Reading Quiz (p.193-199) Terms

Question 1

Gold Standard Act

Answer 1

Passed March 14, 1900. Gold—and only gold—became the standard unit of currency, was passed, thus marking the end of a two-decade struggle to make silver equal to gold.

Question 2

Presidential election of 1900

Answer 2

The nation reelected McKinley as President, along with Theodore Roosevelt as Vice President.The Democrats nominated William Bryan and Adlai Stevenson on a platform of anti-imperialism, anti-trust, and free silver. A Socialist Party nominated Eugene Debs of Indiana and Job Harriman of California. A Prohibition Party and a People’s Party also put forward candidates for the presidential office.

Question 3

Assassination of President MCKinley

Answer 3

On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and he died a week later, on September 14.

Question 4

Theodore Roosevelt, as new President

Answer 4

Roosevelt tried to reassure the nation by promising to “continue, absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley,” but he was known to champion such progressive causes as child labor laws, food and drug regulation, conservation, railroad re- form, and trust busting. A number of party leaders expressed concern about what he might do as chief executive

Question 5

Progressivism

Answer 5

Populists and all manner of social reformers from the East and West joined Roosevelt under the banner of“Progressivism,” a movement formed to further popular government and progressive legislation. They insisted that the nation needed labor laws regarding women and children, legislation regulating wages and hours, and statutes that defined safety and health conditions in factories. Trusts and railroadswere high on the list of what needed reform, along with certain business practices known to violate ethical and moral standards. Of particular concern was the unrelenting drive of industries to form trusts.

Question 6

“Bully pulpit”

Answer 6

A term referring to Roosevelt’s use of his position as chief executive of the nation to seek popular approval of his crusade against trusts.

Question 7

What two companies inaugurated Roosevelt’s drive to bring an end to industrial abuses?

Answer 7

the U.S. Steel Company, the first billion-dollar corporation in the country; and the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding company.

Question 8

Expedition Act

Answer 8

Passed by Congress on February 11, 1903, giving the federalprosecution of antitrust suits precedence in circuit court proceedings.

Question 9

Department of Labor and Commerce

Answer 9

Established on February 14, 1903.Included a Bureau of Corporations that had authority to investigate and compel testimony on activities by corporations involved in interstate commerce.

Question 10

Elkins Act

Answer 10

February 19, 1903. Sought to eliminate rebates on freight charges and regulate shipping by railroads.

Question 11

Hepburn Act

Answer 11

1906. Reinforced the Interstate Commerce Act by granting it the authority to set maximum railroad rates.

Question 12

Newlands Act

Answer 12

Pressed upon Congress by Roosevelt in 1902. Directed the proceeds from the sale of arid and semiarid lands in the West to be used for the construction of dams, irrigation, and other reclamation projects.

Question 13

Independence of Panama and plans for a canal

Answer 13

Roosevelt encouraged Panama, then a province of the nation of Colombia, to seek its freedom in order to allow the building of a canalacross the Isthmus of Panama. When native Panamanians rose up in rebellion in November 1903, American troops were used to block Colombia’s effort to crush the rebellion, and Roosevelt was quick to recognize Panamas independence. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed on November 10, 1903, granted the United States control of a ten-mile zone across the isthmus. The United States agreed to guarantee the independence of Panama by obtaining the right to intervene at any time to protect it sovereignty. It also agreed to pay $10 million and an annual fee of $250,000 to operate a canal after it had been built.

Question 14

Panama Canal

Answer 14

Guided by Manifest Destiny, the U.S., under Colonel William Gorgas, set to work on the canal, and on January 7, 1914, the first ship passed through it. The canal not only aided world trade but allowed the U.S. to move its fleet to protect its Pacific and Asian possessions. During the administration of President Jimmy Carter in 1977, treaties were negotiated by which the United States would continue to operate the canal until the year 2000, after which ownership of it would be turned over to Panama, with the understanding that its neutrality would be guaranteed even during periods of war.

Question 15

Presidential election of 1904

Answer 15

Roosevelt wonagainst the Democrat Alton Parker, the Socialist Eugene Debs, the Prohibitionist Silas Swallow, and the Populist Thomas Watson.

Question 16

Pure Food and Drug Act

Answer 16

Passed on June 30, 1906. Forbade the manufacture, sale, and distribution of adulterated drugs and food in interstate commerce, and it prohibited fraudulent labeling of these products.

Question 17

Meat Inspection Act

Answer 17

Required sanitary conditions and federal inspection of meatpacking facilities in any operation involved in interstate commerce. It took the publication of Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle” to expose the filthy conditions in meatpacking houses and neutralize opposition to the law’s passage.

