Chapter 28

1.To what extent did “muckrakers” further Progressivism?

(Discuss specific authors/works.)

Muckrakers furthered progressivism

2. To what extent did women further the Progressive

Movement?

3. Describe how women fought for suffrage. (Explain its

connection with prohibition.)

4. How did the following promote Progressivism:

A)Muller v. Oregon (1908)

was a landmark decision in United States Supreme Court history, as it justifies

both sex discrimination and usage of labor laws during the time period. The case

upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women as justified by

the special state interest in protecting women's health.

Curt Muller, the owner of a laundry business, was convicted of violating Oregon

labor laws by making a female employee work more than ten hours in a single

day. Muller was fined $10. Muller appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court and

then to the U.S. Supreme Court, both of which upheld the constitutionality of the

labor law and affirmed his conviction.

The case was decided a mere three years after Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S.

45 (1905), in which a New York law restricting the weekly working hours of

bakers was invalidated.

B)T. Roosevelt’s “Square Deal for Labor”

President Theodore Roosevelt decided to treat both sides fairly in any dispute. In

the coal miner's strike of 1902 he treated the United Mine Workers

representatives and company bosses as equals; this approach continued during

his efforts to regulate the railroads and other businesses during his second term.

During the 1904 campaign, Roosevelt remarked that he had worked in the

anthracite coal strike to provide everyone with a "square deal." In his second

term, he tried to extend his square deal further. One of his first targets was the

railroad industry. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, establishing the

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had been an early effort to regulate the

industry; but over the years, the courts had sharply limited its influence.

C)Anthracite Coal Strike

The Coal Strike of 1902 was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in

the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. The strike threatened to shut

down the winter fuel supply to all major cities (homes and apartments were
heated with anthracite or "hard" coal because it had higher heat value and less

smoke than "soft" or bituminous coal). President Theodore Roosevelt became

involved and set up a fact-finding commission that suspended the strike. The

strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours; the

owners got a higher price for coal, and did not recognize the trade union as a

bargaining agent. It was the first labor episode in which the federal government

intervened as a neutral arbitrator.

D)“Northern Securities Case (1902)

The Northern Securities Company was an important United States railroad trust

formed in 1902 by E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, J.P. Morgan, J. D. Rockefeller,

and their associates. The company controlled the Northern Pacific Railway,

Great Northern Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and other

associated lines. The company was sued in 1902 under the Sherman Antitrust

Act of 1890 by President Theodore Roosevelt, one of the first anti-trust cases

filed against corporate interests instead of labor.[1]

Hill was the president of the Great Northern Railway and Harriman controlled the
Union Pacific Railroad, two of the largest railroads in the U.S. Both sought control

of the Burlington to connect their roads to the vital railroad hub of Chicago,

Illinois. Hill, who also had a minority interest the Northern Pacific Railway, outbid

Harriman for the Burlington, by agreeing to Burlington President Charles Elliott

Perkins's $200-a-share price.

E)The Jungle

The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the

novel to point out the troubles of the working class and to show the corruption of

the American meatpacking industry during the early-20th century. The novel

depicts in harsh tones poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant living

and working conditions, and hopelessness prevalent among the working class,

which is contrasted with the deeply-rooted corruption on the part of those in

power. Sinclair's observations of the state of turn-of-the-century labor were

placed front and center for the American public to see, suggesting that something

needed to be changed to get rid of American "wage slavery".

F)Meat Inspection Act (1906)

The first instance of federal regulation of the meat industry occurred in 1890,

when European markets began questioning the quality of American beef. The

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was given the power to make sure

European standards were met, and in 1891 could inspect slaughtered livestock

to be sold in the United States.[27] The momentum for the creation of meat

regulation laws in the 20th century was spurred by the publication of The Jungle,

by Upton Sinclair. Published in 1906, this exposé described the horrible and

unsanitary conditions of the Chicago slaughterhouses and caused a public outcry

for change.[28] The Federal government authorized the Federal Meat Inspection

Act (FMIA) in 1906 as a response. It “established sanitary standards for

slaughter” and “mandated antemortem inspection of animals…and postmortem

inspection of every carcass

G)Pure Food & Drug Act

The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (abbreviated as

FFDCA, FDCA, or FD&C), is a set of laws passed by Congress in 1938 giving

authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety

of food, drugs, and cosmetics. A principal author of this law was Royal S.

Copeland, a three-term U.S. Senator from New York.[2] In 1968, the Electronic

Product Radiation Control provisions were added to the FD&C. Also in that year
the FDA formed the Drug Efficacy Study Implementation (DESI) to incorporate

into FD&C regulations the recommendations from a National Academy of

Sciences investigation of effectiveness of previously marketed drugs.

H)Lochner v. N.Y.

Lochner vs. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), was a landmark United States

Supreme Court case that held a "liberty of contract" was implicit in the due

process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case involved a New York

law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to ten, and

limited the number of hours that a baker could work each week to 60. By a 5-4

vote, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the law was necessary to

protect the health of bakers, deciding it was a labor law attempting to regulate the

terms of employment, and calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary

interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract." Justice Rufus

Peckham wrote for the majority, while Justices John Marshall Harlan and Oliver

Wendell Holmes, Jr. filed dissents.

I)Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, New York, United States

on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city

of New York, and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial
accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers,

most of them women, who either died from the fire or jumped from the fatal

height. Most of the workers could not escape the burning building because the

managers locked the doors to the stairwells and exits to keep them from leaving

early. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors as the ladders on

the existing fire trucks could only reach the sixth floor. 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 better and safer

working conditions for sweatshop workers in that industry.

J)Federal Reserve Act

is the Act of Congress that created the Federal Reserve System, the central

banking system of the United States of America, and granted it the legal authority

to issue legal tender. The Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.

K)16th &17th Amendments

Allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the

states or basing it on Census results. This amendment exempted income taxes

from the constitutional requirements regarding direct taxes, after income taxes on

rents, dividends, and interest were ruled to be direct taxes in Pollock v. Farmers'

Loan & Trust Co. (1895). It was ratified on February 3, 1913. Established direct

election of United States Senators by popular vote. The amendment supersedes

Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which Senators were

elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in

the Senate, to be consistent with the method of election. It was adopted on April

8, 1913.

5. To what extent was Roosevelt’s administration the first

to effectively regulate R.R.’s?

5. To what extent was President T. Roosevelt an

environmentalist & a conservationist?

6. Does Roosevelt truly deserve to be called

“trustbuster?” Does President Taft?

8. How did Taft “split” the Republican Party in 1912?

1. Why were Progressives concerned about industrial concentration?

2. What should government do about concentrated economic power?

Should it create regulate competition or should it break up big

business?

3. Compare and contrast the platforms of the Progressive and

Democratic parties.