Elkins Act

Examples of Elkins Act in the following topics:

• Expanding Federal Power

  • Accordingly, Roosevelt believed that he could act in any manner that benefitted the needs of the nation, unless specifically and explicitly prohibited by the Constitution.
  • Some of Roosevelt's most noteworthy legislative achievements—such as the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Hepburn Act, the Elkins Act, and his conservation laws—embody this concept of the executive branch as an expansive source of regulatory powers for the "good" of the nation.

• Roosevelt's Progressivism

  • While president, Roosevelt targeted these trusts, particularly the railroad monopolies, by increasing the regulatory power of the federal government through the Elkins Act (1903) and the Hepburn Act (1906).
  • The Hepburn Act of 1906 gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates and auditing power over the railroads' financial records, a task simplified by standardized booking systems.
  • Through the Hepburn Act, the ICC's authority was extended to cover bridges, terminals, ferries, sleeping cars, express companies, and oil pipelines.

• The Square Deal

  • An example of this was the Elkins Act, which stated that railroads were no longer allowed to give rebates to favored companies.
  • Roosevelt responded to public anger over the abuses in the food-packing industry by pushing Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act.
  • The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 banned misleading labels and preservatives that contained harmful chemicals.
  • The Pure Food and Drug Act banned impure or falsely labeled food and drugs from being made, sold, and shipped.
  • The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were both widely accredited to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which revealed the horrific and unsanitary processes of meat production.

• Higher Education

  • President Johnson's Great Society made improvements to elementary, secondary, and higher education through a series of acts.
  • The Act also began a transition from federally-funded institutional assistance to individual student aid.
  • The Higher Education Act of 1965 was reauthorized in 1968, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2008.
  • This signing plaque rests on campus grounds of Texas State University commemorating the Higher Education Act.
  • Distinguish the key features - as well as the effects - of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Facilities Act, and the Higher Education Act.

• The Coercive Acts

  • Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773.
  • Many colonists, however, viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights.
  • The first of the acts passed in response to the Boston Tea Party was the Boston Port Act.
  • The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage than the Port Act because it unilaterally altered the government of Massachusetts to bring it under control of the British government.
  • Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least amount of protest of the Coercive Acts.

• Enforcing the Navigation Acts

  • These Acts formed the basis for British overseas trade for nearly 200 years.
  • Later revisions of the Act added new regulations.
  • The Acts were in full force for a short time only.
  • On the whole, the Navigation Acts were more or less obeyed by colonists, despite their dissatisfaction, until the Molasses and Sugar Acts.
  • Describe the central stipulations of the Navigation Acts and the Acts' effects on the political and economic situation in the colonies

• The Alien and Sedition Acts

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were a series of laws that aimed to outlaw speech that was critical of the government.
  • The Naturalization Act repealed and replaced the Naturalization Act of 1795 and extended the duration of residence required for aliens to become citizens of the United States from five years to fourteen years.
  • Enacted July 6, 1798, and providing no expiration provision, the act remains intact today as Title 50 of U.S.
  • The most controversial arrest made under the Alien and Sedition Acts was of a member of Congress.
  • While the Alien and Sedition Acts were left largely unenforced after 1800, the Alien Act was later used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the Supreme Court was grappling with the constitutionality of the Sedition Acts as late as the 1960s.

• The Acts of Parliament

  • Two 18th-century acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, known together as the Quartering Acts, ordered the local governments of the American colonies to provide housing and provisions for British soldiers.
  • Following the expiration of an act that provided British regulars with quartering in New York, Parliament passed the Quartering Act of 1765, which went far beyond what Gage had requested.
  • An amendment to the original Quartering Act was passed on June 2, 1774.
  • This act was passed and enforced along with many others, known by the colonists as the "Intolerable Acts."  
  • This act expired on March 24, 1776.

• Tax Protests

  • The first wave of protests attacked the Stamp Act of 1765, and marked the first time Americans from each of the thirteen colonies met together and planned a common front against illegal taxes.
  • The Parliament attempted a series of taxes and punishments which met more and more resistance, namely the First Quartering Act (1765), the Declaratory Act (1766), the Townshend Revenue Act (1767), and the Tea Act (1773).
  • In response to the Boston Tea Party Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts: the Second Quartering Act (1774), the Quebec Act (1774), the Massachusetts Government Act (1774), the Administration of Justice Act (1774), the Boston Port Act (1774), and the Prohibitory Act (1775).

• Navigation Acts

  • A series of Acts, known as the English Navigation Acts, restricted foreign shipment for trade between Great Britain and its colonies.
  • The deeply unpopular Molasses Act was the first of the Sugar Acts.
  • This act was set to expire in 1763; instead, it was renewed in 1764 as the Sugar Act.
  • The Sugar Act was repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act of 1766, which reduced the tax to one penny per gallon on molasses imports, British or foreign.
  • Navigation Acts lead to conflict between the British and the Dutch