Reforming Elections
William S. U'ren convinced the state of Oregon to be the first state to use secret ballot, he also convinced them to use iniatiative, referendum, and recall. A iniatiative was a petition to pass a Bill which was made by them instead of lawmakers. Referendum was a vote on Iniatiative. Recall gave voters the right to remove public officials from elected positions and have another election before the end of their election if enough voters wanted it. The 17th amendment which made it so voters could elect their own Senators for congress instead of the State Legislature.
Conservation
During the late 1800s Americans did not take good care of the land, farmers cut down forests for farmland, cattle overgrazed on the Great Plains, Coal companies polluted land, lumber companies cut large portions of forest down and didnt replant trees, this caused erosion and other problems, cities dumped all kinds of wastes into rivers and lakes killing wildlife and making health problems. When Theodore Roosevelt became President he made Conservation a main concern. He set aside millions of acres of wildlife into national parks and reserves. The U.S, Forest Service was one of the first conservation groups in the United States.
Segregation
In the 1800s African Americans still had little rights compared to Whites. President Roosevelt didn;t support African Americans, he did support a few individuals though. He appointed an African American head of the Charleston, South Carolina customhouse, he supported them on other occasions as well. On the other hand he also did things that were not fair African Americans. Although African Americans had the right to vote White people made it hard for them by imposing poll taxes and literacy tests which they made much harder them. Almost everything during this time was separated by skin color.
Reforming Government
In 1900 Galveston, Texas was nearly destroyed by a hurricane, the city council did so bad at rebuilding the city that the Texas Legislature appointed a five member commision, each person took control of a different city department, the city was rebuilt quickly after this. It was so successful that the city adopted this idea as a form of government. Soon after many other cities also adopted this form of government. Some Mayors introduced a fairer tax structure rather than changing the whole government.Governor Robert M. La Follete started fighting against big businesses, he pushed them out of politics and his ultimate goal was to treat them like a common person. His main target for this was the railroad business. Soon other Governors started fighting agianst big businesses as well. Soon they also worked for better working conditions for the common person, and to end child labor.
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