Deck 18: The Progressive ERA, 1895-1920

Question 1

Working-class reformers in the Progressive era strongly supported ________________.

A) enactment of a progressive income tax
B) shorter working hours and safer working conditions
C) restrictions on the sale and consumption of liquor
D) ridding the cities of political bosses

Answer 1

shorter working hours and safer working conditions

Question 2

Advocacy organizations such as the American Bar Association, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Consumers League had the effect of ________________.

A) introducing charismatic personalities to political campaigns
B) making politics more fragmented and issue-focused than in previous eras
C) stifling debate on major urban issues
D) increasing the loyalty of the electorate to political parties

Answer 2

making politics more fragmented and issue-focused than in previous eras

Question 3

Where did political progressives focus their anti-corruption efforts?

A) At the city level
B) At the federal level
C) At the regional level
D) At the state level

Answer 3

At the city level

Question 4

By means of such processes as the initiative, the referendum, and the recall, progressive reformers hoped to ___________.

A) reduce the power of government
B) use the common-sense ideas of ordinary working people to solve the problems of urban America
C) create a government whose response to the will of the people was completely spontaneous
D) replace the favoritism of the boss system with rational, accountable management chosen by responsible voters

Question 5

In 1911, middle-class Native Americans formed which association to work for better education, civil rights, and health care?

A) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
B) National American Woman Suffrage Association
C) National Consumers League
D) Society of American Indians

Question 6

Which group was the backbone of progressive reform?

A) The new middle class
B) American industrialists
C) The working class
D) Ethnic minorities

Question 7

The Mann Act was a response to the view that ___________________.

A) prostitution could be ended by arresting and punishing the prostitutes
B) prostitution is a victimless crime and should be legalized
C) the government could improve human behavior by passing legislation restricting it
D) the government could never eradicate immorality because sin is deeply embedded in the human condition

Question 8

In what year did Congress pass the White Slave Traffic Act, prohibiting interstate and international transportation of a woman for immoral purposes?

A) 1870
B) 1911
C) 1910
D) 1895

Question 9

Progressive efforts to reform corrupt politics were often stymied by_________________.

A) the financial power of special-interest groups
B) the courts
C) a lack of support from anyone other than ethnic minorities
D) the refusal of organized labor to support them

Question 10

Although Hoke Smith and Hiram Johnson had established records as reform-minded progressive governors, they ___________.

A) had secretly come to terms with political bosses in their respective states
B) did not concern themselves with the issue of industrial working conditions
C) frequently accepted payoffs from large corporate interests
D) supported discrimination against racial minorities

Question 11

Reform-minded business executives such as Alexander Cassatt generally _____________________.

A) supported cooperative factories that were managed but not owned by rank-and-file factory workers
B) supported some government regulation in order to protect their own interests from more radical political elements
C) had begun to seriously question the capitalist system
D) supported a more equitable distribution of wealth and capital in the United States

Question 12

Ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment is considered a progressive victory because ___________.

A) by providing for the income tax, it had the effect of redistributing wealth in the United States
B) by providing for the direct election of United States senators, it took their election out of the hands of state legislatures
C) by establishing a regulatory commission for all industry, it furthered the concept of a planned economy
D) by making the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, it furthered the progressive goal of moral purity

Question 13

Which of the following was true of women in higher education during the Progressive era?

A) Most women chose to take science and mathematics courses.
B) Most women attended private women's colleges rather than coeducational institutions.
C) Harvard and Yale began recruiting women into their medical schools.
D) Women were usually encouraged to take home economics courses.

Question 14

Which of the following is true of the Supreme Court's decision in Muller v. Oregon?

A) The Court supported the use of state police powers to protect the morals of the community.
B) The Court severely restricted the federal government's power to interfere in matters reserved for state supervision.
C) In reaching its decision, the Court considered scientific evidence showing the harmful effects of long working hours.
D) In reaching its decision, the Court refused to accept the argument that coal mining was hazardous.

Question 15

Journalists who exposed the wrongs of American society during the Progressive era were known as:

A) Abolitionists
B) Know-nothings
C) Stand-patters
D) Muckrakers

Question 16

Senator Robert La Follette fought to ________________.

A) nationalize the railroad industry
B) return America to its agrarian and rural past
C) drive corporations out of politics
D) break all large corporations into small, competitive units

Question 17

Members of the Social Gospel movement believed that ______________________.

