Deck 21: Progressive Reform, 1890-1916

Question 1

According to Theodore Roosevelt, the absolutely vital question facing the nation when he became president in 1901 was whether

A) the government had the power to control the trusts.
B) Congress had the moral wherewithal to remove corrupt members.
C) the United States should have continued to speak softly but carry a big stick.
D) the United States could avoid another severe economic downturn before the implementation of a national banking system.

Answer 1

the government had the power to control the trusts.

Question 2

What assumption lay at the foundation of the American progressive agenda in the early twentieth century?

A) Humans should leave progress to the dictates of natural selection.
B) Social engineering is a dangerous and unethical practice.
C) The American president must lead the way for social reform.
D) Experts have the skills and knowledge to use scientific methods to improve society.

Answer 2

Experts have the skills and knowledge to use scientific methods to improve society.

Question 3

One of Cleveland mayor Thomas Lofton Johnson's primary goals was to

A) close municipal buildings one hour before sundown to conserve electricity.
B) reduce Cleveland's streetcar system's fare from five cents to three cents.
C) use a fare increase on the city's streetcars to retire the city's skyrocketing debt.
D) privatize the city's gasworks in order to make central heating available to the Cleveland's working-class population.

Answer 3

reduce Cleveland's streetcar system's fare from five cents to three cents.

Question 4

What idea formed the core of reform Darwinist theory in progressive-era America?

A) People are powerless in the face of the law of natural selection.
B) Laissez-faire is the most effective means of solving society's problems.
C) Reform should always be a slow and thoughtful process.
D) The state should play a more active role in solving social problems.

Question 5

The temperance reform movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries stigmatized

A) middle-class white women.
B) the Protestant clergy.
C) the Irish, Italians, and Germans.
D) those who refused to drink alcohol.

Question 6

Elevating productivity and efficiency but alienating the working class, Frederick Winslow Taylor pioneered the practice of

A) supply-side economics.
B) mechanized labor.
C) systematized shop management.
D) laissez-faire.

Question 7

How did the American progressive movement begin and evolve?

A) It originated at the federal level of government and worked its way down to rank-and-file Americans.
B) It began at the federal level of government and essentially stayed there.
C) It began at the grassroots level and percolated up to the national level of government.
D) It started at the local level and had very little effect on state and national governments.

Question 8

What did the social gospel movement of the late nineteenth century advocate?

A) It urged the distribution of free Bibles in cities.
B) It called for the reform of both individuals and society.
C) It argued that charity begins at home.
D) It called for corporate funds to build churches throughout the nation.

Question 9

Taken together, what did President Roosevelt's actions in the anthracite coal strike of 1902 and the dissolution of Northern Securities in 1904 demonstrate about the U.S. government?

A) Roosevelt's administration would act independently of big business.
B) Government officials were willing to make deals with big business to maintain economic stability.
C) The federal government would continue to side with management in major labor disputes.
D) The government was virtually powerless to withstand lobbyists and other powerful business interests.

Question 10

What was the outcome of the strike by 147,000 anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania in 1902?

A) The collapse of the mining industry
B) Formal recognition of the United Mine Workers
C) Federal government control of the coal industry
D) A reduction in hours worked and an increase in wages

Question 11

Who wrote In His Steps, the popular 1898 book that called on men and women to Christianize capitalism?

A) Jane Addams
B) Lillian Wald
C) Mary Kenney O'Sullivan
D) Charles M. Sheldon

Question 12

Why did progressives launch the social purity movement?

A) To regulate the food industry
B) To attack prostitution and other vices
C) To advocate the use of birth control among immigrants
D) To clean up corrupt urban politics

Question 13

How did Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette unite his supporters during the first years of the twentieth century?

A) He emphasized reform over party loyalty.
B) He appealed to Republicans' conservative economic views.
C) He called for an end to progressive reform efforts.
D) He emphasized party loyalty over reform.