Question 18

Progressive movement: reform

Answer 18

As the Progressive movement developedwithin the country, it demanded an end to the abuses of greedy corporations and machine politics.Several states initiated business reforms, railroad legislation, and income tax and adopted the direct primary and the initiative and referendum to allow voters a greater voice in deciding legislation

Question 19

Progressive movement: modes and means

Answer 19

To a large extent the movement was advanced by a number of writers, such as Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Henry Lloyd, Lincoln Stephens, and David Phillips, who exposed corruption and greed in business and politics. Magazines with national circulation also brought issues to public attention.

Question 20

“Muckrakers”

Answer 20

Name given to US journalists and other writers who exposed corruption in politics and business in the early 20th century. The term was first used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Question 21

Progressive movement:American democracy

Answer 21

The movement urged legislation that would allow the electorate to have a voice in initiating legislature that would benefit them; it urged legislation that would permit the public to approve or disapprove measures passed by state legislatures; and it urged legislation that would permit voters to recall elected officials who did not serve the public well-being.

Question 22

Political parties of the early 1900s

Answer 22

Democratic, Republican, Populist, Socialist, Socialist Labor, Progressive, Prohibition, Independence, and United Christian.

Question 23

Presidential election of 1908

Answer 23

Roosevelt stepped down. Republican William Howard Taft, with a platform that called for stricter enforcement of the antitrust laws and further tariff protection, defeated William Jennings Bryan

Question 24

Mann-Elkins Act

Answer 24

Passed on June 18, 1909. Added telephone, telegraph, and cable companies to the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and permitted it to suspend rate increases or to reduce rates if necessary, subject to judicial review.

Question 25

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909

Answer 25

Raised duties to an average forty percentin proportion to the estimated value of the goods or transaction concerned. Insurgent Republicans sharply disagreed with the tariff and joined Democratic efforts to reduce it, but Taft vetoed those efforts.

Question 26

National Progressive Republican League

Answer 26

On January 21, 1911, Insurgent Republicans formed the National Progressive Republican League in Washington, under the direction of Senator Robert La Follette, and demanded that the Republican Party directly support progressive legislation. Stalwart Republicans resisted these demands and renominated Taft for President in 1912.

Question 27

Insurgent Republicans in the House of Representatives

Answer 27

Led by Representative George Norris of Nebraska, they stripped Speaker Joseph Cannon of his dictatorial powers in controlling legislation. They also faulted Taft for failing to support and defend the conservationist views of his predecessor. When Theodore Roosevelt returned from Africa, he accepted the nomination of the Progressive Party in the election of 1912.

Question 28

Democratic nomination for the election of 1912

Answer 28

Delegates chose Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey with a platform supporting political and economic reform. Wilson put forward a program known as the “New Freedom.” It called for a reduced tariff, a reform of banking and currency, the strengthening of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the end of special privileges for business that had been granted by the federal government.

Question 29

Presidential election of 1912

Answer 29

The election ended with the total triumph of the Democrats. The Party swept to victory in forty states.For the first time in history, African-Americans voted Democrat because Wilson had promised them fair treatment and greater police protection. The Democrats also won control of the House of Representatives and elected more than two dozen governors, including several from traditionally Republican states.

Question 30

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Answer 30

The NAACP was founded by W. E. B. DuBois in 1909 to aid black people in their quest for economic and social equality.

Question 31

Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments

Answer 31

The Sixteenth legalized income tax (February 1913); and the Seventeenth provided for the popular election of senators (April 1913).

Question 32

Underwood-Simmons Tariff

Answer 32

Passed on October 13, 1913 under Wilson’s agenda.Reduced rates on nearly 1,000 items, including wool, sugar, iron ore, leather, hemp, wood, coal, and many foods. It also levied a one percent tax on incomes over $2,000 with a $1,000 exemption for married men, and a six percent on incomes from $20,000 to $500,000.

Question 33

Federal Reserve Act

Answer 33

Passed on December 23, 1913. Established twelve regional banks, each owned by private member banks and authorized to issue federal reserve notes to member banks. A Federal Reserve Board of seven members controlled this decentralized system. The act also authorized the board to raise or lower the discount rate of member banks, thereby enabling the board to command the availability of credit throughout the nation.

Question 34

Clayton Antitrust Act

Answer 34

Passed on October 15, 1914. Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by including practices not covered by the original legislation.

Question 35

Federal Trade Commission Act

Answer 35

Enacted on September 26, 1914. Struck at business practices that were deemed to be unfair or in restraint of trade.

Question 36

Federal Farm Loan Act

Answer 36

Signed by Wilson to strengthen his support from farmers. The act divided the country into twelve districts, each having a Farm Loan bank that would provide farmers with long-term, low-interest credit

Question 37

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

Answer 37

Signed by Wilson in September 1916. Forbade the sale in interstate commerce of any product made by children under the age of sixteen.