Populists and Progressives: what reformers changed

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The People's Party preamble, 1892

   Who made it: the People's Party, in its first national convention. When: July 1892. Where: Omaha, Nebraska. For whom: the voters of the country. Why: to state the party's complaints about the country. Excerpt (The People's Party platform, Omaha, July 1892, preamble; p. 166; checked word for word against three printed editions): "The conditions which surround us best justify our co-operation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench."

2. 1.

   Jun wants to know what People's Party leaders believed about the country in 1892. Why is the preamble useful for that question?

   • It shows what most farmers and workers believed, since the delegates came from the farm states
   • It is the party's own statement of its view, written for voters at its first national convention
   • It shows what the delegates wanted voters to feel, but its claims about corruption are not evidence of belief
   • It records the condition of the country in 1892 accurately, since the party was describing its own nation

3. The Jungle on the packing-house gates, 1906

   Who made it: Upton Sinclair, novelist. When: 1906. Where: New York. For whom: general readers. Why: to tell a made-up story of immigrant workers in a Chicago meatpacking district. Excerpt (Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, chapter 1; p. 21; checked word for word against three printed editions): "If one of them be a minute late, he will be docked an hour's pay, and if he be many minutes late, he will be apt to find his brass check turned to the wall, which will send him out to join the hungry mob that waits every morning at the gates of the packing-houses, from six o'clock until nearly half-past eight." Source card "The Jungle as a source, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) is a novel. The House of Representatives history site describes it as a made-up version of seven weeks that Sinclair himself spent living and working in the Chicago stockyards. President Roosevelt had a report made on the stockyards and sent it to Congress on June 4, 1906, as House Document 873.

4. 2.

   Bo wants to know if crowds of men looking for work waited at packing-house gates. How should Bo treat the line from The Jungle?

   • As an official finding, because the book led President Roosevelt to order an inquiry
   • As reliable testimony, because Sinclair lived and worked in the stockyards for seven weeks
   • As a clue from one author's made-up story, to be checked against other records
   • As of no use, because a novel invents its scenes, even when its author did research

5. The People's Party on transportation, 1892

   Who made it: the People's Party, in its first national convention. When: July 1892. Where: Omaha, Nebraska. For whom: the voters of the country. Why: to state one of the party's demands. Excerpt (The People's Party platform, Omaha, July 1892, Transportation; p. 169; checked word for word against two printed editions): "Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people. The telegraph and telephone, like the post office system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the government in the interest of the people." Source card "The Interstate Commerce Act, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: The Interstate Commerce Act of February 4, 1887, put railroads under federal rules, the first industry treated this way. It created the Interstate Commerce Commission, a board of five members. Railroads had given rebates to large shippers and charged farmers more, because farmers did not ship enough to get a better rate. In the Wabash case of 1886 the Court overturned an Illinois law about long-and-short haul rates, ruling that rules for trade between the states belong to Congress alone.

6. 3.

   Milo compares the 1892 transportation plank with the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. How do they differ?

   • The plank asked for stricter federal rules; the Act took the railroads into public ownership
   • Both rest on the Wabash ruling, which gave Congress control, but just the Act reached railroads
   • The plank asked for public ownership; the Act kept railroads private under a federal commission
   • Both set federal rules for railroad rates, but the plank also added the telegraph