A) helping others was the path to individual salvation and to creating God's kingdom on earth
B) God's kingdom could be built on Earth simply by the passage of legislation outlawing immoral acts
C) prospective candidates for public office should profess to believe in God before being allowed to file for election
D) an active, interventionist government was all that was needed to create a more morally pure society

Question 18

What view on the goals of education did John Dewey espouse?

A) Secondary schools should concentrate on preparing students for college.
B) Public schools should be funded by the national government.
C) Learning should involve real-life problems through which children learn to use their intelligence and ingenuity to control their environment.
D) The main task of education is to teach moral principles.

Question 19

Most progressive reformers _____________.

A) viewed socialism as a desirable but unachievable goal
B) wanted to destroy the capitalist system
C) had little at stake in the capitalist system and did not care whether it survived or not
D) did not support radical challenges to capitalism

Question 20

Through its interpretation of the Fourteenth and Tenth Amendments, the Supreme Court ______________.

A) consistently demonstrated its acceptance of the progressive legal concepts advanced by Oliver Wendell Holmes
B) increased the regulatory powers of the federal government in cases involving individual rights
C) demonstrated its rejection of laissez-faire concepts
D) often acted as an impediment to reform

Question 21

Which of the following is true of the National Association of Colored Women?

A) It agitated for women's suffrage.
B) It compiled and published statistics on lynchings in the southern states.
C) It worked to establish nurseries, kindergartens, and retirement homes.
D) It lobbied Congress for the enactment of welfare legislation to help impoverished African Americans.

Question 22

Which of the following arguments was used by women such as Jane Addams to defend female suffrage?

A) All distinctions between the sexes violate the Constitution.
B) Women should be rewarded for their contributions to the nation during the First World War.
C) Women of all classes have common grievances that will be dealt with only if women have the vote.
D) Because of their unique qualities, women will have a humanizing impact on all aspects of society.

Question 23

Which of the following is true of the Supreme Court's decision in Lochner v. New York?

A) The ruling clearly shows the influence of Louis Brandeis on the Court.
B) The Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment protects an individual's right to make contracts without government interference.
C) The decision clearly demonstrates the impact that scientific evidence could have on Court rulings.
D) The Court accepted the argument that the federal government has sole and exclusive power over working conditions.

Question 24

Progressive historian Charles Beard advanced the idea that the U.S. Constitution ____________.

A) was never intended to serve a special-interest group, but was written for all Americans regardless of race, sex, or creed
B) was written by ordinary farmers to protect them from the greed and selfishness of the wealthy and the powerful
C) is a sacred document that must be interpreted and applied in accordance with the original intent of the founders
D) is a flexible document, subject to growth and change

Question 25

Which of the following is true of Margaret Sanger's work?

A) She believed a women's sexual pleasure was a threat to society.
B) She fought for the equality of immigrants.
C) She succeeded in overturning most state laws prohibiting contraception.
D) She formed the American Birth Control League in 1921.

Question 26

Which statement from the following best expresses the beliefs of Booker T. Washington?

A) African Americans should demand political and social equality in American society.
B) African Americans should passively accept their inferior position in a white-dominated society.
C) African Americans should prove themselves worthy of respect by working hard and acquiring property.
D) African Americans should challenge discriminatory legislation in the courts.

Question 27

Which of the following is true of Theodore Roosevelt's beliefs while serving as President?

A) He rejected the idea that business could regulate itself.
B) He believed that big business was the major obstacle to increased production.
C) He wanted to return the nation to free, old-time, uncontrolled economic competition.
D) He approved of big business as long as it did not unfairly manipulate the marketplace.

Question 28

The new economic theory of the early twentieth century held that __________________.

A) economic laws, like natural laws, were unchangeable
B) as social conditions change, so should economic theory
C) economic theory could not change just because society was changing
D) statistics meant little in the field of economics

Question 29

Which of the following is true of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the time of its founding?

A) It was the only organization that spoke for lower-class African Americans and sharecroppers.
B) It believed that African Americans should seek legal redress through the courts to end racial discrimination and to gain voting rights.
C) It refused to permit white membership.
D) It was bitterly opposed by white liberals as being too militant.

Question 30

As a result of the Hepburn Act, __________________.

