Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914

This act was an act to repeal the power of the large monopolies in American industry. With a panel nominated by the president, restrictions were placed and enforced on industry in America. Large companies were not able to employ competitive tactics that their size allowed them to normally get away with. No longer were large businesses about to lower their prices for the consumer to a rate that could not be competed with by smaller businesses. The idea of competition in the eyes of this act was that their would be many small businesses all on the same level of price and production. This enabled the weaker businesses to gain strenght while affectively crippling the businesses that could only be compared to the Sam's Club and Wal-Marts of today. The Federal Trade Commission was an Anti-Trust, Anti-Corporation, Pro-Mom and Pop and Pro-New Business Act. The makers of this act did not believe in the lavish lifestyle of competitive bashing that the large businesses employeed to drive the smaller businesses under. That is why, through anti competition the act provided for small business to flourish. (Above, Federal Trade Commission Seal)

Inaugural Address

Wilson's inaugural address was not a speech of triumph, but a dedication to improving the country. In light of the fact that a Democratic majority had engulfed the legislative and executive branch of national government, Wilson believed that the country was in need of improving its morals and disposition. He believed that the industrialization of the country had become so common place that the problems that came along with it were being ignored. The new president preached that we had become to mundane in our routines and too consertavitely traditional, the country needed moderation and liberal action. Therefore, in his presidency, the Federal Trade Commission Act was passed as well as other actions that helped to support smaller businesses over large monopolies. Wilson stressed the conservation of nature as being our main source of the development that we now enjoyed, however he also stessed changes in the way that big business was run. Wilson saw the country as entirely too traditional. He sought to change the way the country worked by revolutionizing the restrictions and codes that big businesses would have to live up too. He believed that this Democratic Majority was a cry from the nation to improve the nation. (Above, Wilson during his inaugural address)

The Dawes Act: An Act of Assimilation

The Dawes Act was imposed on Indian tribes in the United States.

It was designed in order to encourage Native Americans to assimilate into "proper" American culture. The expansion westward was forcing Indian tribes into smaller and smaller tracts of land and the government decided it was time to end the process of shoving Indians farther into unwanted territory. Therefore, a system of land division was devised. Each head-of-household in a native family received 160 acres of land, and each single individual or orphan received 80 acres. Minor children received 40 acres and the inheritance of their parents land upon their deaths. This system was designed to keep Indians in one place, they would build stationary homes, plant crops or find jobs in industry, and would live the life of normal Americans. In this way and others the government planned to obliterate Indian culture without actually obliterating Indians themselves. The Dawes Act served as a device to destroy culture and replace it with a more suitable American alternative. Indians no longer migrated, following disappearing game, and the ownership of land by an individual split the sense of community. Being that the nearest neighbor's plot of land was 160 acres from their own, Indians lost their sense of unity and were forced into American ways of life. (an Indian child in tradition celebratory dress, left; two Indian children in the late 1800s dressed to attend "white" school, right)