Competition - Weebly
Transcript of Competition - Weebly
“Competition was natural enough at one time, but do
you think you are competing today? Many of you think
you are competing. Against whom? Against Rockefeller?
About as I well as I would if I had a wheelbarrow and
competed with the Santa Fe Railroad from here to
Kansas City.”
Competition
- Eugene Debs
Progressive Era – broad name for a period of time when
reformers focused on improving things for ordinary people
(late 1800s, early 1900s)
Common Goals:
Social welfare
Moral improvement
Economic justice
Greater efficiency
Progressive Era
Child labor laws, aid organizations for poor
Consumer Protections, safety standards
Temperance Movement – prohibition of alcohol
Social Welfare and Morality
Call for shorter work days in the name of efficiency
Growing Opposition to corporate monopolies
Questioning of pure capitalism
Growth of socialist thought
Economic Reform & Efficiency
Ford – paid $5 a day – double the wage for comparable work
8 hour work day – assembly lines
Scientific Management - Taylorism – increased efficiency via
the simplification of tasks
Ford Plant and the Automobile
Child Labor – a crisis in late 1800s/early 1900s
Illinois Factory Act – 1893 – prohibited children under 14
from working; women – 8 hour workday
National Child Labor Committee – founded 1904 – fought to
end child labor & exploitation
Child Labor
Keating-Owen Act (1916) – tried to prevent interstate
trade of child labor made goods – overturned by SCOTUS
Comparable measure not made enforceable until Fair
Labor Standards Act - 1938
Attempt to Reform Child Labor Nationally
Red – Initiative and Popular
Referendum
Yellow – Popular
Referendum only
Green – Initiative
constitutional amendments
only
Blue – Neither Method
Initiatives – bills made directly by citizens
Referendums – direct vote on a legislative issue by citizens –
citizen voters reject or approve it
Recall – voters remove public officials by vote
Election Reforms (state/local)
16th Amendment – 1913 – progressive income tax
17th Amendment – 1913- voters elect their 2 senators to
congress directly
Past practice – state legislatures chose senators
18th Amendment – Alcohol Prohibition
19th Amendment - 1920 – women’s suffrage (voting rights)
Direct Election of Senators & Women’s Suffrage
U.S. Tax Brackets-2011
Single Taxpayer Rate
0- $8,500 10%
$8,500 to $34,500 15%
$34,500 to $83,600 25%
$83,600 to $174,400 28%
$174,400 to $379,150 33%
$379,150 and above 35%
Progressive Income Taxes Today
“A simple and poor society can exist as a
democracy on the basis of sheer individualism
but a rich and complex industrial society cannot
so exist.”
- Teddy Roosevelt – 26th President of the United
States – 1901-1909
7.2 I: Rapid industrial and technological
expansion widened the gulf between “haves
and have nots” – causing many challenges to
the status quo. Key Concept 7.2: A revolution in communications and transportation
technology helped to create a new mass culture and spread “modern” values
and ideas, even as cultural conflicts between groups increased under the
pressure of migration, world wars, and economic distress.
I. New technologies led to social transformations that improved the standard
of living for many while contributing to increased political and cultural
conflicts
Sickly child – overcame difficulty
Rough Rider; reputation as rabble-rouser; “kicked up” from
NY governor to Vice President
McKinley assassinated – 1901 – VP TR - president
Teddy Roosevelt’s background
TR credited with making the “modern presidency”
personality/popularity helped advance progressive reform
Expanded role of federal gov’t
The Modern Presidency
Roosevelt’s progressive reform program
Consumer Protections
“Trustbusting” – (breaking up monopolies)
Conservation
The “Square Deal”
Roosevelt – inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle
(about Chicago meat industry)
The Jungle – story about meat industry through immigrant
eyes
Consumer Protections
Meat Inspection Act - 1906
Pure Food and Drug Act – 1906 – targeted false
advertising; pushed “truth in labeling”
Consumer Protection Laws
Roosevelt helped set aside millions of acres of disappearing
wilderness; overdevelopment threatened nature
Expanded national parks – 80 million more acres
Newlands Act – transformed dry wildernesses via irrigation
Roosevelt’s Conservation efforts
1900 – 4/5 of US industry controlled by trusts
Roosevelt – saw big business as having right to exist; worried
about power of “bad” trusts
Trusts during the Teddy Roosevelt Era
Roosevelt targeted “bad trusts” under 1890 Sherman
Antitrust Act
Went after “bad trusts” that most hurt public
Left “good trusts” that he saw as beneficial alone
Roosevelt and “Bad Trusts”
Taft – TR’s chosen successor – won 1908 election
Meanwhile -Roosevelt went on Safari in Africa
William Howard Taft
Busted more trusts than Roosevelt
More cautious than Roosevelt; delayed reforms
Had to balance between eastern conservatives & western progressives
Did little for conservation
Lacked charisma of T. R.
Progressivism under Taft
“Bull Moose” Roosevelt returned; ran against Taft
Roosevelt’s progressive platform for 1912:
Direct election of senators
Women’s suffrage
Workmen’s compensation
Minimum wage
1912 Election – Roosevelt Returns
Roosevelt and Taft split vote
Progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson elected
Most voted for “progressive” candidates
1912 Election - Outcome
Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) – backed by Wilson – stronger
anti-trust laws than Sherman (1890)
Banned mergers if they would create a monopoly
Labor Unions not subject to anti-trust laws
Unions had right to exist
Federal Trade Commission Act (1916) – presidential
commission – attacked violations of interstate commerce,
unfair trade, false advertising
Strengthening Anti-trust laws
Income Tax
U.S. Tax Brackets-2011
Single Taxpayer –Income level Rate
0- $8,500 10%
$8,500 to $34,500 15%
$34,500 to $83,600 25%
$83,600 to $174,400 28%
$174,400 to $379,150 33%
$379,150 and above 35%
Federal Reserve Act – 1913
Brought greater stability
Ability to regulate interest rates and economy
US divided into 12 regional “bank districts”
Each district – regional central bank
Federal Reserve System (Finance)
Other Progressive moves under Wilson
Workingmen’s Compensation Act – 1916 – gave assistance
to disabled federal civil service employees
Adamson Act – 1916 – 8 hour days or overtime for rail
workers
“So far as Mr. Booker T. Washington preaches thrift, patience, and
industrial training for the masses, we must hold his hands and stand with
him… But so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or
South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles
the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher
training and ambition of our brighter minds – so far as he, the South, or
the Nation does this – we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them.”
- W. E. B. Du Bois – The Soul of Black Folk
Progressive Era politicians made very little progress on issue of black civil
rights
African-American Civil Rights
Booker T. Washington W. E. B. DuBois
Both favored Booker T. Washington –black leader who urged self-improvement
and education – acceptance of discrimination in short term
W. E. B. DuBois - wanted more rapid change
Civil Rights - Roosevelt and Taft