Learn: The American Yawp Chapter 20

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

March 1911 fire in New York factory that trapped young women workers inside locked exit doors; nearly 50 ended up jumping to their death; while 100 died inside the factory; led to the establishment of many factory reforms, including increasing safety precautions for workers

Muckrakers

1906 - Journalists who searched for corruption in politics and big business

Jacob Riis

A Danish immigrant, he became a reporter who pointed out the terrible conditions of the tenement houses of the big cities where immigrants lived during the late 1800s. He wrote How The Other Half Lives in 1890.

Upton Sinclair

muckraker who shocked the nation when he published The Jungle, a novel that revealed gruesome details about the meat packing industry in Chicago. The book was fiction but based on the things Sinclair had seen.

Meat Inspection Act

1906 - Laid down binding rules for sanitary meat packing and government inspection of meat products crossing state lines.

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

1906 - Forbade the manufacture or sale of mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs, it gave the government broad powers to ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs in order to abolish the "patent" drug trade. Still in existence as the FDA.

Edward Bellamy

In 1888, he wrote Looking Backward, 2000-1887, a description of a utopian society in the year 2000.

Social Gospel

A movement in the late 1800s / early 1900s which emphasized charity and social responsibility as a means of salvation.

Walter Rauschenbusch

New York clergyman who preached the social gospel, worked to alleviate poverty, and worked to make peace between employers and labor unions.

Jane Addams

1860-1935. Founder of Settlement House Movement. First American Woman to earn Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 as president of Women's Intenational League for Peace and Freedom.

Alice Paul

Head of the National Woman's party that campaigned for an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. She opposed legislation protecting women workers because such laws implied women's inferiority. Most condemned her way of thinking.

19th Amendment (1920)

Ratified on August 18, 1920 (drafted by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton), prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. The Constitution allows the states to determine the qualifications for voting, and until the 1910's most states disenfranchised women. The amendment was the culmination of the women's suffrage movement in the U.S.

Trusts

Firms or corporations that combine for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices (establishing a monopoly). There are anti-trust laws to prevent these monopolies.

Laiseez faire economics

Laissez-faire is an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from any form of government intervention such as regulation, privileges, imperialism, tariffs and subsidies.

Vertical Integration

Practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution

Horizontal Integration

Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

Established that states may regulate privately owned businesses in the public's interest

Granger Laws

Grangers state legislatures in 1874 passed law fixing maximum rates for freight shipments. The railroads responded by appealing to the Supreme Court to declare these laws unconstitutional

Interstate Commerce Act

Established the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) - monitors the business operation of carriers transporting goods and people between states - created to regulate railroad prices

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

First federal action against monopolies, it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust-busting. However, it was initially misused against labor unions

Northern Securities Case

Roosevelt's legal attack on the Northern Securities Company, which was a railroad holding company owned by James Hill and J.P. Morgan. In the end, the company was "trust-busted" and paved the way for future trust-busts of bad trusts.

Bull Moose Party

nickname for the new Progressive Party, which was formed to support Roosevelt in the election of 1912

New Nationalism

Roosevelt's progressive political policy that favored heavy government intervention in order to assure social justice

New Freedom

Wilson supported a "New Freedom", which would limit both big business and big government, bring about reform by ending corruption, and revive competition by supporting small business. (p. 441)

John Muir

(1838-1914) Naturalist who believed the wilderness should be preserved in its natural state. He was largely responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.

Gifford Pinchot

head of the U.S. Forest Servic under Roosevelt, who believed that it was possible to make use of natural resources while conserving them

Poll tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

Literacy test

A test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote

Grandfather Clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

White primaries

A southern expedient to keep blacks from participating in primary elections

Crop Lien System

System that allowed farmers to get more credit. They used harvested crops to pay back their loans.

Convict Lease System

blacks who went to prison taken out and used for labor in slave-like conditions, enforced southern racial hierarchy

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

W. E. B. Du Bois

fought for African American rights. Helped to found Niagra Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People