7. What reformers changed, from the farm to the ballot box

   Columns Problem | Who pushed for change | Law or result | Date. Row 1: Railroad rates farmers paid | National Grange, with state legislatures | Granger laws, upheld in Munn v. Illinois (1877) | 1870s. Row 2: Falling crop prices and costly credit | Farmers' Alliances, then the People's Party | The Omaha Platform | July 4, 1892. Row 3: Impure food and drugs | Muckraking writers and President Roosevelt | Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act | June 30, 1906. Row 4: Public voting with party tickets | Reformers in cities and states | The Australian (secret) ballot | 1889 to 1900. Data: Minnesota Historical Society, National Archives, Texas State Historical Association, FSIS and House of Representatives history pages, UVA First Vote project. Source card "The Grange, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: On December 4, 1867, Oliver Hudson Kelley and six co-workers from the federal Bureau of Agriculture started the Grange, formally the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. It was both a social group for farm families and a group that argued for change. Kelley's articles criticized railroads for high freight rates and monopolies for fixing prices unfairly. By the end of 1873 the Grange had about 9,000 chapters and almost 700,000 members across the country. In the 1870s state legislatures in the West and South controlled by Grangers acted against railroad monopolies, and the Supreme Court upheld state controls in Munn v. Illinois (1877). Source card "The Interstate Commerce Act, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: The Interstate Commerce Act of February 4, 1887, put railroads under federal rules, the first industry treated this way. It created the Interstate Commerce Commission, a board of five members. Railroads had given rebates to large shippers and charged farmers more, because farmers did not ship enough to get a better rate. In the Wabash case of 1886 the Court overturned an Illinois law about long-and-short haul rates, ruling that rules for trade between the states belong to Congress alone.

8. 4.

   Zee compares the Granger laws of the 1870s with the Act of 1887. What changed about who regulated railroad rates?

   • Rules did not change for farmers, since the Act of 1887 simply repeated the Granger laws
   • Rules for rates in trade between states moved from the states to Congress after the Wabash case of 1886
   • Rules moved from Congress to the states, whose Granger laws were upheld in Munn v. Illinois
   • Rules moved from regulation to public ownership, which the Grange had demanded from the start

9. The 18th Amendment, section 1

   Who made it: Congress, then the states. When: ratified January 16, 1919. Where: Washington. For whom: the nation. Why: to change the Constitution. Excerpt (The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, section 1; Article XVIII; checked word for word against three printed editions): "After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." Source card "The 18th Amendment, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Congress passed the 18th Amendment on December 18, 1917, and the states ratified it on January 16, 1919, about 13 months later. Prohibition took effect one year after ratification. The amendment banned making, selling and moving intoxicating liquors, but it did not define the term or say how to enforce the ban. Congress passed the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, over President Wilson's veto, to supply the details. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th when it was ratified on December 5, 1933.

10. 5.

    Kira compares the text of the 18th Amendment with the Volstead Act. What job did the Act do that Section 1 did not?

    • It banned the making of liquor, leaving sale and transport to the amendment's text
    • It made the ban lawful in the states, since Section 1 bound just the federal government
    • It supplied the definition and enforcement that Section 1 of the amendment lacked
    • It set the date when the ban began, one year after the amendment was ratified

11. The election of 1892

    Columns: Candidate; Party; Electoral votes; Popular votes. Grover Cleveland: Democratic: 277: 5,554,617. Benjamin Harrison: Republican: 145: 5,186,793. James B. Weaver: People's: 22: 1,029,357. Data: National Archives, 1892 Electoral College results (444 electoral votes in all, 223 needed to win); American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, popular votes Source card "How electoral votes were won in 1892". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: In most states in 1892 the candidate who came first in the state won all of that state's electoral votes. A candidate who came second in a state won none of them.

12. 6.

    Ren reads the 1892 table. Weaver won about 9 percent of the three-way popular vote. Which comparison with his electoral votes is fair?

    • His electoral share was about 9 percent too, since electors are meant to track the popular vote
    • His electoral share, about 5 percent, was smaller because his popular votes were mostly in one state
    • His electoral share, about 5 percent, was smaller because electors went to state winners
    • His electoral share, about 22 percent, matched his popular share once the votes were weighted by state

13. The secret ballot, by 1900

    Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Massachusetts was the first state to use the Australian secret ballot in a statewide election, in 1889. By 1900 thirty-eight of the forty-five states had adopted it, and seven still used party tickets.

14. 7.

    Luz reads the card on the secret ballot. Which claim do its numbers support?

