Ask students to analyze how Woodrow Wilson, through legislation, effectively constructed a number of stabilizing mechanisms for corporate capitalism
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER: All students will immediately note the Federal Reserve Act, which strengthened the ties between big banks and the federal government. Better students, however, will point out that this involved little government control of the banking system, thus leaving financiers such as J. P. Morgan and others largely untouched by the tentacles of Progressive reform. The same students should also relate that, in its treatment of trusts, the Wilson Administration actually
deferred to Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 program of New Nationalism through the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission (1914). While the Commission had power to investigate alleged corporate wrongdoing, it could only regulate unfair methods of competition. Thus, in the final analysis, good students will conclude that regulation prevailed over sheer trust busting, and corporate power and monopoly went largely untouched. Government actions served to stabilize the economic system rather than drastically change it.
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Martin Van Buren's nickname which reflected his skill at organizing political alliances was
a. the Organizer. b. the Boss. c. the Little Magician. d. the Whig Magician.
During the Jacksonian period, political parties were regarded as a threat to democracy.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)
Which of the following resulted from King William's War and Queen Anne's War?
a. Nearly one out of every four New England soldiers died. b. New Englanders realized no tangible gains from the conflict. c. Taxes in New England during the conflict were cut drastically. d. The British lost Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
President Franklin Roosevelt's proposal to expand the Supreme Court
A. gained Roosevelt the support of southern Democrats. B. had little effect on future rulings by the Court. C. did little political damage to his administration. D. drew significant support from conservatives. E. was eventually defeated in Congress.