Disasters
1900 Galveston, Texas hurricane
lead to reform
State commission – elected
commissions with 2 year terms
1913 Flood Dayton, Ohio
City managers & elected commissioners
The
government is more ________
Reform Mayors - Detroit and
Cleveland
Fairer tax structure, lower fares on public
transportation, parks, schools
Cleveland – take over utilities (so corrupt)
19
Socialist Mayors – Gas & Water
•
Wisconsin Gov. Robert La Follette (19011906), corporations should be treated the
same as people (no special treatment)
Regulated railroads, mines, mills, telephone
companies
•
No more free passes, taxed at same rate as other
businesses, commission to regulate
Washington, California, New York
Initiative
– bill originating from the people
(not politicians)
Referendum – bill the people (not politicians)
vote for or against
Recall – the people get to vote on removing a
politician from office prior to their term
being up
Primaries – the people choose their political
party’s candidates
By
1916 all but three states had direct
primaries
"Let
the watchwords of all our people be the
old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency,
fair-dealing, and commonsense."... "We must
treat each man on his worth and merits as a
man. We must see that each is given a square
deal, because he is entitled to no more and
should receive no less."The welfare of each
of us is dependent fundamentally upon the
welfare of all of us."
--New
1903
York State Fair, Syracuse September 7,
Square Deal: all get a fair
shot
corporations, consumer
protection, conservation
Corporations
Trust busting – Good versus Bad
1902 Northern Security, 1904
dissolved
44 other suits
Elkins Act, 1903
Public rate change publish,
rebates not allowed (fine)
Hepburn Act, 1906
Max rates, no free passes
The Father of Conservation - "I recognize the right and duty of
this generation to develop and use the nature resources of our
land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob,
by wasteful use, the generations that come after us." (Theodore
Roosevelt, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910).
Newlands Reclamation Act
(1902)
Public money for dams & irrigation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF15JVliwRc&feature=related
1905: US Forest Services under Gifford Pinchot
Set aside land cannot be used (43-194 million
acres protected)
Five national parks
18 national monuments to be protected
Not
a Roosevelt…
Major trust buster
90 to TR’s 44
Mann
Elkins Act 1910
ICC’s power
Set
stage 16th amendment
Payne Aldrich Tariff
Said would lower tariffs &
wavered
Conservation
issues
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Hired B as secretary of interior –
removed 1 million acres land
Pinchot (former head Forestry) fired
testifying against B
Taft gets the Republican nomination
Roosevelt forms the Bull Moose
Party/Progressive Party
Woodrow Wilson – Democrat
Democrats happy – why?
SOCIALIST – Eugene Debs
4th run!
Teddy – New Nationalism –
government involvement
Wilson – New Freedom – tariffs,
trusts, high finance
TRUSTS
WOMEN”S SUFFRAGE
TARIFFS
New Freedom
Triple Wall of privilege “trust, tariff
and high finance (banks)”
Underwood Tariff of 1913
First reduction since CW
Federal Trade Commission Act of
1914 – advertising & pricing
Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1914
Legal – unions, striking, boycotts
Illegal – certain business
practices
Federal Reserve Act, 1913
Government controls money supply
16th
Amendment
17th Amendment
(1913)
18th Amendment
19th Amendment
– graduated income tax (1913)
– direct election of senators
– prohibition of alcohol (1919)*
– women’s suffrage (1920)
**** 21st Amendment – (1933)