Chapter 20 ! Flashcards
Gilded Age
A term invented in the 1920s describing the late nineteenth century as a period of ostentatious displays of wealth, growing poverty, and government inaction in the face of income inequality. Commentators suggested that this era had been followed by a “Progressive Era” in which citizens mobilized for reform. The chronological line between the “Gilded Age” and the “Progressive Era” remains unclear, since the 1870s and 1880s witnessed mass movements of farmers, industrial laborers, and middle-class women for reform. Historians generally agree, however, that the era after 1900 brought about more laws to address industrial poverty, working conditions, and the power of monopolies and trusts.
Pendleton Act
An 1883 law establishing a nonpartisan Civil Service Commission to fill federal jobs by examination. It dealt a major blow to the “spoils system” and sought to ensure that government positions were filled by trained, professional employees
Mugwumps
A late-nineteenth-century branch of reform-minded Republicans who left their party in 1884 to support Democratic presidential candidate Grover Cleveland. Many of them were classical liberals who denounced corruption and advocated a reduction in government powers and civil service reform
Sherman Antitrust Act
Landmark 1890 act that forbade anticompetitive business activities, requiring the federal government to investigate trusts and any companies operating in violation of the act.
Lodge Bill
Also known as the Federal Elections Bill of 1890, a bill proposing that whenever 100 citizens in any district appealed for intervention, a bipartisan federal board could investigate and seat the rightful winner. The defeat of the bill was a blow to those seeking to defend African American voting rights and to ensure full participation in politics.
Omaha Platform
An 1892 statement by the Populists calling for stronger government to protect ordinary Americans.
Free Silver
A policy of loosening the money supply by expanding federal coinage to include silver as well as gold. Advocates of the policy thought it would encourage borrowing and stimulate industry, but the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan ended the “free silver” movement and gave Republicans power to retain the gold standard
Lochner v. New York
A 1905 Supreme Court ruling that New York State could not limit bakers’ workday to ten hours because that violated bakers’ rights to make contracts
Wisconsin Idea
A policy promoted by Republican governor Robert La Follette of Wisconsin for greater government intervention in the economy, with reliance on experts, particularly progressive economists, for policy recommendations
Recall
A pioneering progressive idea, enacted in Wisconsin, Oregon, California, and other states, that gave citizens the right to remove unpopular politicians from office through a vote. National Child Labor Committee: A reform organization that worked (unsuccessfully) to win a federal law banning child labor. The NCLC hired photographer Lewis Hine to record brutal conditions in mines and mills where thousands of children worked.
Muller V. Oregon
A 1908 Supreme Court case that upheld an Oregon law limiting women’s workday to ten hours, based on the need to protect women’s health for motherhood. Muller complicated the earlier decision in Lochner v. New York, laying out grounds on which states could intervene to protect workers. It divided women’s rights activists, however, because some saw its provisions as discriminatory.
Talented Tenth
A term used by Harvard-educated sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois for the top 10 percent of educated African Americans, whom he called on to develop new strategies to advocate for civil rights
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
An organization founded in 1910 by leading African American reformers and white allies as a vehicle for advocating equal rights for African Americans, especially through the courts.
Industrial Workers of the World
An umbrella union and radical political group founded in 1905, dedicated to organizing unskilled workers to oppose capitalism. Nicknamed the Wobblies, it advocated direct action by workers, including sabotage and general strikes.
Federal Reserve Act
The central bank system of the United States, created in 1913. This helped set the money supply level, thus influencing the rate of growth of the U.S. economy, and seeks to ensure the stability of the U.S. monetary system.
