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American History - temporary > Populism and Progressivism (1890 - 1912) > Flashcards

Populism and Progressivism (1890 - 1912) Flashcards

1
Q

3

Successes of President McKinley

A
  • Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush 1896-99 increased the amount of gold in circulation (30-40k speculators)
  • Political position strengthened by the Spanish-American War
  • Growing economy
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2
Q

5

Weaknesses of President McKinley

A
  • Big business friendly policies
  • Dingley Tariff Act 1897 (increased tariffs)
  • Currency Act 1900 (committed the US to maintaining the gold standard)
  • Strong disagreements with his vice-president Roosevelt
  • Assassinated September 1901
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3
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5

Successes of President Roosevelt

A
  • Anti-trust measures
  • Sided with the workers during the Anthracite coal strike 1902
  • Conservation
  • Consumer protection
  • Roosevelt brought federal government and presidential office into the domain of economic and social reform
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4
Q

5

Describe President Roosevelt’s anti-trust measures

A
  • In 1st State of Union Address to Congress in Dec 1901 he evoked anti-big business sentiment
  • Further enforced Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
  • Northern Securities Company
  • Department of Labour and Commerce Act 1903
  • Hepburn Act 1906
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5
Q

4

Describe TR’s attitude towards the Northern Securities Company

A
  • 1902 - instructed attorney general Knox to start proceedings against the Northern Securities Company, which controlled several railways in NE
  • involved taking on powerful businessmen like Rockefeller and JP Morgan who appeared to be using monopoly to create excess profits
  • 1904 - after long battle Supreme Court decided that company was illegal and it was dissolved
  • encouraged Roosevelt to embark on 44 antitrust prosecutions inc American Tobacco and Standard Oil
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6
Q

2

Describe the Roosevelt’s enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act 1890

A
  • Gave govt right to break up trusts or take them to court for anti-competition practices - rarely and ineffectively used until Roosevelt’s presidency
  • Embarked on 44 anti-trust prosecutions
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7
Q

3

Describe the Department of Labor and Commerce Act 1903

A
  • Created a new Department of Commerce
  • Was given the power to collect data from any business dealing in interstate commerce
  • In order to identify monopolies and price fixing
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8
Q

3

Describe the Hepburn Act 1906

A
  • Established a federal government commission
  • Given power to inspect books of railroad companies
  • Could lay down max rates they could charge
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9
Q

4

Describe the anthracite coal strike of 1902

A
  • Roosevelt sided with the workers and acted as neutral arbitrator
  • Told employers that if they didn’t settle he would send in troops to work the mines
  • 10% pay increase
  • reduction from 10hr to 9hr days
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10
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3

Describe President Roosevelt’s conservation work

A
  • 150 million acres of forest to be placed on federal reserves
  • Strictly enforced laws on grazing, mining and lumbering
  • Organised 1908 National Conservation Conference
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11
Q

2

Describe President Roosevelt’s work in consumer protection

A
  • 1906 Act led to a federal programme of meat inspection
  • Pure Food and Drug Act 1906 started the end of food adulteration
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12
Q

2

Weaknesses of President Roosevelt

A
  • Growing divide in the Republican Party between conservatives and progressives
  • TC&I takeover authorised
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13
Q

6

Strengths of President Taft

A
  • Antitrust measures (80 antitrust suits)
  • introduced 8 hour working day for government employees
  • Mine safety legislation
  • Interstate Commission to set railroad rates
  • 1909, introduced federal income tax and corporation tax (later used to fund direct election of senators)
  • Respected rights of congress to oppose his ideas
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14
Q

5

Weaknesses of President Taft

A
  • Lacked political skill and progressive rhetoric of Roosevelt
  • Failed to handle Republican Party progressive-conservative divide
  • Sacked Pinchot (the great conservationist appointed by Roosevelt)
  • Payne-Aldrich Act 1909 (failed to lower tariffs)
  • Lost the support of Roosevelt who considered him too conservative
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15
Q

3

Describe the impact that Roosevelt had on the 1912 election

A
  • Roosevelt formed the Bull-moose party
  • Split the Republican vote
  • Contributed greatly to 1912 Republican defeat
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16
Q

2

What were the main reasons populism emerged?

A
  • Bimetallism
  • Agricultural discontent
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17
Q

4

Describe bimetallism in 1890

A
  • The introduction of silver currency as well as gold
  • 1865-1890, world gold production decreased
  • 1860-1890, US silver production went from $150,000 to $57 million
  • Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890 removed by President Cleveland in 1896
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18
Q

4

Describe agricultural discontent in 1890

A
  • High tariffs on foreign goods made it hard to sell abroad
  • Harvests deteriorated from 1880 due to poor weather
  • 1860-1890, 1 bushel of wheat went from $1.60 to $0.60
  • 1860-1890, 1 bushel of cotton went from $0.30 to $0.06
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19
Q

6

What were the aims of the Populist Party?

