Single Tax Movement
single tax movement Proposed by Henry George in 1879, the single tax�a 100% tax on any increase in the value of real estate�was designed to keep property values low and therefore limit the accumulation of wealth while spreading opportunity more broadly in
John Dewey Background
John Dewey is best remembered for his educational ideas, but his goal was a wider philosophical response to industrialism. Dewey was born in 1859 in a small town in Vermont, studied philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, and taught at the University of M
Herb Spencer
Herbert Spencer, a British writer, proposed similar ideas, coining the phrase "survival of the fittest." He, too, had a large following in the United States, especially among the wealthy
Dewey, Ely, and Small were all part of a generation of academics who
Social Darwinism/William Graham Sumner
The application of Charles Darwin's theory of biological evolution to society, holding that the fittest and the wealthiest should thrive and lead, the weak and the poor "deserve" their fate, and government action is unable to alter this "natural" process.
John Dewey Real Actions
Dewey saw the ideas of Spencer and Sumner as easy but unethical justifications for privilege. Instead, Dewey believed that wise people could and should intervene in the economy to make it more just. His thinking was shared by a generation of philosophers,
Muckracking Journalists/Muckracking
muckraking journalists Journalism exposing economic, social, and political evils, so named by Theodore Roosevelt for its "raking the muck" from the bottom of American society
The trend toward investigative reporting to expose misconduct of important peopl
Henry Demarest Lloyd
The trend toward investigative reporting to expose misconduct of important people or organizations was emerging even before Pulitzer and Hearst took advantage of it. Henry Demarest Lloyd, who wrote for Chicago newspapers, became one of the first of the so
Cosmopolitan Magazine/McClure's Magazine/ Ida M. Tarbell/ The History of Standard Oil
Hearst also launched Cosmopolitan magazine as a vehicle for investigative journalism. In 1893, S. S. McClure launched McClure's Magazine, which until 1926 was the leader in the investigative field. Investigative journalists�writing with the conviction tha
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities
the report by Lincoln Steffens on "The Shame of Minneapolis" about the trial of the infamous four-term mayor of Minneapolis who got rich from payments from opium joints, unlicensed saloons known as "blind pigs," and "disorderly houses" of prostitution
Upton Sinclair/The Jungle
In 1906, a young reporter named Upton Sinclair took a job in Chicago's slaughterhouses to report, from the inside, on the meatpacking industry. He found a world where workers suffered terrible injury, animals suffered inhumane treatment, and unsanitary co
Meat Insepction Act of 1906/Pure Food and Drug Act
Consumption of meat fell precipitously, and within months, Congress passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act regulating the meat industry as well as the food and drug industries.
Political Machines/Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall New York City's Democratic Party organization, dating from well before the Civil War, that evolved into a powerful political machine after 1860, using patronage and bribes to maintain control of the city administration
Within that mix in New
Tammany Hall/Boss Tweed
The most famous, or infamous, of early Tammany bosses was William M. (Boss) Tweed, who led Tammany in the 1860s and 1870s. Tweed was a Protestant of English background. After holding the office of alderman (city council member) and then being elected to C
Thomas Nast
Tweed's corruption was attacked by the cartoonist Thomas Nast and eventually provoked a public backlash.
George Washington Plunkitt/Graft
One of Tammany's district leaders, George Washington Plunkitt, was also a state senator. In 1905, Plunkitt described how New York politics worked. He said that reformers failed to draw "the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft. There's all
Initiative/Referendum/Recall
Initiative: Procedure by which citizens can introduce a subject for legislation, usually through a petition signed by a specific number of voters.
