Ammendments to the Constitution

16th Amendment (1913)

Allowed congress to make and collect income taxes.

17th Amendment (1913)

Allowed senators to be elected by popular vote.

[Both under Wilson Admin]

18th Amendment( 1919)

Sale or manufacture of intoxicating liquors is forbidden.

( repealed in 1933)

19th Amendment (1920)

Guareenteed women the right to vote!

[ Under Harding Admin]

Protecting Workers

La Folette Seaman's Act (1915)

Required sailors to be treated with decency and given a living wage on merchant ships.

Worker's Compensation Act (1915)

Granted assistance to federal civil-service employees during periods of disability.

[Both passed under Wilson Admin]

Anti-Trust

Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

Forbade comninations in restraint of trade, had many loopholes and was ineffective.

Stardard Oil Company was taken down with this act.

Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)

Brought overdue benefits on labor.

Sought to exempt labor and agricultural organizations from antitrust prosectuion, while legalizing strikes and peaceful picketing.

Lenghtened list of objectionable buisness practices from Sherman Act.

[ Under Wilson Amdin]

Food Safety

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Decreed that prepared meat was now subject to federal inspection. They could now also receive the governments seal of approval on the exports.

[ Passes during TR admin]

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals.

[Passed during TR admin]

Railroads

Elkins Act (1903)

When this legislation was passed it was aimed at the railroads that gave rebates and the shippers that accepted them; meaning that heavy fines could now be imposed on them.

[ Passed during TR admin]

Hepburn Act (1906)

Free passes were stricty restricted. The Interstate Commerce Commission was expanded and now included express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines. The commission was also now authorized to "nullify existing rates and stipulate maximum rates".

[Passes during TR admin]

Visiting the Nina and Pinta

Okay, so apparently the focus is really bad, but this is me on the nina on Oct. 3!

Response to Great Awakening Prompt

I think that what happened during the Great Awakening definitely played a big role in the separation of church and state. The Great Awakening was a nation wide revival in the 1730's and 40's. The revival began in Northampton, Massachusetts and quickly spread through all the colonies. The Great Awakening happened because people had become lax about their religion and attendance at church services. Therefore the preacher John Edwards rose up as leading character in the revival and brought people to realize their "wrong" ways and to take action. Another leading character throughout the revival was George Whitfield who was said to have the ability to make a audience weep.

In the 1730's and 40's religion had become laxed and less heated than what it had previously been only a few decades ago. Furthermore people had started to stop going to church, not really feeling a need to participate and include themselves in the congregation. But, when the revival spread people realized that they could have a personal relationship with God and that just going to church was not enough or maybe not even what you needed in your spiritual walk. Never before had these people known that there could be a separation of church and state and that the two didn't necessarily have to go together.

So, I think that once people got a small taste of what religious life could be like without the state and politics they took it to a national level. Making sure that there was not an official state or national church. I think that in the back of the populations mind they must have remembered that one of the initial reasons that their ancestors came over to America was because of their being forced to follow a mold, and with that in the back of their minds I think they realized that there was a better/fairer way to handle religion and politics as two separate arenas. I think that at this point when people had essentially given up on churches, and the revival came around people realized that religion was a personal thing and they wanted that. They wanted religion to be a personal/intimate thing that you could either support or choose to ignore. And if there was a state church people wouldn't have a personal choice.