AP United States History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how Progressive reform expanded federal power between the early 1900s and 1920
- Identify major federal laws linked to Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson
- Recall the purpose and significance of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments
- Distinguish democratic reforms from moral reform, especially the difference between the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act
- Analyse the limits of Progressive reform, including court resistance and continuing racial inequality
- Use specific evidence to write stronger SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ responses on Progressive federal reform

## AP United States History Syllabus

For the AP United States History, you are expected to understand federal Progressive reform in the early 20th century, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know how Progressives used federal legislation to regulate business, protect consumers, and reform banking
- Identify key laws including the Elkins Act, Hepburn Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act, Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Antitrust Act, and Federal Trade Commission Act
- Understand how the **16th Amendment (1913)** enabled a federal income tax and strengthened national government capacity
- Explain how the **17th Amendment (1913)** established direct election of senators
- Distinguish democratic reforms such as the 17th and 19th Amendments from moral reform such as the 18th Amendment
- Know that the **18th Amendment (1919)** created Prohibition, while the **Volstead Act (1919)** enforced it
- Understand how the **19th Amendment (1920)** expanded suffrage but did not remove all barriers to Black women voting in the South
- Evaluate the limits of Progressive reform, including court decisions such as _Hammer v. Dagenhart_ and the failure to challenge Jim Crow fully

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. What did the 16th Amendment change, and why was it important to Progressive reform?
2. How did the 17th Amendment change the way U.S. senators were chosen?
3. What is the difference between the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act?
4. Name two federal laws that strengthened regulation of big business during the Progressive Era.
5. Why can the 19th Amendment be seen as both a major success and a limited reform?

## Introduction

Federal progressive legislation and constitutional amendments show one of the clearest turning points in Period 7. During the Gilded Age, the federal government often protected business more than workers or consumers. During the Progressive Era, reformers pushed Washington to become more active. They wanted the national government to regulate railroads and trusts, protect the public from unsafe products, reform banking, and make politics more democratic.

For APUSH, this topic matters because it connects directly to major themes: **Politics and Power**, **Work, Exchange, and Technology**, and **American and National Identity**. It also works well in causation essays. A strong answer does not just list laws. It explains why reformers wanted them, how they changed government, and where they fell short.

> **Key Term: Progressive Era**
> The period from the late 1890s through the 1910s in which reformers sought to use government to regulate business, expand democracy, and address social problems.

### Why federal reform grew in the Progressive Era

Progressive federal reform did not appear suddenly. It grew out of late 19th-century problems: corporate monopolies, political corruption, unsafe food production, unstable banking, and limited democracy. Muckrakers exposed these problems, middle-class reformers organized around them, and presidents became more willing to use national power.

The key shift was this: earlier reformers often focused on local or state government, but Progressives increasingly saw national problems requiring national solutions. Railroads crossed state lines. Big corporations operated nationally. Banking crises spread across the country. That made federal action more persuasive.

The three major Progressive presidents approached reform differently. Theodore Roosevelt used the presidency to regulate corporations and protect consumers. Taft continued antitrust efforts and supported constitutional reform. Wilson's New Freedom produced some of the most important federal laws of the era, especially in banking and antitrust.

> **Key Term: antitrust**
> Government action designed to limit monopolies and unfair restraints on competition.

A frequent APUSH mistake is mixing federal reforms with state reforms. Initiative, referendum, recall, and direct primary elections were important Progressive ideas, but they were mostly state-level measures. This subtopic is about federal legislation and federal constitutional amendments.

> **Test Tip:** If a question asks about federal Progressive reform, avoid using state examples like recall or initiative unless you are making a contrast.

### Regulating business and protecting consumers

The first major area of federal reform was regulation of big business. Progressives did not all want the same thing. Some wanted to break up monopolies entirely. Others wanted strong regulation instead. But both views accepted a larger federal role than had existed in the Gilded Age.

