Connecticut became the 36th state to ratify the 17th Amendment, meeting the three-fourths requirement to establish direct election of United States senators by popular vote. The amendment modified Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution, which had required state legislatures to appoint senators. …
Connecticut State LegislatureU.S. CongressProgressive Movementprogressive-eraelectoral-reformconstitutional-amendmentdemocratic-reform
John Pierpont Morgan, the seventy-five-year-old financier who had dominated American banking for decades, died at the Grand Hotel in Rome. House of Morgan partners blamed his death on the stress of testifying before the Pujo Committee in December 1912, though other health factors were involved. …
JP MorganPujo CommitteeSamuel UntermyerHouse of Morganbanking-consolidationprogressive-erafinancial-capturecongressional-investigationjp-morgan
On March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, newly-appointed chairs of NAWSA’s Congressional Committee, organized the first major civil rights march on Washington, D.C. Lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, riding a white horse …
Alice PaulLucy BurnsInez MilhollandIda B. WellsWoodrow Wilsonwomens-suffragestate-violenceracial-segregationmedia-strategyinstitutional-resistance
Approximately 25,000 silk workers in Paterson, New Jersey walked out on February 25, 1913, beginning one of the most significant industrial conflicts of the Progressive Era. The IWW-led strike united diverse immigrant workers - Italian, Jewish, German, and native-born - demanding the eight-hour day, …
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)Big Bill HaywoodElizabeth Gurley FlynnCarlo TrescaJohn Reed+1 morelabor-suppressioniwwprogressive-eratextile-industrystrike
Delaware became the 36th state to ratify the 16th Amendment, meeting the three-fourths requirement to establish Congress’s right to impose a federal income tax. Secretary of State Philander C. Knox certified the amendment on February 25, 1913. The amendment was part of a wave of Progressive …
Delaware State LegislaturePhilander C. KnoxU.S. CongressProgressive Movementprogressive-erataxationeconomic-reformconstitutional-amendment
Montana voters approved the Corrupt Practices Act by ballot initiative with 76% support, establishing one of the nation’s strongest bans on corporate money in elections. The law responded directly to decades of systematic corruption by the “Copper Kings” - mining barons William A. …
Montana votersWilliam A. ClarkF. Augustus HeinzeMarcus DalyAnaconda Copper Mining Company+1 morecampaign-financeballot-initiativecorporate-corruptionpolitical-reformcopper-kings+2 more
Theodore Roosevelt accepted the Progressive Party nomination for president at a convention in Chicago, formally splitting from the Republican Party after losing the nomination to his former friend William Howard Taft despite winning nine of twelve state primaries. Roosevelt’s “Bull …
Theodore RooseveltWilliam Howard TaftWoodrow WilsonProgressive PartyRepublican National Committeeprogressive-erathird-partyrepublican-partypolitical-realignmentcorporate-power
Following a 1911 Sherman Antitrust Act lawsuit, the U.S. District Court for Delaware ordered the DuPont Powder Company dissolved and divided into three independent entities: the reconstituted DuPont, Hercules Powder Company, and Atlas Powder Company. DuPont had controlled approximately two-thirds of …
U.S. District Court for DelawareE.I. du Pont de Nemours & CompanyDuPont familyHercules Powder CompanyAtlas Powder Companyantitrustcorporate-powerenforcement-limitationsdupontpowder-trust
The U.S. House Committee on Banking and Currency subcommittee headed by Rep. Arsène Pujo of Louisiana began hearings to investigate the “money trust”—a concentrated group of Wall Street bankers exerting powerful control over the nation’s finances. The investigation arose from …
Arsène PujoSamuel UntermyerJP MorganGeorge F. BakerJames E. Stillman+1 morebanking-consolidationprogressive-erafinancial-capturejp-morgancongressional-investigation
On April 18, 1912, approximately 7,500 coal miners in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek districts of West Virginia went on strike against abysmal conditions in company-owned towns, initiating fifteen months of armed conflict that would see the declaration of martial law, the imprisonment of …
United Mine Workers of AmericaMother Jones (Mary Harris Jones)Governor William GlasscockBaldwin-Felts Detective AgencyWest Virginia coal operatorslabor-suppressionminingprogressive-eramartial-lawcompany-towns
