APUSH Chapter 19 Key Terms

Pendleton Act

Passed in 1883 and established a nonpartisan Civil Service Commission to fill federal jobs by examination, overthrowing spoils system

Sherman Antitrust Act

Passed in 1890 and was the first federal attempt to forbid any “combination in the form of trust or otherwise or conspiracy in restraint of trade”

Lodge Bill

Drafted by Henry Cabot Lodge in 1890 and proposed that whenever one hundred citizens in any district appealed for intervention, a bipartisan federal board could investigate and seat the rightful winner

Omaha Platform

Created by Populists in order to call for public ownership of railroad and telegraph systems, protection of land from monopoly and foreign ownership, a federal income tax on the rich, and looser monetary policy to help borrowers

Free Silver

Policy by Cleveland which expanded federal coinage to include silver as well as gold; no fee for mining silver coins; thought to encourage borrowing and stimulate industry

Williams v. Mississippi

Court allowed poll taxes and literacy tests to stand after Supreme Court struck down Louisiana grandfather clause

Lochner v. New York

U.S. Supreme court told New York State it could not limit bakers’ workdays to ten hours because that violated bakers’ rights to make contracts; supported by Fourteenth Amendment

Hepburn Act

Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, authorizing it to set shipping rates when it found evidence of railroad collusion to fix prices

Standard Oil Decision

Supreme Court agreed with William Howard Taft that John D. Rockefeller’s massive oil company as a monopoly and needed to be broken up into several competing companies; Taft undertook antitrust action on other giant companies

Newlands Reclamation Act

Federal government sold public lands to raise money for irrigation projects that expanded agriculture on arid lands; supported by Roosevelt

Wisconsin Idea

La Follette promoted this idea which wanted greater government intervention in the economy, reliance on experts (progressive economists) for policy recommendations; “laboratory of democracy”

National Child Labor Committee

Created in 1907, hired Lewis Hine to record brutal conditions in mines and mills where children worked

Muller v. Oregon

Supreme Court’s decision was that Oregon law to limit women’s workday to ten hours must be upheld

Mothers’ Pensions

Providing state assistance after a breadwinner’s desertion or death

Talented Tenth

Idea by W.E.B. Du Bois that the top 10% of educated African Americans are responsible for uplifting and advancing the race

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Created in 1909 and cooperated with many African American clubs, churches, and organizations to grow into a powerful force for racial justice

Industrial Workers of the World

A new movement created with the help of Haywood during a wave of radical labor militancy; supported Marxist class struggle, resisted workplace, launched a general strike, wanted to overthrow capitalism

New Nationalism

Called by Roosevelt, argued that private property had to be controlled; proposed federal child labor law, more recognition of labor rights, national minimum wage for women, endorsed

Federal Reserve Act

Created in 1913 and gave the nation a banking system more resistant to private banks weakening and collapsing system

Clayton Antitrust Act

Amended the Sherman Act in 1914, the definition of illegal practices was more flexible and could be tested by whether something “substantially lessened competition”

Mary E. Lease

Kansas’s political organizer who confronted the problems of industrialization and advocated for government regulation of economy, women’s suffrage, and public health

William Jennings Bryan

Nebraska congressmen and free silver advocate who defended farmers and workers and attacked gold standard; nominated by Democrats after rejecting Cleveland

Theodore Roosevelt

Vice president for McKinley and sworn into office after his death; called for vigorous reform and represented a shift for the Republicans

Robert La Follette

Republican governor of Wisconsin who promoted Wisconsin Idea; advocated for aggressive measures in protecting workers and rein in corporate power

Louis Brandeis

Recruited by the National Consumers’ League; son of Jewish immigrants and known as ‘people’s lawyer’; “Brandeis brief” cleared the way of social science research in court decisions

W. E. B. Du Bois

Harvard educated sociologist who called for the talented tenth of educated black people to develop new strategies; editor of NAACP journal The Crisis

Eugene V. Debs

Socialist who founded the American Railway Union, and went to jail after failed strike; then founded Socialist Party of America in 1901, which had a persistent role in American politics