Railroads were an early target because they symbolized unfair corporate power. The **Elkins Act (1903)** attacked railroad rebates, which had allowed large shippers to get favorable rates. The **Hepburn Act (1906)** went further by increasing the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission and allowing it to set maximum railroad rates. This mattered because it showed the federal government was no longer just observing corporate abuse; it was actively controlling it.

Consumer protection became more urgent after public outrage over the meatpacking industry. Upton Sinclair's _The Jungle_ exposed filthy conditions in Chicago slaughterhouses. Roosevelt responded by supporting the **Meat Inspection Act (1906)** and the **Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)**.

> **Key Term: Pure Food and Drug Act**
> A 1906 federal law prohibiting the interstate sale of adulterated or mislabeled food and drugs.

These laws mattered for two reasons. First, they protected ordinary consumers. Second, they expanded the idea that the federal government had responsibility for public health in interstate commerce. That was a major change from earlier laissez-faire thinking.

Wilson's presidency deepened this regulatory trend. The **Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)** strengthened earlier antitrust law and stated that labor unions should not simply be treated as illegal trusts. The **Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)** created the FTC to investigate unfair business practices.

> **Key Term: Federal Trade Commission (FTC)**
> A federal agency created in 1914 to investigate and act against unfair methods of competition and deceptive business practices.

Together, these laws show that Progressive reform was not one single policy. It was a broad movement to make capitalism more supervised. Progressives generally did not reject capitalism. They wanted government to restrain its worst abuses.

A key distinction students often miss is the difference between Roosevelt and Wilson. Roosevelt accepted that some large corporations might remain if regulated. Wilson put more emphasis on restoring competition through stronger antitrust action. That difference can strengthen a comparison paragraph.

### Banking, labor, and the Progressive amendments

Banking reform was one of the most important federal achievements of the era. Repeated instability, especially the Panic of 1907, convinced many Americans that the national financial system was too weak and too rigid. The response was the **Federal Reserve Act (1913)**.

> **Key Term: Federal Reserve Act**
> A 1913 law creating the Federal Reserve System to regulate banking, stabilize credit, and provide a more elastic currency.

The Federal Reserve System created 12 reserve districts and allowed the money supply to expand or contract more effectively. For APUSH purposes, the big significance is not technical banking detail. It is the larger point: the federal government gained much greater influence over the financial system.

The **Underwood Tariff Act (1913)** also mattered. It lowered tariff rates and worked alongside the new income-tax system made possible by the 16th Amendment. This reflected Progressive criticism of high protective tariffs, which many saw as benefiting big business at the expense of consumers.

Labor reform was more uneven. The **Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916)** attempted to restrict interstate sale of goods produced by child labor. The **Adamson Act (1916)** established an eight-hour day for interstate railroad workers. The **Federal Farm Loan Act (1916)** helped farmers access long-term credit.

However, labor reform also reveals the limits of Progressivism. In _Hammer v. Dagenhart_ (1918), the Supreme Court struck down the Keating-Owen Act, arguing that production was not the same as interstate commerce and stressing states' rights. This is a classic APUSH example of how courts could block reform.

> **Test Tip:** If an essay asks you to evaluate Progressive reform, include at least one limit. _Hammer v. Dagenhart_ is an excellent example because it shows that passing a law did not guarantee lasting change.

The constitutional amendments are central to this subtopic because they formalized Progressive goals at the highest level of law.

The **16th Amendment (1913)** authorized a federal income tax. This overturned the earlier obstacle created by _Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co._ and gave the national government a more reliable source of revenue.

> **Key Term: 16th Amendment**
> The constitutional amendment ratified in 1913 that authorized a federal income tax without apportioning it among the states by population.

This amendment mattered because Progressives wanted a fairer tax system and a stronger federal state. A government that could tax income directly had more capacity to regulate, investigate, and fund reforms.

The **17th Amendment (1913)** established direct election of senators, replacing their selection by state legislatures.

> **Key Term: 17th Amendment**
> The constitutional amendment ratified in 1913 that established direct election of U.S. senators.

This was a democratic reform aimed at reducing corruption and making government more responsive to voters. It also reflected Populist influence, since direct election of senators had been a Populist demand in the 1890s.