Polish women textile workers at the Everett Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts walked out after discovering their employer had reduced wages by $0.32 when Massachusetts enforced a law cutting mill workers’ hours from 56 to 54 per week. The strike spread rapidly to more than 20,000 workers …
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)Joseph EttorArturo GiovannittiAmerican Woolen Companylabor-organizingprogressive-eraimmigrant-rightscorporate-poweriww
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 9-0 unanimous decision applying the new “rule of reason” doctrine, ruled that the American Tobacco Company violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the tobacco trust dissolved. Founded in 1890 by James Duke, American Tobacco controlled nearly 90% of …
U.S. Supreme CourtChief Justice Edward WhiteAmerican Tobacco CompanyJames Dukeantitrustcorporate-powersupreme-courtmonopolyrule-of-reason+1 more
The Supreme Court’s order to break Standard Oil into 34 separate companies produced a profound paradox: the breakup made John D. Rockefeller vastly richer while ultimately failing to prevent reconsolidation. Shareholders in Standard Oil received proportional stakes in each successor …
John D. RockefellerStandard Oil CompanyU.S. Supreme Courtantitrustcorporate-powerwealth-concentrationmonopolyenforcement-limitations
On March 25, 1911, a fire—likely sparked by a discarded cigarette—swept through the Triangle Waist Company factory on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch Building in New York City, killing 146 workers, mostly teenage Italian and Jewish immigrant girls. The victims died not from the fire …
A federal court sentenced AFL President Samuel Gompers to one year in prison, Vice President John Mitchell to nine months, and Secretary Frank Morrison to six months for contempt of court in the Buck’s Stove and Range Company boycott case. The case exemplified how federal courts had become …
Samuel GompersJohn MitchellFrank MorrisonAmerican Federation of LaborBuck's Stove and Range Company+1 morelabor-suppressionjudicial-captureprogressive-eraantitrustinjunctions
Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, chairman of the National Monetary Commission, submitted his “Suggested Plan for Monetary Legislation” proposing creation of a National Reserve Association to reform the nation’s banking system. The plan emerged from a secret November 1910 …
Nelson AldrichJP Morgan interestsPaul WarburgFrank VanderlipNational Monetary Commissionbanking-consolidationprogressive-erafinancial-capturejp-morganfederal-reserve
President William Howard Taft signed the Mann-Elkins Act, also called the Railway Rate Act of 1910, strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission’s (ICC) authority over railroad rates and expanding federal regulation to telephone, telegraph, and wireless companies for the first time. The …
President William Howard TaftStephen Benton ElkinsJames Robert MannInterstate Commerce Commissionprogressive-eraregulatory-enforcementcorporate-powertelecommunicationsrailroad-regulation
After a dramatic 29-hour marathon session, the House of Representatives voted 191 to 156 to strip Speaker Joseph Cannon of his autocratic powers, removing him as chairman of the Committee on Rules and expanding its membership from five to 15 members. Representative George William Norris of Nebraska, …
Joseph CannonGeorge William NorrisPresident William Howard TaftProgressive Republicansprogressive-eracongressional-reformrepublican-partycorporate-powerpolitical-realignment
President William Howard Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act and infamously praised it as “the best tariff bill the Republican party ever passed,” betraying his 1908 campaign promises for meaningful tariff reform and triggering a permanent split within the Republican Party. Taft had …
President William Howard TaftNelson AldrichProgressive RepublicansOld Guard Republicansprogressive-eratariff-policyrepublican-partycorporate-powerpolitical-realignment
When Theodore Roosevelt left office on March 4, 1909, his administration had filed 44 antitrust lawsuits (18 civil and 26 criminal cases, resulting in 22 convictions and 22 acquittals) against major corporations including Northern Securities, Standard Oil, American Tobacco, the Beef Trust, and Du …
Theodore RooseveltWilliam Howard TaftJ.P. MorganU.S. Department of JusticeInterstate Commerce Commissionantitrustcorporate-powerprogressive-eraregulatory-enforcementpresidential-legacy
