Progressive Era Conservation/Land Use Acts

Desert Land Act 1877

The federal government sold land cheap if the buyer would irrigate the soil within three years.

Forest Reserve Act 1891

This authorized the president to be able to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves. This saved some 46 million acres of trees in the 1890s.

Carey Act of 1894

This act distributed federal land to the states under the condition that it would be irrigated and settled.

Newlands Act of 1902

This authorized Washington to take the money it made on the sale of public lands and use it for the development of better irrigation projects. It ended up being a revolving fund to help finance more of these projects. Dozens of dams on the major western rivers were created because of this.

How Progressives tended to view conservation...

The Progressives looked at nature in a certain way. They knew that it shouldn't be abused as it had been previously, but they didn't see it as John Muir or Hetch Hetchy did as a "temple". They wanted nature to be used, but used correctly. For example, Teddy Roosevelt would preserve a forest so he could hunt the deer.

New Federal Agencies

Women's Bureau (1920)

This was part of the Department of Labor and a way for female activists to get the word out. They saw it as a "wedge" into the federal bureaucracy and gave them a stage for social investigation and advocacy.

Children's Bureau (1912)

Created by the women activists who were always drawn to "moral" issues like protecting the children from dirty, hard labor in sweatshops and winning pensions for mothers with dependent children.

Federal Trade Commission (1914)

It was a presidentially appointed commission who would keep an eye on industries engaged in interstate commerce. Their goal was to crush the monopolies by catching unfair trade practices (included unlawful competition), false advertising, mislabeling, adulteration, and bribery.

Federal Reserve (1913)

Very important piece of economic legislation. The Board was appointed by the president (Wilson) and oversaw a nationwide system of twelve regional reserve districts, each with its own central bank. This ended up guaranteeing a substantial measure of public control. It also had the power to issue paper money (Federal Reserve Notes) backed by commercial paper.

Federal Farm Loan Act (1916)

This made credit available to farmers at low rates of interest.

Amendments to the Constitutions

Sixteenth Amendment 1913

This amendment enacted a graduated income tax staring with a levy on incomes over $3000 (which at this time was above what most families made). And by 1917, the revenue from the income tax greatly exceeded that from the tariff.

Seventeenth Amendment 1913

This amendment established popular election of senators, even though most of the guys actually in the Senate opposed this because they liked the old ways. They only gave in from the pressure of the people.

Eighteenth Amendment 1919

Prohibition Amendment. It forbid the "sale or manufacture of intoxicating liquors." It was part of the progressive reform movement and promoted greatly by women who knew that drunk men were not getting work and pulling their families apart.

Nineteenth Amendment 1920

This amendment guaranteed women the right to vote . . . finally and partly because of the war mobilization. More and more states had began to allow suffrage at the state level so soon Congress followed.

Protecting Workers

La Folette Seaman's Act of 1915

It required better treatment of sailors plus a living wage to be paid to those on American merchant ships. Even though this act meant well, it ened up cripping the merchant marine because freight weights went up as the wages did. The progressives made this act possible.

Worker's Compesation Act of 1916

This act offered assistance to federal civil-service employees during periods of disability.

Anti-Trust

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890

This forbade combinations in restraint of trade but without distinction of the "good" and "bad" trusts. It was ineffective because of its legal loopholes (for example only forbade combinations that "unreasonably" restrained trade), but was effective in its use to curb labor unions or labor combinations that were deemed to be restraining trade.

Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914

This act lengthened the Sherman Act's list of business practices that were deemed objectionable (like price discrimination and interlocking directorates) and benefited labor in that it sought to exempt labor and agricultural organizations from anti-trust prosecution, while still legalizing strikes and peaceful protest.

Food Safety: Meat Inspection Act of 1906; Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

Meat Inspection Act of 1906

This act stated that preparation of meat shipped over state line was subject to inspection. The largest meat packers resisted certain measures of the act, but at the same time they accepted it as a use to get rid of their smaller competition.

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

This act was designed to prevent the adulteration (an example of that is adding something to the substance to make it look like there is more of it than there really is) and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals

.

Railroads - Elkins Act 1903 & Hepburn Act 1906

The Elkins Act 1903

President Theodore Roosevelt spurred Congeess to pass some more effective railroad legislation, starting with this act.

It said that heavy fines could be imposed on railroads that gave rebates and on the shippers that accepted them.

The Hepburn Act 1906

This act severly restricted free passes to use the railroad.

The Interstate Commerce Commission was also expanded to include express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines, as well as it was authorized to nullify existing rates and stipulate maximum rates.

There's that Hepburn Act
and there's....

That Hepburn!