APUSH 28-30 Simple IDs

Progressivism

A largely middle-class movement that aimed to use the power of government to correct the economic and social problems of industrialism

Muckrakers

Popular journalists who used publicity to expose corruption and attack abuses of power in business and government

Initiative

Progressive proposal to allow voters to bypass state legislatures and propose legislation themselves

Recall

Progressive device that would enable voters to remove corrupt or ineffective officials from office

Square Deal

Roosevelt’s policy of having the federal government promote the public interest by dealing evenhandedly with both labor and business

Hepburn Act

Effective railroad-regulation law of 1906 that greatly strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission

Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

Disastrous industrial fire of 1911 that spurred workmen’s compensation laws and some state regulation of wages and hours in New York

The Jungle

Upton Sinclair’s novel that inspired pro-consumer federal laws regulating meat, food, and drugs

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Powerful women’s reform organization led by Frances Willard

Panic of 1907

Brief but sharp economic downturn of 1907, blamed by conservatives on the supposedly dangerous president

Dollar Diplomacy

Generally unsuccessful Taft foreign policy in which government attempted to encourage overseas business ventures

Standard Oil Company

Powerful corporation broken up by a Taft-initiated antitrust suit in 1911

Thorstein Veblen

Eccentric economist who criticized the wealthy for conspicuous consumption and failure to serve real human needs

Lincoln Steffens

Early muckraker who exposed the political corruption in many American cities

Ida Tarbell

Leading muckraking journalist whose articles documented the Standard Oil Company’s abuse of power

Seventeenth Amendment

Progressive measure that required U.S. senators to be elected directly by the people rather than by state legislatures

Robert M. La Follette

The most influential of the state-level progressive governors and a presidential aspirant in 1912

Hiram Johnson

Progressive governor of California who broke the stranglehold of the Southern Pacific Railroad on the state’s politics

Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

New York City disaster that underscored urban workers’ need for government protection

Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Powerful progressive women’s organization that sought to “make the world homelike” by outlawing the saloon and the product it sold

Anthracite coal strike

Dangerous labor conflict resolved by Rooseveltian negotiation and threats against business people

Jane Addams

Leading female progressive reformer whose advocacy of pacifism as well as social welfare set her at odds with more muscular and militant progressives

Upton Sinclair

Progressive novelist who sought to aid industrial workers, but found his book, The Jungle, instead inspiring middle-class consumer protection.

Muller v. Oregon

Case that upheld protective legislation on the grounds of women’s supposed physical weakness

William Howard Taft

Politically inept inheritor of the Roosevelt legacy who ended up allied with the reactionary Republican Old Guard

Lochner v. New York

Supreme court ruling that overturned a progressive law mandating a ten-hour workday

Gifford Pinchot

Pro-conservation federal official whose dismissal by Taft angered Roosevelt progressives

Bull Moose

Four-footed symbol of Roosevelt’s Progressive third party in 1912

Socialist Party

A fourth political party, led by a former railroad labor union leader, that garnered nearly a million votes in 1912

New Freedom

Wilson’s political philosophy of restoring democracy through trust-busting and economic competition

Federal Reserve Board

A twelve-member agency appointed by the president to oversee the banking system under a new federal law of 1913

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

New presidentially appointed regulatory commission designed to prohibit unfair business competition, unethical advertising, and labeling practices

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

Wilsonian trust-busting law that prohibited interlocking directorates and other monopolistic business practices, while legalizing labor and agricultural organizations

Jones Act

Wilson-backed law that promised the Philippines eventual independence from the United States, but only when a stable and secure government was attained

Haiti

Troubled Caribbean island nation where a president’s murder led Wilson to send in the marines and assume American control of the police and finances

ABC powers

Term for the three Latin American nations whose mediation prevented war between the United States and Mexico in 1914

Central Powers

World War I alliance headed by Germany and Austria-Hungary

Allies

The coalition of powers—led by Britain, France, and Russia—that opposed Germany and its partners in World War I

Submarine (U-boat)

New underwater weapon that threatened neutral shipping and seemed to violate all traditional norms of international law

Lusitania

Large British passenger liner whose sinking in 1915 prompted some Americans to call for war against Germany

Sussex pledge

Germany’s carefully conditional agreement in 1916 not to sink passenger and merchant vessels without warning

California

Key electoral state where a tiny majority for President Wilson tipped the balance against Republican Charles Evans Hughes in 1916

Thomas Woodrow Wilson

Southern-born intellectual who pursued strong moral goals in politics and the presidency

Theodore Roosevelt

Energetic progressive and vigorous nationalist whose failed third-party effort contributed to Wilson’s victory in the election of 1912

Eugene V. Debs

Socialist party leader who garnered nearly a million votes for president in the election of 1912.