Question 14

What was the uprising of twenty thousand in 1909?

A) A strike by women garment workers in New York City who were protesting low wages, dangerous working conditions, and management's refusal to recognize their union
B) A strike by steelworkers in Pennsylvania who were protesting low wages and inhumane working conditions
C) A walkout of public-school students in Boston who were protesting the physical conditions of the schools
D) A nationwide walkout of workers in the meatpacking industry who were protesting unsanitary working conditions and low wages

Question 15

The progressives that influenced the United States between 1890 and 1916 were

A) reformers with a broad agenda of concerns.
B) poorly educated urbanites intent on Americanizing immigrants.
C) reformers who advocated the full separation of church and state.
D) women who sought to legislate morality.

Question 16

What did Jane Addams quickly learn was necessary to alleviate social problems in Chicago?

A) Paying bribes to corrupt city officials
B) Access to the vote
C) Great independent wealth
D) Involvement in political action

Question 17

The 1909 strike at New York City's Triangle Shirtwaist Company demonstrated that

A) middle-class women would abandon working-class women when economic conditions deteriorated.
B) women could not organize successfully on a large scale.
C) women workers could create solidarity across social and ethnic lines.
D) class divisions among workers could help them organize more effectively.

Question 18

In his capacity as a reform governor of California from 1911 to 1917, Hiram Johnson

A) introduced the direct primary but failed to strengthen the state's railroad commission.
B) published his book, The Octopus, that criticized the Southern Pacific Railroad.
C) supported conservation, the initiative, referendum, and recall.
D) vetoed both the direct primary and recall.

Question 19

What did American women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude about the settlement house movement?

A) It did not allow them to act in unorthodox ways and required traditional feminine decorum.
B) It excluded Catholics, Jews, and other non-Protestants.
C) It was dominated by white males who had little confidence in women's abilities.
D) It gave women opportunities to use their talents to help society.

Question 20

Lawyers used a mass of sociological evidence in the 1908 Muller v. Oregon case to demonstrate

A) the ill effects on workers of prolonged exposure to toxic fumes.
B) the ill effects of working long hours on the health and safety of women.
C) that women are stronger than men in some situations and should be paid more.
D) that railroads should hire at least as many women as men in all operational areas.

Question 21

The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

A) set up the United States as the police power in the Western Hemisphere.
B) relaxed the doctrine's restrictions on European nations.
C) guaranteed that the United States never had to send troops to Latin American nations.
D) reversed the policy of the Monroe Doctrine.

Question 22

Which of the following describes President Taft's "dollar diplomacy" in the Caribbean?

A) It set commercial rather than strategic goals.
B) It attempted to increase U.S. influence in the region by hiring nationals and paying them U.S. dollars.
C) It differed little from President Roosevelt's policies in the region.
D) It offered Caribbean nations a favorable rate of exchange with the United States.

Question 23

The term muckrakers refers to Progressive Era journalists who were known for

A) failing to criticize corporate and political malfeasance.
B) refusing to expose social injustice.
C) writing stories about corporate and political wrongdoing.
D) working to prevent needed political and legislative reforms.

Question 24

To compensate for the revenue that would be lost as a result of the new Underwood tariff, in 1913 the House of Representatives passed

A) an act permitting Wilson to request money from J. P. Morgan.
B) federal taxes on liquor and cigarettes.
C) the federal income tax.
D) the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Question 25

What did J. P. Morgan receive in return for his actions in the Panic of 1907?

A) A firm rebuke from President Roosevelt for interfering in government affairs
B) The tacit approval of President Roosevelt for U.S. Steel's acquisition of Tennessee Coal and Iron
C) The promise of antitrust proceedings if he went forward with the purchase of Tennessee Coal and Iron
D) The chairmanship of the Federal Reserve Board for the remainder of Roosevelt's administration

Question 26

What was the purpose of the 1907 "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the United States and Japan?