    • Most states adopted it within about a decade, though a few still used party tickets in 1900
    • The reform spread slowly, since seven of forty-five states had still not adopted it after eleven years
    • The reform reached the great majority of states by 1900, so open voting had become rare nationwide
    • The reform spread quickly because Massachusetts, the first state, showed that it worked in 1889

15. What reformers changed, from Oregon to the Constitution

    Columns Problem | Who pushed for change | Law or result | Date. Row 1: Laws hard for citizens to propose or check | Direct Legislation League and Oregon voters | Initiative and referendum added to Oregon's constitution | 1902. Row 2: Party leaders choosing candidates | Direct Legislation League and Oregon voters | Direct primary law in Oregon | 1904. Row 3: Officials hard to remove between elections | Direct Legislation League and Oregon voters | Recall added to Oregon's constitution | 1908. Row 4: No federal income tax after the Court struck one down | Farm groups, the People's Party and progressives in Congress | The 16th Amendment | February 3, 1913. Row 5: Senators chosen by state legislatures | Oregon System states and reformers in Congress | The 17th Amendment | April 8, 1913. Data: Oregon Secretary of State Blue Book, National Archives, US Senate Historical Office. Data card "Choosing senators before 1913". Columns: What was counted; Count. Deadlocks in state legislatures, 1891 to 1905: 45 deadlocks in 20 states. Bribery cases brought before the Senate, 1866 to 1906: 9. States electing senators by party primary or general election, by 1912: as many as 29. Data: US Senate Historical Office, the Seventeenth Amendment. Arizona became the 48th state on February 14, 1912. Source card "Why the 17th Amendment passed, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Before 1913 state legislatures chose senators. In some states the legislatures deadlocked and left Senate seats empty for months or years, and in some places powerful interests or party machines dominated the legislature. Oregon developed a method in which a state primary showed the voters' choice and candidates for the legislature promised to honor it. In 1910 and 1911 the House passed versions of the amendment with a race rider meant to bar federal action against racial discrimination among voters. Supporters said the rider protected state sovereignty; opponents said it was a way around the 15th Amendment's protection of Black voters. Senator Joseph L. Bristow of Kansas offered a version without the rider. When Connecticut approved on April 8, 1913, three-fourths of the states had ratified the amendment. The next year, 1914, was the first time all Senate elections were held by popular vote.

16. 8.

    As many as 29 of 48 states elected senators by primary or general election by 1912. Tala asks what that supports.

    • About three in five states had already ended legislative election of senators before 1913
    • About three in five states already used a popular step, though legislatures still made the formal choice
    • About three in five states had ratified the 17th Amendment by the end of 1912
    • About two in five states used a popular step, so reform was still a minority cause in 1912

17. The Food and Drugs Act, 1906

    Who made it: Congress, in a federal law. When: June 30, 1906. Where: Washington. For whom: the nation. Why: to bar impure and falsely labeled foods and drugs from trade between the states. Excerpt (The Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 1906, section 2; 34 Stat. 768, section 2; checked word for word against three printed editions): "That the introduction into any State or Territory … from any other State or Territory … or from any foreign country, or shipment to any foreign country of any article of food or drugs which is adulterated or misbranded, within the meaning of this Act, is hereby prohibited; …"

18. 9.

    In 1907 a firm ships mislabeled cough syrup from Ohio to Texas. Esme reads Section 2. Does it reach the shipment?

    • No: Section 2 reaches foods, and cough syrup is a drug that the act treats separately
    • Yes, once a buyer in Texas shows that the syrup was misbranded and caused harm
    • Yes: it bars sending adulterated or misbranded drugs from one State into another
    • No: Section 2 reaches goods crossing the national border, not trade between two States

19. The 17th Amendment, first paragraph

    Who made it: Congress, then the states. When: ratified April 8, 1913. Where: Washington. For whom: the nation. Why: to change the Constitution. Excerpt (The 17th Amendment to the Constitution; Article XVII; checked word for word against three printed editions): "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures."

20. 10.

    In 1914 a state legislature elects a senator itself and ignores a vote of the people. Noah reads the 17th Amendment. What does the text say?

    • The legislature may choose when the voters are split, because the text gives no rule for ties
    • Senators are elected by the people of each State, so the legislature may not choose one itself
    • The legislature may choose in 1914, because the text applied after the next full election
    • The legislature may choose, because the text names electors with legislative qualifications