Monopolies In The 1900s

Corruption was prevalent in the United States during the 1900s. Fraud existed in major industries, such as monopolies or unsafe working conditions. Several people wanting reform wrote books and articles about the industries which made a large impact on the consumers and users of industries. This put pressure on the president to make changes in regulating these industries. Muckrakers, a group of journalists, exposed corrupt issues to the American public, which brought reform to many major industries such as oil, railroads, and government. In the late 1800s to early 1900s corruption overran major industries as well as politics. Several companies, such as railroad and oil companies, had monopolies over their industries and were using this to

Rockefeller. He governed 95% of America’s oil refineries by 1877. He rapidly became the wealthiest man in the country. He was only one of many that had developed trusts in the United States. Other trusts include the steel, banks, sugar, tobacco, and leather. During this time the U.S. government did very little to prevent or even attempt to regulate these trusts. President William McKinley past a feeble act, the Sherman Antitrust Act, as an attempt to control these trusts, but to no avail. The trusts nimbly avoided these acts and did not falter in their business. Government and state politics were in disarray as there was corruption throughout several states. The most famous in this case is “Boss” Tweed. Tweed would provide jobs and housing for new immigrants but in return for them voting for him, thus keeping him in power. Ones that voted against him would lose their jobs and homes, which provided incentive to vote for him. This system eventually stopped working when voting became a private matter and Tweed could not prove that immigrants did or did not vote for him. On top of this, Tweed was involved in many

Roosevelt delivered, passing several acts for this purpose, such as the organization of the Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA. (“42b. Muckrakers”) Another act of reform to help the progressivism movement was the private voting policy, as well as the seventeenth amendment which allowed for the direct election of senators. The seventeenth amendment stated,” 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” (United States Constitution). Roosevelt also took an active part in splitting large monopolies. In 1887 he passed the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was a weak attempt to restrain big business by setting up a commission to regulate economics and services in each state. Unfortunately the railroad monopoly easily avoided this commission, which ultimately deemed unsuccessful but was the most recent attempt at regulating big business since the feeble Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1906 Roosevelt passed the Hepburn Act was passed which severely regulated monopolies such as the Standard Oil Company