Samuel Gompers

Labor leader who hailed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act as the “Magna Carta of labor”

Louis D. Brandeis

Leading progressive reformer and the first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court

Virgin Islands

Caribbean territory purchased by the United States from Denmark in 1917

General Huerta

Mexican revolutionary whose bloody regime Wilson refused to recognize and nearly ended up fighting

Venustiano Carranza

Second revolutionary Mexican president, who took aid from the United States but strongly resisted American military intervention in his country

Vera Cruz

Port where clashes between Mexicans and American military forces nearly led to war in 1914

Pancho Villa

Mexican revolutionary whose assaults on American citizens and territory provoked a U.S. expedition into Mexico

John J. Pershing

Commander of the American military expedition into Mexico in 1916–1917

Belgium

Small European nation whose neutrality was violated by Germany in the early days of World War I

Serbia

Small European nation in which an Austro-Hungarian heir was killed, leading to the outbreak of World War I

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Autocratic ruler who symbolized ruthlessness and arrogance to many pro-Allied Americans

Charles Evans Hughes

Narrowly unsuccessful presidential candidate who tried to straddle both sides of the fence regarding American policy toward Germany

Zimmermann note

Message sent to Mexico from the German foreign minister proposing a secret German-Mexican alliance and possible support for Mexico’s recovery of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

Fourteen Points

Wilson’s idealistic statement of American war aims in January 1918 that inspired the Allies and demoralized the Germans

Committee on Public Information (CPI)

American government propaganda agency that aroused zeal for Wilson’s ideals and whipped up hatred for the Kaiser

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Radical antiwar labor union whose members were prosecuted under the Espionage and Sedition Act

War Industries Board (WIB)

Originally weak wartime agency that gradually expanded the federal government’s power over the economy by setting production quotas and allocating natural resources.

Nineteenth Amendment

Constitutional revision endorsed by Wilson as a war measure whose ratification finally achieved a goal long sought by American women

Liberty Loans

Treasury Department bond-selling drives that raised about $21 billion to provide most of the funds to finance the American war effort

Doughboys

Popular term for American soldiers during World War I

Big Four

Collective term for the major powers that dominated the Paris Peace Conference—Britain, France, Italy, and the United States

League of Nations

Wilson’s proposed international body that constituted the key provision of the Versailles treaty

Treaty of Versailles

Controversial peace agreement that compromised many of Wilson’s idealistic Fourteen Points but retained his cherished League of Nations among its provisions

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Senatorial committee whose chairman used delaying tactics and hostile testimony to develop opposition to Wilson’s treaty and League of Nations

Irreconcilables

A hard core of isolationist senators who bitterly opposed any sort of league; also called the “Battalion of Death”

Lodge Reservations

Amendments to the proposed Treaty of Versailles, sponsored by Wilson’s hated senatorial opponent, that attempted to guarantee America’s sovereign rights in relation to the League of Nations

Solemn referendum

Wilson’s belief that the presidential election of 1920 should constitute a direct popular vote on the League of Nations

George Creel

Head of the American propaganda agency that mobilized public opinion for World War I

Eugene V. Debs

Socialist leader who won nearly a million votes as a presidential candidate while in federal prison for antiwar activities

Bernard Baruch

Head of the War Industries Board, which attempted to impose some order on U.S. war production

Herbert Hoover

Head of the Food Administration who pioneered successful voluntary mobilization methods

John J. Pershing

Commander of the overseas American Expeditionary Force in World War I

Alice Paul

Leader of the pacifist National Women’s Party who opposed U.S. involvement in World War I

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Exciting vice-presidential candidate from New York in the losing Democratic campaign of 1920.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Hated leader of America’s enemy in World War I

Woodrow Wilson

Inspirational leader of the Western world in wartime who later stumbled as a peacemaker

Henry Cabot Lodge

Wilson’s great senatorial antagonist who fought to keep America out of the League of Nations

Georges Clemenceau

The “tiger” of France, whose drive for security forced Wilson to compromise at Versailles

William Borah

Senatorial leader of the isolationist irreconcilables who absolutely opposed all American involvement in Europe

James Cox

Defeated Democratic presidential candidate in the election of 1920

Calvin Coolidge

Massachusetts governor and Warren G. Harding’s vice presidential running mate in the election of 1920

Warren G. Harding

Folksy Ohio senator whose 1920 presidential victory ended the last hopes for U.S. participation in the League of Nations