The **18th Amendment (1919)** prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes. This was the constitutional basis for Prohibition.

The **Volstead Act (1919)** then enforced that amendment by defining intoxicating liquor and creating enforcement rules.

> **Key Term: Volstead Act**
> The 1919 law that enforced the 18th Amendment by defining and regulating Prohibition.

Do not confuse these. The amendment created Prohibition; the act enforced it. That distinction appears often in multiple-choice questions.

The **19th Amendment (1920)** prohibited denying the vote on the basis of sex.

> **Key Term: 19th Amendment**
> The constitutional amendment ratified in 1920 that granted women the right to vote nationwide.

This was one of the great victories of the Progressive Era and the culmination of long-term suffrage activism. But it also had limits. Many Black women in the South still faced poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and segregation. So the amendment expanded democracy nationally while still leaving racial barriers in place.

### Successes, limits, and how to write about them in APUSH

The strongest judgement is that federal Progressive legislation and amendments greatly expanded the power of the national government, but they did so unevenly. That is the balance APUSH rewards.

On one side, reformers achieved major change. They strengthened federal regulation of railroads and corporations. They created consumer protections. They reformed banking. They democratized parts of politics through the 16th, 17th, and 19th Amendments. They proved that national government could intervene far more deeply in American life than it had in the Gilded Age.

On the other side, the reforms had serious limits. Courts blocked some labor measures. Prohibition exposed the weakness of moral reform through law, as enforcement proved difficult and resistance spread. Most important, Progressive federal reform did little to dismantle Jim Crow or disfranchisement in a systematic way. The movement often expanded democracy for some Americans more than for others.

This is where causation and continuity/change analysis matter. Progressives changed the scope of federal power. But they did not fully change American racial hierarchy. That tension helps create a more sophisticated argument.

A strong LEQ or DBQ paragraph might work like this: make a claim, provide 2-3 pieces of evidence, then qualify the argument. For example, you could argue that Progressive amendments expanded democracy by citing the 17th and 19th Amendments, then qualify the claim by noting continuing barriers to Black voting in the South.

For an SAQ, be more direct. If asked for one way Progressives increased federal power, cite the Federal Reserve Act and explain that it gave the national government greater control over banking and currency. If asked for one limit, cite _Hammer v. Dagenhart_ or the failures of Prohibition enforcement.

> **Test Tip:** In essays, avoid vague sentences like “the Progressives changed America.” Instead, name the mechanism: “The 16th Amendment increased federal revenue capacity,” or “the FTC gave Washington power to police unfair business practices.”

One final distinction matters for interpretation. Not all Progressive reforms were democratic in the same sense. The 17th and 19th Amendments expanded participation. The 18th Amendment restricted behavior in the name of moral reform. That contrast can be used in comparison essays to show that Progressivism mixed democratic expansion with social control.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- The Progressive Era marked a major expansion of federal power in domestic affairs
- Federal reform targeted business regulation, consumer protection, banking reform, labor conditions, and democratic change
- The Elkins Act and Hepburn Act strengthened federal regulation of railroads
- The Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act expanded federal consumer protection in 1906
- The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created a stronger national banking system
- The Clayton Antitrust Act and Federal Trade Commission Act expanded federal regulation of corporate behavior
- The 16th Amendment established a federal income tax in 1913
- The 17th Amendment created direct election of senators in 1913
- The 18th Amendment created Prohibition, while the Volstead Act enforced it
- The 19th Amendment granted women suffrage nationally in 1920
- Some Progressive reforms were limited by Supreme Court decisions such as _Hammer v. Dagenhart_
- Progressive reform did not fully challenge Jim Crow, disfranchisement, or racial inequality

## Key Terms and Concepts

- Progressive Era
- antitrust
- Pure Food and Drug Act
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Federal Reserve Act
- 16th Amendment
- 17th Amendment
- Volstead Act
- 19th Amendment


The Progressives - Federal progressive legislation and amendments