Chapter 11, Section 2
Progressive Legislation
TSC Fire
Triangle Shirtwaist Company
• 10-story Asch building (NYC)
• 600 workers
• 8th floor fire
• Frances Perkins watches
from street
Reaction
• Call for Social Welfare
Programs
• Municipal level
• Robert La Follette
• Workplace reforms
Fighting Bob!
Fighting political corruption with:
• Referendum – Removes a law
• Recall – Remove an official
• Direct Primaries
• Direct Election of Senators –
17th
• Initiative – Citizens can
propose laws
• All of these measures gave
citizens more power.
An Expanded Role for Government
• Progressives sought more social welfare
programs to help ensure a minimum standard
of living.
An Expanded Role for Government
• Many of the earliest Progressive reforms were
made at the municipal, or city, level.
• Some municipal reformers worked for home rule, a
system that gives cities a limited degree of self-rule.
TR’s“Bully pulpit”
• 1902 Coal Strike
– With winter looming TR threatens to send
in the troops.
• Square Deal
• Sherman Antitrust Act – Trust BUSTA!
• Pure Food and Drug Act
• Meat Inspection Act
An Expanded Role for Government
• Municipal reformers
opposed the
influence of political
bosses.
An Expanded Role for Government
• Reformers made efforts to take over city
utilities such as water, gas, and electricity.
An Expanded Role for Government
• Some reform
mayors led
movements for citysupported welfare
services such as
public baths, parks,
work-relief
programs,
playgrounds,
kindergartens, and
lodging houses for
the homeless.
California Recall 2003
Sherman
Antitrust Act,
1890
National
Reclamation
Act, 1902
Outlawed monopolies and practices that
restrained trade, such as price fixing.
Created to plan and develop irrigation projects.
United States
Forest Service,
1905
Created to manage the nation’s water and
timber resources.
Hepburn Act,
1906
Authorized the Interstate Commerce
Commission to regulate railroad rates.
Pure Food and
Drug Act, 1906
Banned interstate shipping of impure food and
deliberate mislabeling of food and drugs.
Meat Inspection Required federal inspection of meat processing
to ensure sanitary conditions.
Act, 1906
Department of
Labor, 1913
Cabinet department created to promote the
welfare and employment of working people.
16th
Amendment,
1913
17th
Amendment,
1913
Gave Congress the power to levy an income
tax.
Provided for the direct election of senators.
Created Federal Reserve System of
Federal Reserve
government banks to supervise private banks
Act, 1913
and provide a flexible money supply.
National Park
Service, 1916
18th
Amendment,
1919
19th
Amendment,
1920
Women’s
Bureau, 1920
Created to administer the nation’s parks.
Prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor.
(Repealed in 1933)
Granted women full suffrage.
Created within the Department of Labor to
improve the status of working women.