List of Reforms from
the Progressive Era
16th Amendment
• The Sixteenth Amendment (Amendment XVI) to
the United States Constitution allows the Congress
to levy an income tax without apportioning it
among the states or basing it on the United States
Census. This amendment exempted income taxes
from the constitutional requirements
regarding direct taxes, after income taxes on rents,
dividends, and interest were ruled to be direct taxes
in the court case of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust
Co. (1895). The amendment was adopted on
February 3, 1913.
th
17
Amendment
• The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII)
to the United States Constitution established the
election of United States Senators by the people of
the states.
18th Amendment
• The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII)
of the United States Constitution effectively
established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages
in the United States by declaring illegal the
production, transport and sale of alcohol (though
not the consumption or private possession). The
separate Volstead Act set down methods of
enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and
defined which "intoxicating liquors" were
prohibited, and which were excluded from
prohibition (e.g., for medical and religious
purposes).
19th Amendment
• The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to
the United States Constitution prohibits any United
States citizen from being denied the right to vote on
the basis of sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
• The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, enacted
October 15, 1914, was a part of United States
antitrust law with the goal of adding further
substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime; the
Clayton Act sought to prevent anticompetitive
practices in their incipiency.
Direct Primary Elections
• The definition of a direct primary election is
when people vote for candidates of their
political party by direct vote instead of by
delegates at a convention.
Division of Forestry
• The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an
agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that
administers the nation's 154 national forests and
20 national grasslands, which encompass
193 million acres (780,000 km2). Major divisions of
the agency include the National Forest System,
State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, and
the Research and Development branch.
Federal Reserve Act
• The Federal Reserve Act established
the Federal Reserve System, the central
banking system of the United States of
America, and granted it the legal authority to
issue Federal Reserve Notes (now commonly
known as the U.S. Dollar) and Federal Reserve
Bank Notes as legal tender. The Act was signed
into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
Voter Initiative
• A process of a participatory democracy that e
mpowers the people to propose legislation an
d to enact or reject the laws at the pollsindepe
ndent of the lawmaking power of the governin
g body.
Interstate Commerce Act
• The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 is a United States
federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad
industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act
required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but
did not empower the government to fix specific rates. It
also required that railroads publicize shipping rates and
prohibited short haul or long haul fare discrimination, a
form of price discrimination against smaller markets,
particularly farmers. The Act created a federal regulatory
agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which
it charged with monitoring railroads to ensure that they
complied with the new regulations.
Meat Inspection Act
• The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (FMIA) is a United
States Congress Act that works to prevent adulterated or
misbranded meat and meat products from being sold as food
and to ensure that meat and meat products are slaughtered
and processed under sanitary conditions. These requirements
also apply to imported meat products, which must be
inspected under equivalent foreign
standards. USDA inspection of poultry was added by
the Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957. The Food, Drug,
and Cosmetic Act authorizes the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to provide inspection services for all
livestock and poultry species not listed in the FMIA or PPIA,
including venison and buffalo. The Agricultural Marketing
Act authorizes the USDA to offer voluntary, fee-for-service
inspection services for these same species.
National Reclamation Act
• The Reclamation Act (also known as
the Lowlands Reclamation Act or National
Reclamation Act) of 1902 is a United States
federal law that funded irrigation projects for
the arid lands of 20 states in the American
West.
National Park System
• Major Division of the Department of Forestry
Pendleton Civil Service Act
• The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of United
States is a federal law established in 1883 that
stipulated that government jobs should be awarded on
the basis of merit. The act provided selection of
government employees by competitive exams, rather
than ties to politicians or political affiliation. It also
made it illegal to fire or demote government officials
for political reasons and prohibited soliciting campaign
donations on Federal government property. To enforce
the merit system and the judicial system, the law also
created the United States Civil Service Commission. A
crucial result was the shift of the parties to reliance on
funding from business, since they could no longer
depend on patronage hopefuls.
Pure Food & Drug Act
• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was the first of a series
of significant consumer protection laws enacted by the
Federal Government in the 20th century and led to the
creation of the Food and Drug Administration. Its main
purpose was to ban foreign and interstate traffic in
adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products, and it
directed the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry to inspect products and
refer offenders to prosecutors. It required that active
ingredients be placed on the label of a drug’s packaging and
that drugs could not fall below purity levels established by the
United States Pharmacopeia or the National Formulary. The
Jungle by Upton Sinclair was an inspirational piece that kept
the public's attention on the important issue of unsanitary
meat processing plants that later led to food inspection
legislation.
Voter Recall
• Recall is a procedure that allows citizens to
remove and replace a public official before the
end of a term of office. Recall differs from
another method for removing officials from
office – impeachment – in that it is a political
device while impeachment is a legal process.
Impeachment requires the House to bring
specific charges and the Senate to act as a
jury.
Voter Referendum
• "Referendum" is a general term which refers to a
measure that appears on the ballot. There are
two primary types of referenda: the legislative
referendum, whereby the Legislature refers a
measure to the voters for their approval, and the
popular referendum, a measure that appears on
the ballot as a result of a voter petition drive. The
popular referendum is similar to the initiative in
that both are triggered by petitions, but there are
important differences.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• The Sherman Antitrust Act (Sherman Act) is a
landmark federal statute in the history of United
States antitrust law (or "competition law") passed
by Congress in 1890. It prohibits certain business
activities that federal government regulators deem
to be anti-competitive, and requires the federal
government to investigate and pursue trusts.
Workingmen’s Compensation Act
• The Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA), is
a United States federal law, enacted on September 7,
1916. Sponsored by Sen. John W. Kern (D) of Indiana
and Rep. Daniel J. McGillicuddy (D) of Maine, it
established compensation to federal civil
service employees for wages lost due to job-related
injuries. This act became the precedent for "disability
insurance" across the country and the precursor to
broad-coverage health insurance.
• President Woodrow Wilson signed H.R. 15316 into law
on September 7, 1916.
Eight Hour Day
• Work will be restricted to eight hours a day
and forty hours a week.
Unemployment Insurance
• Unemployment benefits (depending on the
jurisdiction also called unemployment
insurance or unemployment compensation , also
known as the dole or collecting your pennies)
are social welfare payments made by the state or
other authorized bodies to unemployed people.
Benefits may be based on a compulsory paragovernmental insurance system. Depending on
the jurisdiction and the status of the person,
those sums may be small, covering only basic
needs, or may compensate the lost time
proportionally to the previous earned salary
Secret Ballot
• The secret ballot is a voting method in which
a voter's choices in an election or
a referendum are anonymous, forestalling
attempts to influence the voter
by intimidation and potential vote buying. The
system is one means of achieving the goal
of political privacy.
Increased Government Services in
Cities (police, fire, sanitation, etc)