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld an Oregon law limiting women’s workdays to ten hours in Muller v. Oregon, creating a narrow exception to the anti-labor Lochner doctrine. Attorney Louis Brandeis filed a revolutionary 113-page brief containing only two pages of legal argument and over 100 …
Supreme Court of the United StatesLouis BrandeisCurt MullerOregon LegislatureNational Consumers Leaguelabor-rightsjudicial-captureprogressive-eragender-discriminationworking-conditions
The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously 9-0 in Loewe v. Lawlor (the “Danbury Hatters’ Case”) that the Sherman Antitrust Act applies to labor unions and that individual union members can be held personally liable for damages caused by union boycotts. Chief Justice Melville W. …
U.S. Supreme CourtChief Justice Melville W. FullerUnited Hatters of North AmericaD.E. Loewe & CompanyMartin Lawlor+1 morelabor-suppressiongilded-agesupreme-courtantitrust-misusejudicial-capture+1 more
The Supreme Court struck down Section 10 of the Erdman Act, which prohibited railroads engaged in interstate commerce from requiring workers to sign “yellow-dog contracts” - agreements not to join labor unions as a condition of employment. Justice John Marshall Harlan, who had dissented …
Supreme Court of the United StatesJustice John Marshall HarlanWilliam AdairLouisville and Nashville Railroadlabor-suppressionjudicial-captureprogressive-erayellow-dog-contractsrailroad-labor
On the morning of Saturday, November 2, 1907, during the Panic of 1907 financial crisis, J.P. Morgan convened a meeting at his library proposing that U.S. Steel—which already controlled 60% of the steel market—purchase stock in the insolvent brokerage firm Moore & Schley, which had borrowed …
Theodore RooseveltJ.P. MorganElbert H. GaryHenry Clay FrickU.S. Steel Corporation+2 moreantitrustcorporate-powerfinancial-crisisprogressive-eraregulatory-capture
On July 19, 1907, the Roosevelt administration’s Department of Justice filed a major antitrust petition against the American Tobacco Company after one of its subsidiaries was indicted for price-fixing in the Southern District of New York. The suit charged sixty-five companies and twenty-nine …
Theodore RooseveltU.S. Department of JusticeAmerican Tobacco CompanyJames Buchanan Dukeantitrustcorporate-powerregulatory-enforcementprogressive-eramonopoly
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act on June 30, 1906, marking a major achievement in federal regulation of the food industry. The legislation arose from public education and exposés by muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair and Samuel Hopkins …
Theodore RooseveltHarvey Washington WileyUpton SinclairU.S. Congressregulatory-enforcementpublic-healthconsumer-protectionprogressive-erafood-safety
On June 29, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Hepburn Act into law after a month of conference committee reconciliation, with the Senate passing it 71-3 and the House by substantial margin. The Act fundamentally strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, giving it power to set …
Theodore RooseveltRepresentative William HepburnInterstate Commerce CommissionRailroad companiesU.S. Congressrailroad-regulationregulatory-enforcementprogressive-erainstitutional-expansioncorporate-power
Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle” on February 26, 1906, after serializing it in the Socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason from February to November 1905. The 26-year-old writer spent seven weeks in fall 1904 investigating Chicago’s “Packingtown”—a dense complex of …
Upton SinclairDoubledayAppeal to Reasoninvestigative-journalismmuckrakinglabor-rightspublic-healthcorporate-power+1 more
From June 27 through July 8, 1905, two hundred socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and radical trade unionists convened at Brand’s Hall in Chicago to found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), launching the most significant challenge to corporate capitalism and conservative trade unionism …
William "Big Bill" HaywoodEugene V. DebsMother JonesLucy ParsonsDaniel De Leon+1 morelabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in Lochner v. New York on April 17, 1905, striking down a New York law that limited bakery workers to a 60-hour work week as unconstitutional. Justice Rufus Peckham’s majority opinion held that the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due …
