| A | B |
|---|
| civil service: | government jobs, except those in the armed services, judiciary or those filled by elected officials. |
| Clayton Antitrust Act (1914): | a law which strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 by outlawing interlocking directorates and by prohibiting corporations from buying stocks in other corporations if such purchases created a monopoly. |
| conservative: | one who wants to preserve the status quo and is opposed to changes in traditional customs or practices. |
| direct democracy: | a political system where people directly vote on laws. |
| Federal Reserve Act (1913): | a law that created a Federal Reserve Board which would have some controls over America's national banks and have the power to expand or contract the nation's money supply. |
| general election: | an election (usually held on the first Tuesday in November) where all registered voters are allowed to vote for candidates. (Note: See primary election for a comparison.) |
| graduated income tax: | a tax on each individual's income based on a rate which increases as the person's income increases. |
| Grangers: | members of an association (formed in 1867) whose purpose was to promote the interests of agriculture. |
| initiative: | a method by which citizens may initiate (start) a state law by collecting a certain number of signatures on a petition after which the state legislature must either pass the law or put it up to the voters in a referendum. |
| Interstate Commerce Act (1887): | a law passed which granted the federal government the power to regulate railroads that passed through more than one state. |
| Jim Crow laws: | laws passed in some states and localities, especially in the South, which required racial segregation (separation). |
| laissez-faire: | a French term which means to "leave alone." |
| merit system: | a system built into the Civil Service system which requires that government jobs be given to those who merit (deserve) the job on the basis of performance on a competitive civil service examination. |
| muckraker: | a person who investigates and reports corruption in government and other problems of society. |
| Northern Securities Case (1902): | an antitrust case prosecuted by President Theodore Roosevelt's Attorney General and ruled on by the Supreme Court which decided that a railroad trust violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. |
| Pendleton Act (1883): | an act, also called the Civil Service Reform Act, which created the Civil Service Commission which in turn administered civil service tests and hired people for government jobs according to their test scores. |
| political boss: | the leader of a political machine. (For example, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed was the corrupt, political boss of New York City's Democratic political machine, Tammany Hall, during the 1860s and 1870s.) |
| political corruption: | dishonesty on the part of government officials such as rigging elections or accepting bribes in exchange for governmental favors. |
| political machine: | an organization controlled by political party leaders which would sometimes use illegal methods, such as ballot-box stuffing, to ensure victory for candidates chosen by the party leaders. |
| primary election: | an election held several weeks or months before the general election in which members of a political party pick the party's nominees for the general election. |
| Progressive Movement: | a reform movement of the early 1900s aimed at correcting America's political, social, and economic problems. |
| racial segregation: | the separating of one race from another. |
| recall: | a process by which citizens can remove from office unwanted state and local governmental officials before their terms of office have expired. |
| referendum: | a process by which citizens vote "yes" or "no" to certain bills submitted to the citizens by the state legislature. |
| representative government: | a government made up of officials who are elected by the citizens. These officials speak for, or represent, the citizens who elected them to office. |
| Seventeenth Amendment (1913): | an amendment to the Constitution which gives citizens in each state the right to directly elect their state's two senators. Prior to this amendment, the senators were chosen by the state legislators. |
| spoils system: | the practice by winners in an election of awarding government jobs to their political supporters. |
| Tammany Hall: | the headquarters and name of the Democratic Party organization (founded in 1789) in New York City. |
| temperance movement: | a movement of the 1800s and early 1900s to end the consumption of alcoholic beverages by outlawing their manufacture and sale. |
| Triangle Shirt Waist Company fire: | a New York City fire killing 147 people in 1911 which prompted demands for safer building codes. |
| Tweed Ring: | a ring (group of people who cooperate with each other for illegal purposes) of corrupt officials in New York City during the 1860s and 1870s who were lead by ringleader William Marcy "Boss" Tweed. |
| Wisconsin Idea: | a progressive program led by Wisconsin's Governor La Follette (Governor from 1901-1906) which became a model for other states to follow. |
| workmen's compensation laws | laws requiring employers to buy insurance policies which will pay medical costs and other benefits for workers injured on the job. |
| Jane Addams | Established the settlement movement at Hull House in Chicago. |
| Eugene V. Debs | Socialist labor leader who ran for President of the United States from a jail cell in 1920. |
| Samuel Gompers | Founder of the Knights of Labor during the Gilded Age. |
| The Trust Buster | Theodore Roosevelt |
