progressive era terms

• federal reserve act - It took many months and nearly straight party-line voting, but on December 23, 1913, the Senate passed and President Woodrow Wilson signed this Act. The need for a central bank became painfully evident during the financial panic of 1907, when the stock market collapsed, banks failed, and credit evaporated. Because the federal government lacked the tools to respond, it had to depend on private bankers, such as J. P. Morgan, to provide an infusion of capital to sustain the banking system.
• ballenger-pinchot controversy - Discovered corrupt dealings by the Sec. Of the Interior. He had supposedly sold land that was set aside as part of the Forest Reserve Act for commercial use.
• underwood-simmons tariff - After the Democrats, who supported free trade, captured Congress and the White House in the elections of 1910 and 1912, the stage was set for a change in tariff policy. With the this, the United States broke with its tradition of protectionism, enacting legislation that lowered tariffs (and also instituted an income tax).
• aldrich-vreeland act of 1908 - After the Panic of 1907, Congress began to seek a preventative solution so that a banking panic or run would never happen again. In order to accomplish this, they passed the this act. The act allowed for the emergency production of currency in a crisis and created the National Monetary Commission. The Commission's job was to investigate any necessary changes to national banking and currency law. They spent three years researching the problem and settled on a plan to create the National Reserve Association.
• clayton antitrust act (1914) - This law aims to promote fair competition and prevent unfair business practices that could harm consumers. It prohibits certain actions that might restrict competition, like tying agreements, predatory pricing, and mergers that could lessen competition.
• keating-owens child labor act (1916) - This act limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor. The Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional because it overstepped the purpose of the governments powers to regulate interstate commerce.
• • kern-mcgillicuddy act (1916) - That was the day that the Federal Employees Compensation Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
  • The act provided compensation for federal civil service employees that lost wages because they were hurt or killed on the job.
• adamson act of 1916 - Wilson pushed passage of this act that mandated an eight hour workday and time and a half for overtime. Although directed at a single industry, railroads, the law was a significant victory for workers and a clear statement of the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.
• mann-elkins act - Among the significant pieces of legislation passed by Congress during Taft's presidency was the this legislation in 1910, empowering the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend railroad rate hikes and to set rates. The act also expanded the ICC's jurisdiction to cover telephones, telegraphs, and radio.
• hepburn act - This legislation was intended to give power to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to regulate railroad shipping rates. The legislation was strongly endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt - who firmly believed that the Federal government must increase its supervision and regulation of the railways engaged in interstate commerce.
• elkins act - This piece of legislation was championed by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a way to end the practice of rebates. Rebates were refunds to businesses which shipped large quantities on the railroads, and many railroad companies disliked it. Shippers could demand rebates and threaten to take their business elsewhere in the overbuilt and highly competitive American railroad network of the late nineteenth century.
• elkins act - This Act gave federal courts the power to end rate discrimination. Widely supported by larger railroad companies, this Act upheld the rates published by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Act outlawed rebates and made the railroad company itself liable for punishment along with the entity receiving the refund.
• federal trade commission - a federal agency established in 1914 to investigate and stop unfair business practices, established under Woodrow Wilson.
• department of labor and commerce - Originally started in 1903 as this Department, it was combined with the Bureau of Corporations in 1913 to create the Department of Labor. The Bureau of Corporations helped break the stronghold of monopolies.
• payne-aldrich tariff - Signed by Taft in March of 1909 in contrast to campaign promises. Was supposed to lower tariff rates but Senator from Rhode Island put revisions that raised tariffs. This split the Republican party into progressives (lower tariff) and conservatives (high tariff).
• teddy roosevelt preserved 170 million acres of land, established national parks
• clayton anti-trust act - law that weakened monopolies and upheld the rights of unions and farm organizations. This happens under Woodrow Wilson.
• 16th amendment - Amendment to the United States Constitution (1913) gave Congress the power to tax income.
• postal savings bank act - Taft signs the Postal this Act, which allowed one bank in each state, under federal supervision, to give two percent interest on accounts under $500.
• adamson act - 1916 law that established 8 hour workday for railroad workers in order to avert a national strike. Signed into law by Woodrow Wilson.