 When you come in, answer the
following in your notebook in 3-5
sentences:
 Who were the Progressives?
 Did the federal government do its job in
regulating business? Or was it
overstepping its boundaries?
Progressives sought to permanently address many
problems brought on during the Gilded Age
To regulate means the US Government
would make laws to oversee, adjust, fine
tune and correct the unfair business tactics
in industry and big business. Not take over
or control it.
Does this fit any particular idea we have
discussed? Does it have to?
Interstate
Commerce
Act
(1887)
Sherman
Antitrust Act
(1890)
These are the first laws to regulate
industry and big business.
Congress passed Interstate
Commerce Commission (ICC).
U.S. government regulated
interstate trade within the country.
End railroad corruption of charging
high prices to ship goods and
Rockefeller’s illegal deals.
Rebates/kickbacks/drawbacks were
illegal.
In 1890, Congress passed a law
which made trusts/monopolies illegal
or any business that prevented fair
competition.
How did the government try to regulate
Big Business?
Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)-
First U.S. gov’t organization to regulate the
railroads
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)First law to monitor business practices and
limit the power of Big Business.
Who would enforce such laws???


Our muckraking/progressive
president
He saw the problems of the
Gilded Age and sought
widespread government
reform!
Roosevelt Rises to the Presidency
 Graduate of Harvard
 Loved wildlife
 Named Assistant Secretary of the Navy
under President McKinley.
 Formed Rough Riders in Spanish
American War. (Calvary Unit)
 Elected Governor of N.Y.
 Progressive beliefs
 Vice President under McKinley and
became President when he was
assassinated
• Teddy Bear named after him.
• Square Deal=keep the wealthy from
taking advantage of the poor and small
business owners.
Square Deal
•TR believed in the “capitalistic
system” but believed that the
system must be regulated by US
Govt.
•for the betterment of the
“common man” as opposed to
benefit the elite.
•TR believed the U.S. Government was running the country and not the
rich and corrupt industrialists….
•U.S. Government involvement with “regulatory agencies”….Similar to
“checks and balances”
Square Deal
•Reforms of the Progressives
start with President
Roosevelt….
•Areas which he wanted to
reform and use the “bully
pulpit” of the Presidency were
the following:
•Bad Trusts vs. Good Trusts
•Take the side of labor
•Railroads
•Limiting corruption in the
workplace
•Conservation

“Trust-Busting” –
developed by Teddy
Roosevelt
 Breaking up monopolies
▪ 1902 – US vs. Northern
Securities
▪ Hepburn Act (1905)
▪ 1910 – US vs. US Steel
▪ 1911 – US vs. American Tobacco
▪ 1911 – US vs. Standard Oil of
New Jersey
Enforces Sherman Anti-Trust Act
 Sherman Anti-Trust Actbanned any trust that
restrained interstate
trade or commerce.
 Broke up many trusts
including Northern
Securities Company (r.r.
company) and beef
trusts.
 Supported large
corporations as long as
they did business fairly
(under TR’s watch.)
The Trustbuster
 Coal miners strike 1902- Threatens to
send in federal troops to end strike.
 Federal government steps in for 1st time
and helped workers in a labor dispute.
 Formed Department of Commerce and
Labor
Railroads
Railroad Reforms to boost
the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
•Elkins Act
•Anti-Rebate Act or AntiKick Back Act
•Regulates common
carriers of people and
freight, UPS, Greyhound,
Amtrak, etc.
•Hepburn Act
•Regulates rates for
passengers and freight
•Air travel cost controls
•Air freight price
controls

Meat Inspection Act (1906)
 Required meat factories be inspected (that goes across state
lines)
 Animals inspected before & after slaughter
 Created supervision (USDA)
 ** Remember: Which muckraker initiated these concerns?

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)
 Allowed gov’t to fine non-compliant businesses
 Label ingredients
 Later we get the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
ALL HAPPEN UNDER TEDDY’s ADMINISTRATION
TR’s Conservation Policy
•125,000 acres in reserve
•National Reclamation Act 1902
•25 water projects
•Founding of the National Park
System
National Forests
 Conserved and preserved forests.
 Gifford Pinchot- Led Division of Forestry in
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 Idea that forest be preserved for public use.
John Muir-Created Yosemite National Park in
1890.
At this time they would preserve forests for
logging, it later changed into public parks.
•National Reclamation
Act gave birth to the
Newlands Irrigation
Project.
•Free land to
Homesteaders who
wanted to farm
Lahontan Valley.
•Dairy farming, hay,
beef and sugar beets
•Lake Lahontan and
dam built in operation
by 1914
Roosevelt Changes Water Policy
 Water was fought over in Southwest.
 Private irrigation companies were
taking over riverbeds so farmers
couldn’t reclaim lost land.
 National Reclamation Act 1902- Fed.
Government decides where and how
water could be distributed.
 Build and managed dams.
 Roosevelt and Hoover Dams on
Colorado River.
 Salt Valley Project in Arizona.
OTHER REFORMS
Child Labor Reform
National Child Labor Committee
Florence Kelly
Keating-Owens Act (1916) = outlawed child
labor
 But ruled unconstitutional in 1918– federal
government cannot regulate INTRAstate commerce
 Impact?
Reforms for the Poor
Settlement houses
 Community centers
providing services to the
urban poor
Jane Addams
Hull House
Chicago, 1889
Impact?
Workers’ Reform
Bad Conditions
 Long hours
 Unsafe machinery
 Work related injuries/death
Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory Fire
Reform: Workers’
Compensation Laws
Impact?

One of the most influential
events in labor history was a
direct result of sweatshop
conditions. The Triangle Shirt
Factory Fire killed 146
workers. There were no real
fire escapes and the doors
opened out into the hall. The
doors where blocked locking
the workers in. As a result,
stricter building codes and
fire regulations where
passed.






1911 New York City
Locked doors
800 trapped
146 people (123 were
women) died
Female labor, bad
working conditions,
immigrant rights
Led to stricter building
codes and regulations

16th Amendment
 1913
 Progressive Tax
 Income based

17th Amendment
 1913
 Direct Election of
Senators
 Goal: End Corruption

18th Amendment
 1919/1920
 Temperance 
Prohibition
 Ban Sale and
Distribution of
“intoxicating liquors”

Since the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848,
the Women’s Rights movement went on
throughout the 19th century.

Susan B. Anthony led the charge to get
women the vote until 1906.

Shortly after her death, in 1920, women will
achieve the right to vote in the 19th
Amendment.

19th Amendment
 1920
 Women’s Suffrage (the
right to vote)
 Key Suffragettes:
▪ Susan B. Anthony
▪ Alice Paul
▪ Carrie Chapman Catt
Susan
B.
Anthony
Number of
children is
affecting
family life
for women
Margaret Sanger;
American Birth
Control League
Family
planning
info reaches
women