After Reconstruction ended, the United States began to grow in size and population. The West was conquered by the railroads, ranchers, farmers, and settlers. Native Americans were pushed out of the way in the name of “progress” and eventually placed onto reservations. The world became more modern with inventions like the telephone, the airplane, and the automobile. Making things became easier with ideas like the assembly line and mass production. Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller became extremely rich controlling major industries like steel and oil. People worked long and hard in large factories for little pay… including children. Millions of people moved to the U.S. from Europe and Asia, bringing their customs with them, which were sometimes not welcomed. People moved to the cities by the thousands, causing cities to grow, skyscrapers to be built, and cities to become crowded, dirty places.
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After Reconstruction ended, the United States began to grow in size and population.
The West was conquered by the railroads, ranchers, farmers, and settlers.
Native Americans were pushed out of the way in the name of “progress” and eventually placed onto reservations.
The world became more modern with inventions like the telephone, the airplane, and the automobile.
Making things became easier with ideas like the assembly line and mass production.
Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller became extremely rich controlling major industries like steel and oil.
People worked long and hard in large factories for little pay… including children.
Millions of people moved to the U.S. from Europe and Asia, bringing their customs with them, which were sometimes not welcomed.
People moved to the cities by the thousands, causing cities to grow, skyscrapers to be built, and cities to become crowded, dirty places.
In 1888, President Benjamin Harrison signed the Sherman Antitrust Act into law.
This act banned trusts and monopolies from forming to limit competition.
The big businesses used the courts to tie up rulings for long times.
The judges also tended to rule in favor of the big businesses.
The Progressive Era is from 1898-1917.
They believed that the public interest should be the focus for any government
action.
The progressives helped to put more power in the hands of the people.
Primaries allowed voters to choose the candidate from a party.
Initiatives allowed for voters to put legislation before the state government.
Referendums allowed voters to make law by voting on it.
The recall allowed voters to remove elected officials from offices.
Progressives wanted to lower tariffs to force American companies to compete with foreign
ones.
To make up lost tax money, Progressives supported a graduated income tax.
This meant that the richer would pay more tax money than the poor.
The Supreme Court ruled that an income tax was unconstitutional.
In response, Congress passed the 16th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The 17th Amendment also allowed for the direct election of senators.
Senators were elected by the state legislature previous to this amendment.
The 15th Amendment gave the right to vote to all men, but failed to consider women.
The abolition movement gave way to the suffragist movement after the Civil War.
Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had led a women’s suffrage movement in the mid-1800’s
to give women the right to vote in local an state elections.
Until 1920, women could not vote in national elections.
In 1913, women marched on Washington D.C. to spread their message. By 1919, they were able to vote in most
states in some elections.
Alice Paul led another march on Washington D.C. in 1917 to ensure the right to vote in all elections for women.
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1920, giving women the right to vote for President for the
Roosevelt reacted to Sinclair’s The Jungle by increasing the amount of inspection done in
meatpacking plants.
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 forced meatpackers to allow inspectors to see what was
going on.
Also in 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act required pure ingredients and proper advertising to be
used. All ingredients had to be listed in products.
Roosevelt also believed in conservation. He worked to control mining and lumbering, and
ensure natural resources were being protected as best they could be.
Areas were set aside for wildlife preservation to conserve them for public use for future
generations.
TR supported William Howard Taft to succeed him as president.
Taft was elected in 1908.
Taft was much more cautious than TR was. He did support progressive
policies however.
He did however attack trusts more than Roosevelt had.
Taft disagreed with Progressives on tariffs and on conservation.
TR was upset with the way Taft had handled things and decided to run against him in the 1912 election.
Taft was over 300 pounds, his bathtub is on display to this day.
It measures over seven feet long.
The 20th Century began with many groups of
people struggling against discrimination.
People believed that the U.S. should be run by
white, Protestant, Americans.
Only those who were from the U.S. or grew up in the U.S. should make decisions. Immigrants were often overlooked.
The government did very little to fight this
discrimination during the Progressive Era.
Many Americans feared that Catholics would disrupt the American way of life.
Americans were mostly Protestant, belonging to churches that split off from Catholics in the 1500’s.
The American Protective Association in Iowa formed to keep Catholics from getting jobs or from being elected
to office.
Many feared Catholics would try to take control of the country.
Jews had been discriminated against in Europe, and received the same treatment in the U.S.
Jews from Eastern Europe spoke different languages and had far different ways of doing things than people who came to the U.S. before them. They were seen as
“foreign” and not treated well.
Asians were discriminated against in the western United States.
Chinese immigrants had come over around the same time the Transcontinental Railroad was being built.
Chinese workers would work for lower wages, and took jobs away from Americans.
Congress acted and passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, prohibiting Chinese immigrants from coming to the
United States.
After the Chinese were excluded from the U.S., President Teddy Roosevelt made a “Gentleman’s Agreement” with
Japan in 1907. This limited the amount of Japanese immigrants who could come to the U.S.
Americans feared that too many Asians would make it impossible for them to make a living and preserve their