Gilded Age/ Progressive Era

20th Century

Referendum

Voters cast ballots for or against laws proposed by the legislature

Initiative

A procedure by which voters can propose a law and the legislature (law-making body) must take a vote on it.

Direct Primary

Citizens can nominate and vote for candidates for public office

Recall

Procedure/election by which citizens can remove an elected official before his/her term is up

16th Amendment

Constitutional change that created the Federal Income Tax

17th Amendment

Constitutional change that allowed for the direct, popular election of U.S. Senators

18th Amendment

Constitutional change that prohibited alcohol

19th Amendment

Constitutional change that allowed for women's suffrage

Gospel of Wealth

Gilded Age value that said advocated a Christians duty to accumulate wealth and that rich people were favored by God

Social Gospel

Progressive value that advocated a Christian duty to improve life on Earth and help the poor

Jane Addams

Started the most famous settlement house in Chicago, Hull House

Political Machines

Corrupt organizations that controlled political parties in cities and worked to win votes through illegal means

Robert LaFollette

Famous Wisconsin Governor & Senator who implemented many progressive reforms that tried to give citizens more political power

Plessy v. Ferguson

legalized racial segregation as long as accommodations & facilities were equal (the "separate but equal" doctrine)

Industrialization

Movement from agriculture to manufacturing as a main source of economic growth; from hand labor to machine labor; "from farms to factories"

Urbanization

The movement to and growth of cities

Ida Wells

African-American who practiced civil disobedience and advocated for federal anti-lynching legislation

Upton Sinclair

Muckraking author of The Jungle, exposing the harsh unsanitary working conditions of a meatpacking plant

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Event that led to greater public awareness of sweatshop conditions, stricter building codes, and eventually women's suffrage

Muckrakers

"Angry Writers:" Investigative journalists that tried to expose problems in society such as political corruption

Settlement Houses

Institutions that provided educational and social services to poor people

Tenement

An overcrowded, rundown, unsanitary apartment building

Corruption/Graft

Illegal/dishonest practices to make money, gain power, or win elections

William McKinley

President from 1897-1901: distinguished between good & bad trusts; less concerned with Progressivism and more with foreign policy; assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz

Teddy Roosevelt

President from 1901-1909; the "Trust Buster," The Square Deal, conservation, increased the power of the Presidency

William Taft

President from 1909-1913; prosecuted double the trusts as Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson

President from 1913-1921; established the Federal Trade Commission, amendments 16-19 occurred on his watch, and he segregated federal buildings

Meat Inspection Act

1906 law that allowed the federal government to inspect meat sold across state lines and required federal inspection of meat processing plants

Pure Food and Drug Act

1906 law that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure & falsely labeled food & drugs in interstate commerce

Trust

Combination of companies working together to dominate an industry by crushing competition