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National American Woman Suffrage Association
This group fought for women to be able to vote, pushed suffrage at a state level, trying to gain support from each state so they can all come together and force the federal government to pass the amendment that allowed women to vote. -
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
This group advocated for the prohibition of alcohol, using women's supposedly greater purity and morality as a rallying point. -
Interstate Commerce Act
This act was a U.S. federal law made to regulate the railroad industry, more specifically its monopolistic practices. The act required that railroad rates be reasonable, but did not empower the government to make fixed rates. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was designed to combat the monopolies in American industry and business. The act forbade any combination that restricted interstate commerce or trade with foreign nations. -
Ida B. Wells
African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, and an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing that it was often used as a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, rather than being based in criminal acts by blacks. She was active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. -
"How the Other Half Lives"
The book written by Jacob Riis that told the public about the lives of the immigrants and those who live in the tenements. -
Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League was a group that increased public awareness of the social effects of alcohol on society. -
Eugene V. Debs
Debs was the leader of the American Railway Union, and he voted to help workers and participate in the Pullman strike. He was jailed for six months for disobeying a court order after the strike was over. -
John Dewey
Dewey was a philosopher who believed in "learning by doing" which formed the foundation of progressive education. (date may not be approximate) -
Margaret Sanger
Sanger was a birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. She opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and was the founder of Planned Parenthood. (date may not be approximate) -
Anthracite Coal Strike
The 1902 strike where miners demanded a 20 percent wage increase and a reduction in daily working hours from ten to nine; mines shut down in an effort to starve out the miners. Roosevelt ended up giving them 9 hour works day and only 10% increase wages. -
Lincoln Steffens
Steffens was a New York reporter who launched a series of articles in McClure's titled "The Shame of the Cities" in 1902, which unmasked the corrupt alliance between big business and municipal government. -
Elkins Act
This act amended the Interstate Commerce Act (1887); it authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates. -
Department of Commerce and Labor
This department was established by Roosevelt to deal with domestic economic affairs, and was later split into two departments for better management. -
Ida Tarbell
Tarbell was a muckraker and magazine editor for McClure's Magazine, and she exposed the corruption of the oil industry with her 1904 work "A History of Standard Oil." -
Northern Securities Antitrust
This was an important ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court where the Court ruled 5 to 4 against the stockholders of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroad companies, who had essentially formed a monopoly, and as a result, the company was dissolved. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
This act forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs, and it gave the government broader powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. -
Meat Inspection Act
This was a law that authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to order meat inspections and condemn any meat product found unfit for human consumption. -
"The Jungle"
Written by famous muckraker Upton Sinclair, this book revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen. -
Robert La Follette
La Follette was a progressive Wisconsin governor who attacked machine politics and pressured the state legislature to require each party to hold a direct primary. -
Square Deal Policy
Teddy Roosevelt's legislation which focused on control of the corporations, consumer protection, and the conservation of the United States' natural resources. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
This was an industrial disaster in NYC that caused the death of 146 garment workers who died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. The fire resulted in legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and was somewhat of a catalyst for the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for safer conditions. -
Progressive (Bull Moose) Party
This was new progressive party in the election of 1912, and Roosevelt fought for government control of social welfare, trusts , female suffrage,big business regulations, and no monopolies. -
17th Amendment
The 17th Amendment called for the direct election of senators by the voters instead of their election by state legislatures. -
Underwood Tariff
The tariff that substantially reduced import fees and enacted a graduated income tax. -
Federal Reserve Act
This act created the new Federal Reserve Board, which oversaw a nationwide system of twelve regional reserve districts, each with its own central bank, and had the power to issue paper money. -
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
This act extended Sherman Anti-Trust Act's list of practices, as well as exempted labor unions from being called trusts, and also legalized strikes and peaceful picketing by labor union members. -
Federal Trade Commission
This law, passed during the Wilson administration, empowered a standing, presidential appointed commission to investigate illegal business practices in interstate commerce like unlawful competition, false advertising, and mislabeling of goods. -
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
This act was enacted by Congress and it prohibited the sale in interstate commerce of goods manufactured by children in the United States, and it gave an expanded importance to the constitutional clause giving Congress the task of regulating interstate commerce. -
18th Amendment
This amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. -
19th Amendment
The amendment that extended the right to vote to women in federal or state elections.