U.S. Supreme CourtJustice Rufus PeckhamJustice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Justice John HarlanJoseph Lochnersupreme-courtlabor-rightscorporate-powerjudicial-captureprogressive-era+1 more
On January 30, 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Swift & Co. v. United States that the Commerce Clause allowed the federal government to regulate monopolies that have a direct effect on interstate commerce, dealing a major blow to the “Beef Trust” cartel. The case followed …
U.S. Supreme CourtSwift & CompanyArmour & CompanyTheodore RooseveltAttorney General Philander Knoxantitrustcorporate-powersupreme-courtregulatory-enforcementprogressive-era
On March 14, 1904, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Northern Securities Company violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the railroad holding company dissolved. The decision affirmed the April 9, 1903 federal circuit court ruling against the company formed by J.P. Morgan, James J. …
U.S. Supreme CourtTheodore RooseveltJ.P. MorganJames J. HillEdward H. Harriman+1 moreantitrustcorporate-powerregulatory-enforcementsupreme-courtprogressive-era
Lincoln Steffens published “The Shame of the Cities” in 1904, a groundbreaking collection of articles originally written for McClure’s Magazine that exposed systematic corruption in major American cities including St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New …
Lincoln SteffensMcClure's Magazineinvestigative-journalismmuckrakingpolitical-corruptionmunicipal-governmentprogressive-era+1 more
The Amalgamated Copper Company (later Anaconda Copper Mining Company) executed an extraordinary act of corporate extortion by shutting down all mining operations across Montana, deliberately putting 15,000 workers out of work to force the state legislature to pass laws favorable to the company. This …
Amalgamated Copper CompanyAnaconda Copper Mining CompanyF. Augustus HeinzeJudge William ClancyGovernor Joseph Toole+1 morecorporate-powerinstitutional-captureeconomic-extortionlegislative-corruptioncorporate-personhood+2 more
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Giles v. Harris that federal courts cannot enforce Black voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment, effectively sanctioning the wave of disenfranchisement sweeping the South. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., writing for the majority, acknowledged that …
Supreme CourtOliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Jackson GilesAlabama LegislatureBooker T. Washingtonvoting-rightssupreme-courtracial-discriminationinstitutional-capturedisenfranchisement
On February 19, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Elkins Act, which made it a federal misdemeanor for railroads to grant rebates or preferential rates and held both the carrier and the recipient liable. The Act was sponsored by Senator Stephen B. Elkins of West Virginia and introduced in …
Theodore RooseveltSenator Stephen B. ElkinsInterstate Commerce CommissionPennsylvania RailroadRailroad companiesantitrustrailroad-regulationprogressive-eraregulatory-enforcement
On February 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Act to Establish the Department of Commerce and Labor, creating the ninth cabinet-level executive department and establishing the Bureau of Corporations as an investigatory agency within it. The Bureau was specifically designed to study …
Theodore RooseveltU.S. CongressGeorge B. CortelyouJames Rudolph GarfieldBureau of Corporationsantitrustregulatory-enforcementprogressive-eracorporate-powerinstitutional-expansion
Ida Tarbell began publishing her groundbreaking 19-part investigative series “The History of the Standard Oil Company” in McClure’s Magazine in November 1902, running through October 1904. Her meticulous research exposed the predatory business practices, illegal rebate schemes, and …
Ida TarbellMcClure's MagazineStandard Oil CompanyJohn D. Rockefellerinvestigative-journalismmuckrakingcorporate-powerantitrustmedia+1 more
On October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt convened an unprecedented conference in Washington bringing together representatives of government, labor, and management to resolve the anthracite coal strike that threatened to leave Americans without heating fuel for the approaching winter. …
On May 12, 1902, 147,000 anthracite coal miners in eastern Pennsylvania, organized by the United Mine Workers under President John Mitchell, went on strike after railroad companies that owned the mines refused to meet with union representatives. The miners demanded better wages, shorter work weeks …
