 During the Progressive Era, the Federal Government passed an enormous amount of legislation designed to conserve the environment, tighten past economic regulations, preserve the health and safety of American citizens, and generally provide needed capitalist reforms.

16 th - Income Tax 17 th – Direct Election of Senators 18 th - Prohibition 19 th – Women’s Suffrage elect representatives to the U.S. Senate, instead of allowing party-controlled state legislatures to do

(The New-York Historical Society)

He believed Wall Street financiers and powerful trust titans to be acting foolishly. While they were eating off fancy china on mahogany tables in marble dining rooms, the masses were roughing it. There seemed to be no limit to greed. If docking wages would increase profits, it was done. If higher railroad rates put more gold in their coffers, it was done. How much was enough, Roosevelt wondered? “ ONE SEES HIS FINISH UNLESS GOOD GOVERNMENT RETAKES THE SHIP” Roosevelt said confidently that no man, no matter how powerful, was above the law

 Before Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government paid very little attention to the nation’s natural resources  Roosevelt made conservation a primary concern of his administration Roosevelt, left, was an avid outdoorsman – here he is with author John Muir at Yosemite Park

 Congress passed laws mandating safer working conditions in mines and an 8- hour workday for the laborers in any company that did business with the federal government.  Con’t Trust-busting  Filed nearly a hundred lawsuits against trusts  Forest and oil reserves  Set aside more land  Sixteenth Amendment  providing for a federal income tax proportional to the amount a person earned  BUT: Caused split in Republican Party  Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) ▪ This tariff raised the prices of consumer goods ▪ Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy ▪ sale of a vast tract of land in Alaska to the timber industry (Taft has) “…completely twisted around the policies I advocated and acted upon.” -Theodore Roosevelt

 Democrat  Embarked on a program to continue Progressive reform called the "New Freedom Woodrow Wilson

 Was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth around the 1890s…  The frontier had been tamed  Great cities and businesses developed  Overseas empire established (later) BUT not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige, and optimism.

 1. There WERE a lot of politicians that were exposed and voted out of office  2. Several new acts were written and passed to help break apart monopolies  3. Laws WERE established to make factories cleaner, working conditions safer, and days shorter  Unions were legal  Strikes, picketing, boycotting legal ▪ See effects today  4. Thanks to muckrakers like Jacob Riis, the American people learned about these terrible living conditions and slum legislation helped clean up many inner city nightmares  5. The work of these progressives will be instrumental in the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 that will lead to Prohibition being passed under the terms of the 18th Amendment in

 6. Various Supreme Court cases helped bring an end to child labor  7. Beginning in Wyoming and Utah states began to grant women the right to vote in STATE elections, but it wasn't until 1920 that women earned the right to vote in federal elections thanks to the 19th Amendment.

 8. Thanks to the work of Upton Sinclair and his book "The Jungle" the federal government under Teddy Roosevelt passed two measures to eliminate unsanitary food processing practices.  9. People began to have much more involvement in government and good for community/fellow man thanks to the Progressives through work of, for example, Jane Addams

 Federal Trade Act (1914)  -Set up FTC or Federal Trade Commission to investigate and halt unfair and illegal business practices. The FTC could put a halt to these illegal business practices by issuing what is known as a "cease and desist order."  2. Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)  -Declared certain businesses illegal (interlocking directorates, trusts, horizontal mergers)  -Unions and the Grange were not subject to antitrust laws. This made unions legal!  -Strikes, boycotts, picketing and the collection of strike benefit funds ruled legal  C. Banking Reform - Needed elastic currency, ability to control the amount of $ in circulation.  1. Creation of Federal Reserve System  - Federal Reserve Banks in 12 districts would print and coin money as well as set interest rates. In this way the "Fed," as it was called, could control the money supply and effect the value of currency. The more money in circulation the lower the value and inflation went up. The less money in circulation the greater the value and this would lower inflation.  2. Federal Farm Loan Act set up Farm Loan Banks to support farmers.