Vocabulary Unit 13 Progressive Era
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire / 1911..Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in NYC. Many young women died in the fire due to the lack of proper safety features. Workers were locked in to increase efficiency and 145 died as a result.muckrakers / Journalists during the Progressive Movement who exposed corruption at every level including sweatshop conditions, tenement squalor, and the greed of the industrialists and their monopolies.
Ida Tarbell / Journalist and muckraker who wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company and attacked John Rockefeller. She used investigative journalism to break up his monopoly and was published in McClure’s Magazine.
Lincoln Steffens / Wrote The Shame of the Cities in 1904. He was a muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era who investigated corruption within city governments.
Upton Sinclair / Wrote The Jungle about the corrupt meat-packing industry and a series of works on the Gilded Age corruption. His work would be a catalyst for a number of acts/legislation to protect the consumer.
Theodore Roosevelt / Progressive president and reformer. He led a cavalry during the Spanish-American War in Cuba and won fame for his “rough riders”. He later became president when McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and would continue to serve until 1908. He made another bid for president in 1912, but lost to Woodrow Wilson. He was an aggressive reformer, fighter and “regulator” of trusts and monopolies. He fought corruption and big business and advocated for the laborers, consumers, and the environment.
Jacob Riis / Muckraker and photojournalist who exposed the poverty of urban slums with flash photography. He wrote How the Other Half Lives and exposed the effects of industrialization of poor immigrants.
tenements / Housing for the urban poor during the Gilded Age. These small, cramped apartments were unsanitary and lacked basic necessities. Diseases quickly spread through the tenements and occupants had little options for housing due to low wages during the industrialization of America in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Urban slums / Area of city where poor resided in tenements during the Gilded Age. They were overcrowded and unsanitary. Crime and diseases were rampant, and gangs controlled the streets. They offered little hope of escape for their inhabitants and were often organized into ethnic areas where immigrants from different regions clustered.
Jane Addams / Social reformer and founded of Hull House in Chicago, a settlement house. It served as a model of reform and education for other social programs. She focused on health and education and continually tried to advocate for the poor and for women’s rights. She fought for services for the poor and immigrants. She provided basic services to those in need or in transition to city life.
Hull House / First settlement house, Chicago founded by Jane Addams. It provided education and health and human services for the poor in the city. It would be a model for other social reform programs.
16th Amendment / The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
17th Amendment / The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
18th Amendment / After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
19th Amendment / The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Carrie Nation / Religious advocate for the prohibition of alcohol and known for her radical methods.
Sherman Antitrust Act / Act intended to protect the consumer from abuses from big business. It was created to protect competition within the market while preventing price hikes and practices which hurt the consumer. It authorized the government to institute proceedings against trusts. Any combination “in the form of trust or otherwise that was in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations” was declared illegal.
Payne Aldrich Tariff 1909 / Increased taxes on incoming goods during Taft’s presidency and angered many republicans and caused conflict among party lines.
Mann Elkins Act / Taft..strengthened the government control of the railroads by allowing the Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee communications industries..regulatory act
Robert LaFollette / Reform governor from Wisconsin. He fought against government and municipal corruption. “Fighting Bob”
Election of 1912 / Three-way election between William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Theodore Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson, Democrat, would win the election as the Republican party was divided by Roosevelt’s bid for president and Taft seeking reelection.
Bull Moose Party / Created by Theodore Roosevelt in his bid for president in 1912 when Taft received the Republican endorsement to run for reelection. Roosevelt wanted to challenge Taft as he felt he had not done enough to regulate the trusts and carry out his progressive agenda he began as president prior to Taft’s.
Federal Reserve Act / Woodrow Wilson…set up the Federal Reserve which can print money and control the economic stability of the nation. It is intended to minimize inflation and promote employment
Federal Trade Commission / 1914 Woodrow Wilson…created to prevent abuses of monopolies and protect consumers
Louis Brandeis and Muller vs. Oregon / Brandeis presented case to the court for the protection of women and their health from unusually long work hours. Court ruled that women’s hours of work should be limited and that the 14th Amendment justified this and the protection of women’s health. Women were viewed as needing protection as the burden of childrearing and other duties were placed on them.