United Mine WorkersJohn MitchellTheodore RooseveltRailroad companiesCoal mine operatorslabor-rightsprogressive-eracorporate-powerfederal-intervention
In May 1902, while the Northern Securities case proceeded through the courts, Attorney General Philander Knox filed a second major antitrust suit under President Theodore Roosevelt against the “Beef Trust”—a cartel of six major meatpacking companies (Swift, Armour, Morris, Cudahy, …
On February 19, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt’s Department of Justice announced plans to file an antitrust suit against the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding company formed in November 1901 by J.P. Morgan, James J. Hill, and Edward H. Harriman to control the Great Northern …
Theodore RooseveltAttorney General Philander KnoxJ.P. MorganJames J. HillEdward H. Harriman+1 moreantitrustcorporate-powerregulatory-enforcementprogressive-erarailroad-regulation
The Senate Committee on the Philippines embarks on a highly publicized investigation into “Affairs in the Philippine Islands” after letters from ordinary American soldiers in the Philippines surface in hometown newspapers containing graphic accounts of torture and atrocities. At the …
Theodore RooseveltWilliam Howard TaftSenate Committee on the PhilippinesAnti-imperialist SenatorsU.S. Army soldiers+1 moreimperialismtorturewar-crimesaccountability-crisisphilippines+1 more
Filipino resistance fighters in Balangiga, Samar conduct a surprise attack on Company C of the U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment, killing 54 American soldiers in what becomes described as the “worst defeat of United States Army soldiers since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.” The …
Jacob H. SmithLittleton WallerAdna ChaffeeTheodore RooseveltFilipino civilians+1 moreimperialismwar-crimesmilitary-atrocitiesphilippinescounterinsurgency+1 more
The Alabama Constitutional Convention adopted a new state constitution explicitly designed to eliminate Black voting while maintaining white political supremacy through facially neutral provisions. Convention president John Knox declared in his opening address that the convention’s purpose was …
John KnoxAlabama LegislatureDemocratic PartyBlack Belt Plantersvoting-rightsdisenfranchisementalabamaconstitutional-conventionjim-crow+1 more
In early 1901, J.P. Morgan, the country’s most powerful banker, purchased Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Corporation for $500 million and merged it with nine other steel companies to form the United States Steel Corporation—the world’s largest corporation and first billion-dollar …
Andrew CarnegieJ.P. MorganU.S. Steel CorporationCarnegie Steel Corporationmonopoly-powercorporate-consolidationvertical-integrationmarket-dominancefinancial-empire
Congress enacts the Platt Amendment as part of the Army Appropriations Act, stipulating seven conditions for withdrawal of U.S. troops remaining in Cuba after the Spanish-American War, plus an eighth condition requiring Cuba to sign a treaty accepting these conditions. The amendment, spearheaded by …
William McKinleyOrville H. PlattElihu RootLeonard WoodCuban Constituent Assembly+1 moregilded-ageimperialismregime-changecubaterritorial-control+1 more
In 1901, J.P. Morgan orchestrated the creation of the Northern Securities Company, a $400 million holding company that gave him control over approximately one-third of the country’s railways. The consolidation emerged from a fierce competition between James J. Hill, head of the Great Northern …
J.P. MorganJames J. HillEdward H. HarrimanNorthern Securities CompanyGreat Northern Railroad+1 moremonopoly-powerfinancial-consolidationcorporate-mergerrailroad-controlmarket-manipulation
The United States Steel Corporation is incorporated with authorized capitalization of $1.4 billion, becoming the first billion-dollar corporation in history and controlling 60% of the nation’s primary steel capacity. Financier J.P. Morgan orchestrates the massive consolidation, fusing together …
J.P. MorganAndrew CarnegieCharles SchwabElbert GaryJohn D. Rockefellergilded-agemonopoly-powercorporate-consolidationfinancial-powermerger-wave
On February 25, 1901, J.P. Morgan incorporated the United States Steel Corporation with an authorized capitalization of $1.4 billion, creating the first billion-dollar corporation in history by purchasing Andrew Carnegie’s steel empire for approximately $480 million and consolidating it with …