A) To allow greater Japanese immigration into the United States
B) To forge an alliance between the United States and Japan in case war broke out with China
C) To allow the Japanese to save face by voluntarily restricting immigration to the United States
D) To condemn Russia for supporting Chinese goals

Question 27

What did President Roosevelt believe was the best way to deal with trusts in the first decade of the twentieth century?

A) Break up as many as possible
B) Break them up and then allow them to reorganize along federal guidelines
C) Allow them to continue but with federal government regulation
D) Allow them to continue and to operate as they chose

Question 28

Which of the following statements describes the primary difference between preservationists and conservationists in the early twentieth century?

A) Preservationists sought to protect the wilderness from all commercial exploitation, while conservationists advocated its efficient use.
B) Conservationists sought to protect the wilderness from all commercial exploitation, while preservationists advocated its efficient use.
C) Preservationists openly supported Roosevelt's environmental policies, while conservationists did not.
D) Preservationists secured Roosevelt's support, while conservationists did not.

Question 29

The Hepburn Act (1906) marked the first time that

A) the federal government attempted to curb the power of the railroads.
B) the Republicans were able to pass a major piece of regulatory legislation.
C) a government commission was authorized to examine the records of a private business and to set prices.
D) the railroads admitted that they had engaged in unfair and discriminatory business practices.

Question 30

To obtain the Panamanian isthmus for construction of a canal in 1903, the United States

A) negotiated a treaty and paid a fair price for the property.
B) backed an uprising in Panama arranged by New York investors.
C) declared war with Colombia, which controlled the isthmus at the time.
D) submitted its cause to international arbitration.

Question 31

President Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his role in

A) the Spanish-American War.
B) the revolution in the Philippines.
C) the Russo-Japanese War.
D) the Panamanian uprising against Colombia.

Question 32

What factor explained Woodrow Wilson's victory in the 1912 presidential election?

A) The progressive platform put forward by the Democratic party led to his victory.
B) His incredible popularity as a man of the people engaged more voters in the political process.
C) His laissez-faire attitude toward big business netted him huge campaign contributions from corporate America.
D) Theodore Roosevelt entered the race as a third party candidate and split the Republican vote.

Question 33

Which of the following describes a significant difference between William Howard Taft's presidency and that of Theodore Roosevelt?

A) Unlike Roosevelt, Taft refused to compromise with business leaders.
B) Taft believed it was up to the courts, not the president, to arbitrate social issues.
C) Unlike Roosevelt, Taft wanted to strengthen the powers of the executive branch.
D) Taft completely ignored the tariff issue, which was the hallmark of the Roosevelt administration.

Question 34

How did President Roosevelt influence land conservation during his administration?

A) He reduced the amount of conserved land by nearly half.
B) He more than quadrupled the acreage of government reserves.
C) He was unable to increase the amount of acreage saved owing to Congress's inaction.
D) He expanded the acreage of government reserves nearly tenfold.

Question 35

President Roosevelt placed the nation's conservation policy in the hands of scientifically trained experts like his chief forester,

A) John Muir.
B) Joseph Cannon.
C) Robert La Follette.
D) Gifford Pinchot.

Question 36

What happened to progressive reform after Democrats swept the congressional elections of 1910?

A) Reform came to a standstill.
B) Progressives focused on expanding the role of the federal government.
C) It continued in areas such as mine and railroad safety and workday limitations.
D) Its visibility continued only in relation to the area of conservation.

Question 37

Which of the following beliefs formed the basis for Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy?

A) The United States should use a combination of military strength and diplomacy to deal with European powers.
B) The United States should rely solely on its military strength in dealing with the great European nations.
C) The United States should allow European influence in the Western Hemisphere only when the nations there agreed to it.
D) The United States had no business intervening in the affairs of other nations.

Question 38

President Roosevelt inherited the Open Door Policy, which was designed to

A) institute free trade with all capitalist nations of the world.
B) ensure American commercial entry into China.
C) lift all U.S. restrictions on immigration.
D) facilitate the entry of Asian immigrants to the United States.

