Primary Sources


1			Read the section of the text under the heading "Government, Capital, and Labor." Also review the parts of Chapter Seventeen that discuss the rise of big business and the role of corporate leadership. The following excerpts are from Theodore Roosevelt's First Annual Message, delivered only a few months after he became president. Read the selection and consider the following questions: Does this message reveal an attitude toward trusts consistent with the actions that Roosevelt would undertake as president? How might Roosevelt have reacted to those who called the great industrial leaders "robber barons"? Would this document support the contention that progressivism can best be explained as a reaction to the economic changes of the late nineteenth century? Are Roosevelt's views more consistent with those of Herbert Croly or of Louis Brandeis? Does the Republican Party of today reflect a similar outlook toward business? Could it be fairly characterized as a "trickle-down" view? Theodore Roosevelt




2			Read the section of the chapter under the heading "Banking Reform," and note the reference to the "money monopoly." In 1913, while banking reform was being debated, a congressional committee chaired by Representative Arsene Pujo of Louisiana was studying economic concentration in general and banking in particular. Read the following excerpt, which is from the influential report of the Pujo committee, and consider these questions: Does the Pujo report seem to support the New Nationalism or the New Freedom? What influence might such a report have had on the passage of the Federal Reserve Act? Banking Reform




3			In his 1904 message to Congress, Theodore Roosevelt laid down the principles for what would become known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. What exactly is Roosevelt proposing here, and why does he believe the Monroe Doctrine no longer suffices? How does Roosevelt answer the charges of land hunger and imperialism? On what grounds does he justify the expansion of America's international role? http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=56&page=transcript




4			Here is the Keating-Owen Act of 1916, passed during the administration of Woodrow Wilson with his support and blessing. What does this act hope to accomplish, and on what grounds does it attempt to accomplish them? What would be the ultimate fate of this piece of legislation? http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=59&page=transcript

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