Social Legislation, pg 2

Laws that seek to promote the common good, generally by protecting and assisting the weaker members of society (ex: unemployed, the infirm, the disabled, and the elderly)

families, private, religious, or charitable organizations town, county, or local government

local government: town, city, county rahter than the more distant nation government. (ex: asylums for the insane, homes for the blind or mentally retarded), authority to pass social legislation was presmised upon the power of government to restrict individual liberty and property for the common welfare. two incidents include freedman's bureau and the dependent pesnsion act

1865-1868 government taking care of emancipated slaves. lasted three years.

civil war veterans get a pension

(~1900 to ~1920) the US became more urbanized and industrialized and experienced new problems caused by rapid social, economic, and cultural changes.

1901-1909

Elevated to the presidency upon the assassination of President William McKinley. McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz because he wished to draw public attention to the inequities in American Society.

(1903 TR) A new cabinet position was created to address the relationship between business and labor. Within the new dept, the Bureau of Corporations was empowered to investigate and report on potentially monopolistic activities of corporations. By the time TR left office, indictments had been brought against 25 monopolies including Standard Oil Co, Northern Securities Co, and American Tobacco Co.

(1904 TR) The Supreme Court ruled that the Northern Securities Co., which controlled 3 railroads and monopolized rail transit for 1/4 of the US was in violation of the Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890. This was the first real usage of the law to break down monopolies.

(1906 TR) prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or fraudulently labeled foods and drugs.

(1906 TR) provided for sanitary regulations and inspections in meat packing facilities. Wartime scandals in 1898 relating to spoiled canned meats and The Jungle were a powerful force for reform.

1913-1921

(1913 TWW) lower rates from 41% to 29%; included an income tax provision to make up for lost government revenue (the Sixteenth Amendment was passed the month before Wilson took office, thus allowed the government to tax income)

(1914 TWW) more government regulation (outlawed mergers that tend to diminish competition) on business in an effort to break down monopolies; contained a section stating that labor unions were not considered monopolistic - considered by some to be the \"Magna Carta\" for organized labor (federal legal sanction to strike and picket)

(1914 TWW) government agency that increased federal authority in the business/corporate world-empowered to advise corporations concerning unfair practices, investigate unfair business practicesl; could order a business to \"cease & desist\" (stop) if unfair practices discovered (mislabeling, adulteration, combinations to maintain prices, false patent claims)

(1914 TWW) \"An Act to provide for the registration of, with collectors of internal revenu, and to impose a special tex on all persons who produce, import, manufacture, compound, deal in, dispense, sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations,...requires prescriptions for products exceeding the allowable limit of narcotics and mandates increased record-keeping for physicians and pharmacists who dispense narcotics.\"

(1916 TWW) dealt specifically with a railroad strike, this legislation paved the way for the standardization of the 8 hour working day - 1st federal legislation that regulated the working hours of employees in a private corporation

(1916 TWW) barred interstate shipment of goods made by children, it was struck down by the Supreme Court (Hammer v. Dogenhart, 1918 court's opinion that this legislation aimed to alter the production of a good, not its shipment)

(19191 TWW) placed a 10% tax on profits of child employing companies, it was struck down by the Supreme Court (Bailey v. Drexel Furniture, 1922 court's opinion this this was an inappropriate use of Congress' power to tax)