A) the government gained sufficient power to stop all railroad abuses
B) the government gained the power to regulate working hours in the railroad industry
C) workers in the railroad industry received higher wages and the promise of automatic cost-of-living increases
D) the ICC gained more authority to fix railroad rates, but the courts could still overturn rate decisions

Question 31

Which of the following is true of W.E.B. Du Bois?

A) He believed that the "Talented Tenth" within the African American community should lead in the pursuit of racial equality.
B) He agreed with the ideas expressed by Booker T. Washington in Washington's speech to the Atlanta Exposition.
C) He advanced the idea that African Americans should arm themselves so that they could adequately defend themselves in a racist society.
D) He believed that the problems experienced by African Americans could best be solved by the founding of vocational schools throughout the nation.

Question 32

The most decisive factor in winning the vote for women was the ________________.

A) participation of women as laborers and volunteers on the home front during the First World War
B) active picketing and marching of the National Woman's Party
C) propaganda campaigns of the National American Women Suffrage Association
D) commitment of the Democratic party leadership in the 1916 election to women's suffrage

Question 33

Women's clubs of the late nineteenth century would most likely support which of the following?

A) Factory inspection laws
B) Trust-busting laws
C) The direct primary
D) The recall

Question 34

What idea was expressed in The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant?

A) The lynching of African Americans in the southern states is so prevalent that it is akin to genocide.
B) White Americans of Anglo-Saxon descent are rapidly becoming a minority in the United States.
C) The loss of power and prestige by the nations of Europe means that the United States must assume the responsibility for preserving the traditions of Western culture.
D) Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe are mentally and morally inferior and are a threat to the strength of American society.

Question 35

Feminists differed from members of the woman movement in which of the following ways?

A) Feminists rejected the idea of women uniting as a gender group; members of the woman movement encouraged gender-group unity.
B) Feminists argued that there were no differences between women and men; members of the woman movement stressed the differences between the sexes.
C) Feminists spoke of rights and self-development as the path to independence; members of the woman movement spoke of duties and moral purity.
D) Feminists believed that in many instances women should be treated differently than men; members of the woman movement called for an end to all gender-based distinctions.

Question 36

Which of the following did Theodore Roosevelt believe to be an efficient means of achieving material progress?

A) Business consolidation
B) Government ownership
C) Tax incentives
D) Trustbusting

Question 37

Which of the following was in large part a consequence of Upton Sinclair's 1906 book The Jungle?

A) Drug manufacturers agreed to stop selling impure merchandise.
B) President Roosevelt supported passage of the Meat Inspection Act.
C) Railroad rate-making was taken out of the hands of the railroad industry and put into the hands of the ICC.
D) President Roosevelt supported legislation to guarantee the right of workers to bargain collectively.

Question 38

Which belief was held by eugenicists?

A) Scientific research has proven that peoples from all racial and ethnic groups are equal in every respect.
B) Society has an obligation to prevent the reproduction of people deemed to be mentally defective and of those who are criminally inclined.
C) Aside from reproductive differences necessary for continuation of the species, differences between males and females are caused by culture and society.
D) The cure for all human diseases may be found in the plant world.

Question 39

Who founded the National Consumers League?

A) Susan B. Anthony
B) Carrie Chapman Catt
C) Florence Kelley
D) Alice Paul

Question 40

Which of the following is true of the settlement achieved in the 1902 United Mine Workers' strike?

A) The wages of the mine workers were increased.
B) The number of hours in the mine workers' workday remained the same.
C) The mine owners were required to recognize the mine workers' union.
D) The mine owners were required to establish an employee pension plan.

Question 41

Discuss the objectives of Progressive reformers at the local and state levels, the means by which they sought to achieve their objectives, and the effectiveness of those means.

Question 42

Discuss the political reforms sought by Progressives. What were these political reforms supposed to accomplish? How successful were they in practice?

Question 43

Examine and assess the efforts by some Progressive reformers to achieve moral purity in American society through state intervention.

Question 44

Which of the following statements is most consistent with Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism philosophy?

A) The government must actively promote mergers and trusts in order to ensure economic efficiency.
B) Business monopolies and concentrations of economic power must be destroyed.
C) Reduction of taxes and government spending will rejuvenate the economy and lead to economic expansion.
D) Regulatory commissions should be established to ensure the wise use of economic power by large corporations.