A
  • Regulation of railways & farm prices
  • Improve AA rights
  • Graduated income tax
  • Direct election of senators
  • 8 hour working day
  • Bimetallism
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20
Q

2

Give some reasons why populism was not important

A
  • Collapsed following 1896 election (short lived)
  • Had few electoral success (45 member served in Congress 1891-1902)
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21
Q

2

Give some reasons why populism was important

A
  • Progressives adopted many of the aims of the populist party
  • Third party influence of the Populists
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22
Q

6

What were the main reasons progressivism emerged?

A
  • Economic problems
  • Social problems
  • Need for political reform
  • Need to regulate big business
  • Media influence
  • Fear of revolution
23
Q

4

Describe the economic problems that led to the establishment of progressivism

A
  • Recession in 1893
  • 12% unemployed in 1890’s
  • Falling standards of living
  • Failing small farms vs big agribusiness
24
Q

3

Describe the social problems that led to the establishment of progressivism

A
  • Poor living conditions
  • 6 day, 72-hour working week
  • No welfare system
25
Q

2

Describe the need for political reform that led to the establishment of progressivism

A
  • Growing dissatisfaction with the 2 main parties
  • Corruption
26
Q

2

Describe the need to regulate big business that led to the establishment of progressivism

A
  • Monopolies and fixed prices
  • Increasingly hostile to robber barons
27
Q

3

Describe the media influence that led to the establishment of progressivism

A
  • Increase in magazine and newspaper circulation
  • Spreading views and opinions
  • 1912, McClure’s magazine = 1 mill copies per edition
28
Q

2

Describe the fear of revolution that led to the establishment of progressivism

A
  • Concern about the growth of socialism and radicalism
  • Growing trade unions and violent strikes
29
Q

5

Describe the political aims of the progressives

A
  • Female suffrage
  • Direct election of senators
  • Regulation on big business and intervention on the side of the workers
  • More democratic election of public officials
  • Open primary election
30
Q

5

Describe the economic aims of the progressives

A
  • Regulation of big business
  • Legislation to recognise trade unions, regulate working hours & provide compensation for injury at work
  • Insurance schemes for unemployed, elderly and sick
  • Legislation for consumer protection
  • Bimetallism
31
Q

4

Describe the social aims of the progressives

A
  • Female suffrage
  • Creation of welfare state
  • Abolition of manufacture and sale of alcohol
  • Improved living standards for African Americans
32
Q

4

Describe industrial growth 1890-1912

A
  • Modern oil production stated January 1901
  • 1913, Oklahoma producing 25% nations oil
  • 1904, largest 4% US companies producing 57% of total industry in the US
  • US Steel became the world’s first billion-dollar
33
Q

7

Describe the Depression of 1893

A
  • Reading Railroad declared bankruptcy, started financial panic
  • ‘Industrial Black Friday’ - 24 businesses collapsed each day in May
  • Sparked a 4 year depression
  • 15,000 companies and 600 banks collapsed
  • National unemployment reached 20%
  • Cleveland passed the Repeal of the Silver Purchase Act in 1896 which began to improve the economy
  • Encouraged the rise of progressivism
34
Q

4

Describe agricultural discontent 1890 - 1912

A
  • Struggling farmers
  • Objected to power of bankers and corporations
  • Falling produce prices and rising grain storage prices made loans harder to repay
  • Formed Farmers’ Alliances which eventually led to the Populist party
35
Q

5

Describe the Pittsburgh steelworkers’ strike 1892

A
  • Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works cut wages and refused to accept union negotiations
  • Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers were hired to smuggle in strike breakers but were attacked by strikers
  • Company called in the Militia
  • After 5 months, strike collapsed due to lack of funding
  • Considerably set back union power
36
Q

6

Describe the Pullman strike 1894

A
  • First national strike in the US
  • Pullman company cut wages but did not lower the rent of the houses where the employees were required to live
  • Rioting led Cleveland’s troops to open fire, killing 4 people
  • Strike ended in failure
  • Government had proved itself hostile to unions
  • The Omnibus Indictment Act 1894, permitted legal banning of strikes and remained in force until the 1930’s
37
Q