Referendum: Submission of a law, proposed or already in effect, to a direct popular vote for approval or rej
Francis Perkins
A social worker, Frances Perkins, who had witnessed the Triangle Fire, was one of many to volunteer her services to the Factory Investigating Commission. Perkins also wrote much of the legislation that came from the commission's work. In the 2 years, Wagn
John Dewey/The School and Society
In 1899, John Dewey wrote The School and Society, describing what he thought a progressive approach to education should be, one that he had tried to create with his wife, Alice Chapman Dewey, and Ella Flagg Young, a Chicago teacher leader (who would later
Settlement Houses/Jane Addams/Hull House
In 1913, when Jane Addams had been living at Hull House on Halsted Street in Chicago for more than 20 years, she summed up her belief about the role of the settlement house and all efforts to improve society. "We have learned to say," she wrote "that the
Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)/Francis Willard/Carry Nation
Woman's Christian Temperance Union National organization formed after the Civil War dedicated to prohibiting the sale and distribution of alcohol
The following fall, in November 1874, 200 women from 17 states met in Cleveland and formed the Woman's Christ
Social Gospel
Social Gospel Application of religious ethics to industrial conditions and thereby alleviating poverty, slums, and labor exploitation
Other religious leaders began to talk of what they called the Social Gospel, which was based on the idea that improving s
A Theology of for the Social Gospel/Josiah Strong and Our Country
There were many social gospel preachers, but the most prominent was Walter Rauschenbusch whose 1917 book A Theology for the Social Gospel broadened the definition of sin from a focus on individual flaws to include social institutions that oppressed others
Jacob Riis,/How the Other Half Lives
Jacob A. Riis, an immigrant from Denmark working as a newspaper police reporter, published How the Other Half Lives in 1890. In that book, Riis sought to describe to the city's well-off residents the housing conditions of New York's poor, especially throu
Teddy Roosevelt/Square Deal
There was a reason that some referred to the new president as a cowboy. Theodore Roosevelt had already had an extraordinary career in and out of politics when he ascended to the presidency. During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt took command of a unit
Sherman Antitrust Act
Sherman Antitrust Act The first federal antitrust measure, passed in 1890; sought to promote economic competition by prohibiting business combinations in restraint of trade or commerce
Then in February 1902, the attorney general announced that, at Rooseve
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act A law of 1883 that reformed the spoils system by prohibiting government workers from making political contributions and by creating the Civil Service Commission to oversee their appointment on the basis of merit rather t
Antiquities Act
Between 1906 and 1908, Roosevelt used�or misused, as his critics said� authority given to him by the Antiquities Act of 1906 to declare a 295-acre stand of giant redwood trees just north of San Francisco as Muir Woods National Monument; 800,000 acres in A
Taft
William Howard Taft, who had served as a federal district court judge in Ohio before becoming governor general of the Philippines and then secretary of war, would have loved an appointment to the Supreme Court, one he finally won in 1921 when Warren Hardi
Howard Taft/Paine-Aldrich Tariff
Income and inheritance taxes seemed more equitable ways to pay for the government. But not everyone in Congress agreed, especially Rhode Island Senator Nelson Aldrich and House Speaker Joe Cannon. New York Representative Sereno Payne proposed reducing the
Gifford Pinchot
While Roosevelt was in Africa, word came to him in January 1910 that Taft had fired Pinchot. Pinchot wrote to the former president, "We have fallen back down the hill you led us up." The tariff might be abstract to Roosevelt, but conservation was the issu
Wilson
Wilson had only held elected office for 2 years. He was an expert on constitutional law with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, who had served as the president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910. He had sought to transform Princeton from a country club fo
Woodrow Wilson/New Freedom
New Freedom Woodrow Wilson's 1912 program for government intervention in the economy to restore competition by curtailing the business monopolies, thereby providing opportunities for individual achievement.
Brandeis suggested Wilson should speak of a New
Underwood-Simmons tariff
Wilson's first congressional victory was the passage of the Underwood-Simmons tariff, which the new president signed in October 1913. Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft all failed to get tariff reductions through Congress, mostly because of the powe
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
The Clayton Anti-Trust Act, signed in October 1914, outlawed interlocking directorates (under which the same individuals might serve on the boards of directors of supposedly competing companies), and defined unfair trade practices, including the kind of c
Federal Trade Commission Government agency
Federal Trade Commission Government agency established in 1914 to provide regulatory oversight of business activity.
Separate legislation also strengthened the investigative powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and created a new Federal Trade Comm