Question 39

Which of the following statements describes the Federal Reserve Act of 1913?

A) It had little effect on the U.S. economy.
B) It was passed by the House and Senate over President Wilson's veto.
C) It was the most significant piece of domestic legislation in Wilson's presidency.
D) It was designed to curb the economic power of the federal government.

Question 40

Which of the following statements describes Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom?

A) It incorporated his belief in federal planning and the regulation of big business.
B) It incorporated his belief in limited government, states' rights, and open markets.
C) It was based on the notion that centralized government was the most effective means of broadening democracy.
D) It was very similar to Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism.

Question 41

Compare the political philosophies expressed by Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism and Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom.

Question 42

How did reform Darwinism become the philosophical basis of the progressive movement in the early 1900s?

Question 43

During his first term as president, Woodrow Wilson refused to support child labor laws, woman suffrage, and labor's demand for an end to injunctions because he

A) opposed affording special privileges to any group.
B) could not find support for those measures in Congress.
C) didn't want to offend big-business interest groups.
D) found little support for those measures in his own political party.

Question 44

Why did Margaret Sanger promote birth control in the 1910s?

A) She believed that the United States was perilously close to being overpopulated.
B) She believed it would usefully alter social and political power relationships.
C) She owned shares in several drug companies and hoped to make more profits.
D) She believed it was an issue she could use to win a seat in Congress.

Question 45

Briefly discuss the primary personal and political differences between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

Question 46

What did Eugene V. Debs advocate as an alternative to the progressive programs of the Republicans and Democrats?

A) Communism as the only way to save America
B) The creation of one big union of unskilled workers to create social change
C) A government takeover of private enterprise in order to spread the wealth
D) That men and women liberate themselves from the barbarism of private ownership and wage slavery

Question 47

How did the temperance reform movement reflect the concerns and biases of progressive reformers?

Question 48

What was the fundamental difference between the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois during the progressive period?

A) Washington focused on education and economic progress, while Du Bois emphasized civil rights and black leadership.
B) Washington focused on civil rights and black leadership, while Du Bois emphasized education and economic progress.
C) Du Bois lobbied for militant protest while Washington argued for nonviolent protest.
D) Du Bois believed that African Americans would be better off living in the South while Washington wanted African Americans to leave the South.

Question 49

What groups were excluded from progressive reforms at the beginning of the twentieth century?

Question 50

How did President Theodore Roosevelt's insistence on regulating the trusts change the relationship between business and government? Cite an example of that change.

Question 51

Explain how reformers focusing on the effects of work on women's bodies both helped and hindered female laborers.

Question 52

Why did President Wilson champion the Keating-Owen child labor law, an eight-hour workday for railroad workers, and other social reforms in 1916?

A) He had come to understand the need for reform in America.
B) He wanted to win support and votes in the West and Midwest.
C) He had accepted bribes and concessions from reformers.
D) He wanted to gain favor with Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

Question 53

What issues and beliefs helped unite the diverse group of reformers known as progressives?

Question 54

Describe the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in 1911. Was it a wake-up call to managers and capitalists? Why or why not?

Question 55

Beginning in the 1890s, progressive southerners sought to reform the electoral system in the South by

A) establishing new political parties.
B) disfranchising black voters.
C) preventing woman suffrage.
D) voting for Republican social reforms.

Question 56

The efforts of Alice Paul were instrumental in

A) immigration restriction.
B) Prohibition.
C) the eugenics movement.
D) woman suffrage.

Question 57

What was the response to Margaret Sanger's first efforts to launch a movement for birth control in 1915?

A) Theodore Roosevelt publicly endorsed her efforts.
B) Boston and Chicago lobbied her to open clinics in those cities.
C) Medical associations openly declared their support for her tactics and goals.
D) She was faced with the prospect of arrest for distributing obscene information.