Clayton Antitrust Act / 1914….Woodrow Wilson….it built upon the Sherman Antitrust Act and continued to target the formation of monopolies that restrict competition.
referendum / A Direct vote on an issue and can lead to the adoption of a new law.
Secret ballot / Voters cast ballots in secret so as to avoid intimidation and scrutiny.
recall / Allows voters to vote on removal of an elected official prior to his term ending. Voters can sign petitions to gain support for the recall of an official.
initiative / Citizens are allowed to directly place a proposal on the ballot or to submit to the legislature through a petition process.
Plessy v. Ferguson / 1896 Court ruled that “separate but equal” was legal, thus legally segregating public facilities. Overturned by Brown v. BOE in 1954.
Booker T. Washington / Founder of Tuskegee Institute and advocate for African American equality through education and economic advancement. Famous speech is “Atlanta Compromise” and has been criticized for not taking a more aggressive stand against segregation.
WEB DuBois / Wrote The Souls of Black Folk and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard. He advocated for immediate equality and an end to segregation. He pushed for African Americans to attend universities instead of vocational schools. He disagreed with Washington’s more conservative tactics to attain economic equality.
Great Migration / Mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North in the early 1900’s in order to escape economic and racial oppression. Jobs became available in large numbers during WWI and facilitated upward economic mobility.
NAACP / Founded in 1909 by civil rights advocates like Ida Wells and WEB DuBois in response to lynchings and violations of rights of African Americans. It uses legal methods to stop racial discrimination.
Jim Crow Laws / De jure segregation in the South used in public facilities and prevented civil rights of African Americans.
lynchings / A type of racial terrorism. Public lynchings were used as punishments for alleged crimes. In the South, they were used on African Americans after the Civil War, often, by racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The NAACP and other civil liberties organizations would protest against their use.
disenfranchisement / To deprive of one’s civil rights.
Literacy tests / Tests to determine a person’s ability to read and write as a prerequisite to voting. Used as a way to keep African Americans and minorities from voting after the Civil War
Poll taxes / A fee that was required to vote. This prevented many African Americans and Native Americans from voting and would be prohibited by the 24th Amendment
De jure segregation / Legal segregation
De facto segregation / Segregation by choice, not law.
Marcus Garvey / He led the Back to Africa Movement and founded Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He was a controversial leader in the African American Community.
Back to Africa Movement / Led by Marcus Garvey. Due to racial tensions, he advocated for a return to Africa. The movement did not gain momentum, but inspired other black nationalists movements.
Tuskegee Institute / University in Alabama founded by Booker T. Washington which focused on vocational training and technical skills that would allow African Americans to become self-sufficient and improve economically.
Civil Rights / Constitutional and human rights that cannot be taken from the individual.
Ku Klux Klan / Racist, terrorist group that aimed to disenfranchise African Americans and immigrants. It was formed during Reconstruction to keep African Americans from exercising their right to vote and expanded again in the 1920’s as the US was flooded with new sets of immigrants and racial tensions surged.
Wright Brothers / Flew the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903, became pioneers in aviation.
Motion pictures / A camera and projection system in which “movies” could be viewed by an audience. The pictures evolved over time to more elaborate, detailed projections and by the early 20th century had begun to captivate viewers. The first movies were silent and primitive, but quickly changed into more elaborate forms over time.
Henry Ford / Designed the Model T using the new techniques of assembly line production and mass-produced a car the average working American could afford. He used efficiency in the workplace,used interchangeable parts, and paid his workers high wages ($5 workday).
Assembly line / Method of production whichis efficient and fast. It allowed for the production of the first Model T’s.
Model T / Henry Ford’s invention of the first car on the assembly line through mass production. Used interchangeable parts and was widely available to middle class workers as it was affordable.
electricity / Thomas Edison’s invention. Factories and living quarters could be illuminated, increasing production rates and improving the standard of living.
Mail order catalogs / Sears and Roebuck Mail Order catalog made it possible for people in rural areas to order products which would be delivered to them through the railroad.
skyscrapers / Multistoried buildings with steel frames that were used in cities to address the issue of limited horizontal space. They were made possible by the newest technology and industrial products.
Mass culture / New culture that developed during the Gilded Age. More free time and entertainment was available to people and new products to be purchased by young consumers. Minstrel shows, music like ragtime, department stores, Vaudeville were popular. Spectator sports like baseball became popular.