told the public about the lives of the immigrants and those who live in the tenements. Jacob's article in Scribner's Magazine became a best-selling book. Riis's fame helped home press the city to improve living conditions for the poor and to build parks and schools. -
Robert La Follette
Robert La Follette
1855
Progressive Wisconsin governor who attacked machine politics and pressured the state legislature to require each party to hold a direct primary. Nicknamed Mr. Progressive! -
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
1855
American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. -
John Dewey
John Dewey
1859
Father of progressive education, was a philosopher who believed in "learning by doing" which formed the foundation of progressive education. -
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells
1862
African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcards or shop in white owned stores -
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
1874
Founded in 1874, this organization advocated for the prohibition of alcohol, using women's supposedly greater purity and morality as a rallying point. Advocates of prohibition in the United States found common cause with activists elsewhere, especially in Britain, and in the 1880s they founded the World Women's Christian Temperance Union, which sent missionaries around the world to spread the gospel of temperance -
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger
1879
was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. -
Interstate Commerce Act
1887
Established the federal government's right to oversee railroad activities & required railroads to public their rate schedules and file them with the government. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
1890
prohibited any "contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce -
National American Woman Suffrage Association
National American Woman Suffrage Association
1890
American women's rights organization was established by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in May of 1890. This and other groups led to the nineteenth amendment: women's suffrage. -
Anti-Saloon League
Anti-Saloon League
1893
The most successful political action group that forced the prohibition issue into the forefront of state and local elections and pioneered the strategy of the single-issue pressure group. -
Anthracite Coal Strike
Anthracite Coal Strike
1902
was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners struck for higher wages, shorter workdays and the recognition of their union -
Lincoln Steffens
Lincoln Steffens
1902
New York reporter who launched a series of articles in McClure's titled "The Shame of the Cities" in 1902; unmasked the corrupt alliance between big business and municipal government -
Elkins Act
Elkins Act
1903
United States federal law that amended the Interstate Commerce Act. The Elkins Act authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates. The railroad companies were not permitted to offer rebates. Railroad corporations, their officers and employees were all made liable for discriminatory practices. -
Department of Commerce and Labor
Department of Commerce and Labor
1903
A short-lived Cabinet department of the United States government, which was concerned with controlling the excesses of big business
Established by Roosevelt to deal with domestic economic affairs. Later split into two departments for better management. -
Northern Securities Antitrust
Northern Securities Antitrust
1904
595, A railroad monopoly formed by J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill which went against the Sherman Antitrust Act. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
Pure Food and Drug Act
1906
For preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes. -
Meat Inspection Act
Meat Inspection Act
1906
Passed in 1906 largely in reaction to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the law set strict standards of cleanliness in the meatpacking industry. -
The Jungle
The Jungle
1906
Upton Sinclair's novel that inspired pro-consumer federal laws regulating meat, food, and drugs -
Square Deal Policy
Square Deal Policy
1910
was Theodore Roosevelt's domestic policybased on three basic ideas: protection of the consumer, control of large corporations, and conservation of natural resources. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
1911
industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for safer and better working conditions for sweatshop workers in that industry. -
17th Amendment
17th Amendment
1912
Established that senators were to be elected directly. This law was intended to create a more democratic, fair society. -
Progressive (Bull Moose) Party 1912
Progressive (Bull Moose) Party
1912
His platform called for tariff reform, stricter regulation of industrial combinations, women's suffrage, prohibition of child labor, and other reforms. -
Underwood Tariff 1913
Underwood Tariff
1913
Congressional measure to provide the a substantial reduction of rates, and the first ever implementation of a graduated income tax on incomes $3000+ -
Federal Reserve Act
Federal Reserve Act
1913
created 12 district banks that would lend $ at discount rates (could increase/decrease amt. of $ in circulation); loosen/tighten credit with nation's needs. -
Clayton Antitrust Act
Clayton Antitrust Act
1914
was a part of United States antitrust law with the goal of adding further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime; the Clayton Act sought to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. -
Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
1914
signed into law by Woodrow Wilson in 1914, outlaws unfair methods of competition and outlaws unfair acts or practices that affect commerce. -
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
1916
Ended child labor, and ended selling products made from child labor
It was signed by Woodrow Wilson
Also gave congress the responsibility of regulating interstate commerce. -
19th Amendment
19th Amendment
1920
prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. -
18th Amendment 1920
18th Amendment
1920
Prohibited the non-medical sale of alcohol This amendment is the midpoint of a growing drive towards women's rights as well as showing the moral attitude of the era. -
Ida Tarbell
Ida Tarbell
1921
Ida Tarbell was a "Muckraker" who wrote in the magazine McClure's. As a younger woman, in 1904, Tarbell made her reputation by publishing the history of the Standard Oil Company, the "Mother of Trusts."
