Chapter Twenty Three: From Roosevelt to Wilson in the Age of Progressivism, 1900-1920

Practice Quiz:

1. What did some in the business community find attractive about progressivism?
a. Nothing. The business community opposed all forms of progressivism.
b. Progressives and business owners wanted to clean up city governments and political contests.
c. Progressivism believed in progress and efficiency, two industrial business values..
d. Progressives wanted to control corporate abuses, reform child labor laws, and ensure factory safety; these were industrial business values, too.

2. Which of the following was NOT a characteristic of progressivism?
a. It sought radical changes in American life..
b. It meant to humanize and regulate big business.
c. Its members were fundamentally optimistic about human nature.
d. Its members were willing to intervene in other people’s lives.

3. Many of the leaders of the progressive movement
a. opposed the expansion of women’s rights.
b. were rather well educated.
c. tended toward radical views of reform.
d. were determined to have a negative effect on big business.

4. Why did women’s movements also lead the temperance crusade?
a. In general, women did not drink alcohol in the early 1900s.
b. In general, men participated in politics while women participated in social reform.
c. Men saw temperance as the first step to women’s suffrage and, therefore, opposed it.
d. Women were more involved with social justice activities and saw the direct affect of alcohol abuse on families.

5. The woman suffrage movement suffered from each of these problems EXCEPT
a. indecision on whether to pursue remedies at the state or national level.
b. male opposition.
c. resistance from the Catholic Church.
d. opposition from the prohibition movement..

6. Why did voting decline during the progressive era?
a. Because pessimism marked the progressive era, people didn’t bother voting.
b. Because African Americans and women made up most of the population, their disfranchisement affected voter turnout.
c. People focused on moral reforms rather than on politics in the progressive era.
d. People relied on interest groups to pressure government into policies they supported, so they didn’t feel the need to vote.

7. How did progressive attitudes affect the size of government?
a. Progressives believed that the federal government could best conduct social reforms and supported agencies of experts, so government grew during the progressive era.
b. Progressives believed that charities could best conduct social reforms and opposed agencies of experts, so government shrank during the progressive era.
c. Progressives believed that most voters were too uneducated to understand national issues, so they supported small state and local governments.
d. Progressives believed in the wisdom of the general masses, so state and local governments shrank while agencies run by non-politicians grew.

8. Theodore Roosevelt angered white southerners by
a. dining with Booker T. Washington at the White House.
b. stationing federal troops in southern states to supervise elections.
c. threatening to ban college football unless it were made less dangerous.
d. ordering the federal bureaucracy to be fully integrated.

9. How did Theodore Roosevelt distinguish a “good” trust from a “bad” trust?
a. A “good” trust stayed within reasonable bounds, whereas a “bad” trust hurt the general welfare of society.
b. A “good” trust donated money to Roosevelt’s campaign, whereas “bad” trusts did not.
c. A “good” trust employed the masses (immigrants, women, the poor, African Americans); a “bad” trust only employed white males.
d. A “good” trust developed products that contributed to society; a “bad” trust worked in mergers and acquisitions and didn’t produce any actual products.

10. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Northern Securities case
a. paved the way for several other antitrust actions.
b. had little effect on the problem of trusts overall.
c. was opposed by Roosevelt himself.
d. affected only the smaller American trusts.

11. In the great coal strike of 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt
a. played no role at all in settling the dispute.
b. sympathized completely with the his close political ally, J.P. Morgan.
c. decided to support the Pure Food and Drug Act.
d. essentially decided to support the coal miners.

12. William Howard Taft alienated progressive Republicans by
a. curbing the power of Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon.
b. placing too much faith in the government’s ability to impose reform.
c. generally becoming a tool of the conservative Republicans.
d. campaigning against progressives in the 1910 congressional elections.

13. In 1912, Roosevelt’s New Nationalism
a. demanded a stronger role for the president and government.
b. called for tighter immigration laws.
c. represented a repudiation of progressivism.
d. was readily accepted by all progressives.

14. Why is the Federal Reserve Act considered the most important law Wilson passed?
a. It instituted the first income tax, which still exists today.
b. It made the United States the richest country in the world.
c. It imposed necessary controls on banks, and still exists today.
d. It won him great public admiration, securing his second term.

15. Which of the following individuals was probably the least progressive on the race question in America in the early 1900s?
a. Theodore Roosevelt
b. Woodrow Wilson
c. W.E.B. DuBois
d. Booker T. Washington

16. Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom called for
a. the expansion of government.
b. less government regulation.
c. business competition and small government.
d. government restraint of competition.

17. What is ironic about Wilson’s New Nationalism program?
a. It directly contradicted his New Freedom programs.
b. It was more about religion and morality than social change.
c. It was widely supported by the general masses, but in the end served to hurt their interests.
d. They were essentially the ideas first proposed by his political rival, Theodore Roosevelt.