Question 58

What did President Wilson hope to accomplish by supporting the Clayton Act of 1914?

A) The Supreme Court's willingness to end the abuses of big business
B) Legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to organize labor unions
C) The promotion of legislation that would redistribute national income
D) Legislation outlawing "unfair competition" practices such as price discrimination

Question 59

The Progressive Era's Jim Crow laws in the South were designed to

A) offer economic incentives to black businesses.
B) strengthen earlier civil rights legislation.
C) legalize and expand racial segregation in public facilities.
D) ensure black sharecroppers adequate compensation for their labor.

Question 60

Explain the fundamental differences in the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois in regard to elevating the status of African Americans.

Question 61

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Political party formed in 1900 that advocated cooperation over competition and promoted the breakdown of capitalism. Its largely middle-class and native-born members saw both the Republican and the Democratic parties as hopelessly beholden to capitalism.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 62

Compare Theodore Roosevelt's "big-stick" foreign policy to William Howard Taft's "dollar diplomacy."

Question 63

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
A vision of Christianity that saw its mission not simply to reform individuals but to reform society. Emerging in the early twentieth century, it offered a powerful corrective to social Darwinism and the gospel of wealth, which fostered the belief that riches signaled divine favor.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 64

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
The 1904 follow-up to the Monroe Doctrine in which the United States was declared to have the right to intervene in Latin America to stop "brutal wrongdoing" and protect U.S. interests.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 65

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of racial segregation. According to the ruling, blacks could be segregated in separate schools, restrooms, and other facilities as long as the facilities were "equal" to those provided for whites.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 66

How did women shape the course of the Progressive Era? To what extent did they benefit from the era's reforms?

Question 67

Self-identified progressives Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson faced off in the 1912 presidential election. Compare and contrast their approaches to domestic progressive reform. What were the most significant differences between the two presidents?

Question 68

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Founded in 1905, this umbrella union and radical political group was dedicated to organizing unskilled workers to oppose capitalism. It advocated direct action by workers, including sabotage and general strikes, in hopes of triggering a widespread workers' uprising.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 69

Discuss President Theodore Roosevelt's reputation as a trustbuster. How did he acquire this reputation? Did he use it to good effect? What was his actual position on trusts?

Question 70

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 campaign slogan, which reflected his commitment to federal planning and regulation.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 71

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Sociological theory developed in the 1880s arguing that humans could accelerate evolution by altering their environment. A challenge to the laissez-faire approach of social Darwinism, this theory insisted that the liberal state should play an active role in solving social problems.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 72

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Communal living projects established in poor neighborhoods beginning in the 1880s. Reformers like Jane Addams and Lillian Wald believed that only by living among the poor could they help bridge the growing class divide. College-educated women formed the backbone of this movement.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 73

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Movement launched in 1915 by Margaret Sanger in New York's Lower East Side. Contraception advocates hoped that a reduction in the working-class population would improve society by inducing higher wages and curtailing warfare with a limited supply of soldiers.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 74

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Early-twentieth-century style of journalism that exposed the corruption of big business and government. Theodore Roosevelt coined the term after a character in Pilgrim's Progress.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 75

To what extent was the Progressive Era actually progressive? In your answer, pay particular attention to the limits of progressive reform.

Question 76

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
A reform movement that often advocated government activism to mitigate the problems created by urban industrialism. The movement reached its peak in 1912 with the creation of a political party. The term has come to mean any general effort advocating for social welfare programs.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party

Question 77

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Some terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Woodrow Wilson's 1912 campaign slogan, which reflected his belief in limited government and states' rights. Wilson promised to use antitrust legislation to eliminate big corporations and to improve opportunities for small businesses and farmers.

A)birth control movement
B)Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
C)muckraking
D)The New Freedom
E)The New Nationalism
F)Plessy v. Ferguson
G)progressivism
H)reform Darwinism
I)Roosevelt Corollary
J)settlement houses
K)social gospel
L)Socialist Party