4

Describe mass immigration 1890 - 1912

A
  • 1860 to 1900 = 14 million immigrants
  • 1900, NY had more Italians than Naples and twice as many Irish as Dublin
  • 1914, 1.4 million of NY’s 4.7 million population were Jewish
  • 1890, 1/10th San Francisco population was Chinese
38
Q

4

Describe segregation in the South

A
  • 1887, a railroad company in Florida was the first to introduce segregated carriages
  • This spread to other train companies and public places
  • Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
  • Cumming v. Board of Education, 1899
39
Q

4

Describe Plessy v. Ferguson 1896

A
  • Plessy was light-skinned but 1/8th black
  • He challenged Louisiana state law by refusing to leave a white only train carriage
  • The local judge ruled against him and the case went to the SC
  • 7 of 8 SC judges ruled segregation was legal as long as it was ‘separate but equal’
40
Q

1

Describe Cumming v. Board of Education 1899

A
  • Ruled that ‘separate but equal’ could be extended to education
41
Q

5

Describe black voting rights in the south

A
  • Georgia introduced a poll tax of up to $2 per voting citizen (made prerequisite for voting in 1908)
  • 1898, Louisiana introduced the ‘grandfather clause’, declaring one could only vote if their father or grandfather had done so before 1st Jan 1867 (when AA gained the right to vote)
  • Some states ruled only those who owned their own homes could vote
  • 1890, Mississippi introduced a literacy test
  • By 1910, there was near elimination of black vote in the South
42
Q

5

Describe Booker T. Washington

A
  • Born a slave in Virginia
  • Later went to college and became a teacher
  • 1881, set up the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to provide vocational training for AA
  • Helped set up National Urban League to help AA adjust to industrial life and work
  • Speech in Atlanta, Georgia in 1895
43
Q

4

Describe the speech Booker T. Washington gave in Atlanta

A
  • 1895
  • Suggested AA focus on education and economic advancement
  • Wanted to work with the system rather than take it apart
  • Critics called this ‘the Atlanta Compromise’ and claimed it was too accommodating
44
Q

4

Describe W.E.B Du Bois

A
  • A lecturer in philosophy
  • Advocated for more active resistance to discrimination
  • Helped found the Niagara Movement in 1905
  • Helped found the NAACP in 1909
45
Q

3

Describe the Niagara Movement

A
  • Founded 1905
  • More active resistance
  • Some argued the movement was too academic and lacked funds
46
Q

4

Describe the negatives of the situation for AA by 1912

A
  • No AA in Congress of state legislatures
  • No right to vote in the South due to state laws
  • Lost the right to serve on juries
  • Segregation laws were formalised
47
Q

4

Describe the positives of the situation for AA by 1912

A
  • 25% of AA farmers owned land
  • Chance of receiving a formal education increased
  • Start of Great Migration North
  • Civil Rights movement began to develop with the foundation of the NAACP in 1909
48
Q

5

Describe the 1896 election

A
  • Populist Party had a decisive say in the nomination of the Democrat candidate, William Jennings Bryan
  • Hanna spent $3 million supporting McKinley
  • Hanna sent 1,500 speakers to swing the vote in undecided areas
  • Bryan travelled over 28,000km and gave 600 campaign speeches
  • McKinley won 7m votes to Bryan 6.4m
49
Q

Describe the McKinley Tariff Act 1890

A
  • raised average duty on imports by circa 50%
50
Q

1

Describe the cause of the 1907 panic

A
  • Triggered by collapse of 3rd largest NY trust, the ‘Knickerbocker’ trust company
51
Q

3

Describe the effects of the 1907 panic

A
  • Boom period interrupted - though 1900-07 time of relatively slow growth compared with 1895-1900 and 1908-13
  • NYSE fell by 50%
  • Local and national banks went under - no central bank at time to prop up banking system
52
Q

2

How was the 1907 panic ended?

A
  • Major crisis averted by JP Morgan who put up millions of dollars to restore business confidence and prompted other financiers to do the same
  • TC&I collapse averted by JP Morgan takeover - authorised by trust-busting TR
53
Q

3

Describe the long-term impact of the 1907 panic

A
  • Panic quickly overcome (unlike 1893 or 1929) but showed underlying weakness of US banking system due to lack of regulation
  • Prompted calls for establishment of central bank, the Federal Reserve - achieved by Wilson in 1913
  • Showed that economic power lay in hands of robber barons like JP Morgan
54
Q

3

Describe Ida Wells

A
  • wrote articles in 1891 critical of education available to AA children
  • Ida Wells, a black newspaperwoman in Memphis, attacked the lynching fever in 1892 and a mob destroyed the paper’s office
  • Her office was sacked and she fled the South

American History - temporary (11 decks)

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