Question 45

Discuss the similarities and differences between the ideology and goals of Progressive reformers and the ideology and goals of American socialists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Question 46

Analyze the morality of the Progressive Era through the lens of prostitution control and prohibition. Did such reforms have a relationship to gender? To race?

Question 47

The Federal Trade Commission could __________________.

A) issue cease-and-desist orders against unfair trade practices
B) remove unsafe consumer products from the market
C) reduce excessive railroad rates
D) levy fines against factories for excessive pollution

Question 48

Compare and contrast the approaches of members of "the woman movement" and feminists to the problems faced by women during the Progressive era. To what extent were their approaches successful?

Question 49

Discuss the changes in the social sciences during the Progressive era. Explain how these changes reflected the Progressive frame of reference, and describe the impact of these changes on the reform movement.

Question 50

Analyze the theories of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois as each applies to the story of Jack Johnson.

Question 51

The central banking system established by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 ___________________.

A) made direct loans to businesspersons for plant expansions and investment spending
B) insured private bank accounts against loss
C) could control the amount of money in circulation by adjusting the discount rate
D) tied the money supply to the supply of gold in the United States Treasury

Question 52

In 1916, Wilson supported Progressive reforms in part because he ______________.

A) had a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress
B) was preparing to run for reelection
C) realized that such measures were necessary to end the economic recession
D) had been won over to the cause of civil rights for women and African Americans

Question 53

Which of the following is true of the Underwood Tariff?

A) By allowing an independent commission to determine tariff rates, it removed the tariff issue from politics.
B) By raising tariff rates to record levels, it prevented American industry from being destroyed by inexpensive foreign imports.
C) By reducing or eliminating tariff rates, it encouraged imports of cheaper foreign materials and manufactured goods.
D) By eliminating all tariffs, it indicated that America would join with the other industrialized nations in accepting the principle of free trade.

Question 54

Discuss President Theodore Roosevelt's philosophy, objectives, and accomplishments in the area of conservation.

Question 55

As a conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt ___________________.

A) oversaw enactment of a national plan for resource management
B) believed that the government should manage and control lands in the public domain
C) substantially restricted the wasteful practices of timber and mining companies
D) persuaded Congress to impose a special conservation tax on timber, oil, and mining companies

Question 56

Discuss the similarities and differences between the ideologies, goals, and tactics of middle-class Progressives and those of working-class Progressives. Evaluate the effectiveness of these groups in addressing the three major Progressive themes: opposition to the abuse of power, reform of social institutions, and the quest for cooperation and scientific efficiency.

Question 57

Discuss the regulatory legislation supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, and explain the relationship between that legislation and Roosevelt's social, political, and economic beliefs.

Question 58

Discuss the changes in American education during the Progressive era, and explain how these changes reflected the Progressive frame of reference.

Question 59

Which of the following statements is most consistent with Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom philosophy?

A) All government controls of the economy must be removed so that natural economic laws can operate effectively.
B) Government and business must enter into a cooperative arrangement in order to plan and manage the nation's economic future.
C) Public works programs should be created to provide jobs and income for the poor in America.
D) Monopolies must be broken up in order to revive competition and recreate an open marketplace.

Question 60

Which of the following convinced many Progressives that President Taft had abandoned Roosevelt's progressive agenda?

A) Taft drastically slowed the rate of antitrust prosecutions.
B) Taft announced his opposition to the direct election of United States senators.
C) Taft reduced the regulatory powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
D) Taft signed legislation that maintained what many Progressives believed to be excessively high tariff rates.

Question 61

Explain the break between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, and discuss the impact of this break on the Republican party and on the 1912 presidential election.

Question 62

Write an essay in which you defend the following statement: "As president, Woodrow Wilson had to blend New Freedom ideals with New Nationalism precepts, and in so doing he set the direction of federal economic policy for much of the twentieth century."

Question 63

Compare and contrast Wilson's ideals as expressed in the New Freedom philosophy with the actual legislative achievements of his first administration from 1913 to 1917.

Question 64

Examine and evaluate Theodore Roosevelt's domestic accomplishments as president. Should he be regarded as a genuine reformer? Explain.

Question 65

Explain the strengths and weaknesses and the successes and failures of the Progressive movement.

Question 66

Discuss the similarities and differences between Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom and Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism.