–Henry Demarest Lloyd, North American Review, June 1884

“We have given competition its own way and have found that we are not good enough or wise enough to be trusted with this power of ruining ourselves in the attempt to ruin others. . . . We have had an era of material inventions. We now need a renaissance of moral inventions, . . . Morals and values rise and fall together. If our combinations [industrial trusts] have no morals, they can have no values. If the tendency to combination is irresistible, control of it is imperative.”    

–Henry Demarest Lloyd, “Lords of Industry,” June 1884

“. . .The packers had secret mains, through which they stole billions of gallons of the city's water. The newspapers had been full of this scandal—and once there had been an investigation . . . but nobody had been punished, and the thing went right on.
     “And then there was the condemned-meat industry, with its endless horrors. The people of Chicago saw the government inspectors in Packingtown, and they all took that to mean that they were protected from diseased meat . . . [T]hese 163 inspectors had been appointed at the request of the packers, and that they were paid by the United States government to certify that all the diseased meat was kept in the state. They had no authority beyond that; for the inspection of meat to be sold in the city and state the whole force in Packingtown consisted of three henchmen of the local political machine! . . .”

–Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

–Ida Tarbell

“ . . . There has been a radical revolution in the legal status of _____. In most states the old common law has been annulled by legislative enactment, through which partial justice, at least, has been done to married _____. In nearly every state they may retain and control property owned at marriage and all they may receive by gift or inheritance thereafter, and also their earnings outside the home. They may sue and be sued, testify in the courts, and carry on business in their own name, but in no state have [they] any ownership in the joint earnings. . . .”

–Susan B. Anthony, 1897

“The department of politics has been slowest to give admission to women. Suffrage is the pivotal right, and if it could have been secured at the beginning, women would not have been half a century in gaining the privileges enumerated above, for privileges they must be called so long as others may either give or take them away. If women could make the laws or elect those who make them, they would be in the position of sovereigns instead of subjects. Were they the political peers of man, they could command instead of having to beg, petition, and pray. Can it be possible it is for this reason that men have been so determined in their opposition to grant to women political power?”

–Article in Arena, May 1897

–Carrie  Chapman Catt

“I urge that provision be made for both protection and more rapid development of the national forests. Otherwise, either the increasing use of these forests by the people must be checked or their protection against fire must be dangerously weakened. . . .
   “The time has fully arrived for recognizing in the law the responsibility to the community, the state, and the nation which rests upon the private owners of private lands. The ownership of forest land is a public trust. The man who would so handle his forest as to cause erosion and to injure stream flow must be not only educated but he must be controlled. . . .”

–Theodore Roosevelt, special message to Congress, January 22, 1909

“Section 7. That no corporation engaged in commerce shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital of another corporation engaged also in commerce, where the effect of such acquisition may be to substantially lessen competition between the corporation whose stock is so acquired and the corporation making the acquisition, or to restrain such commerce in any section or community, or tend to create a monopoly of any line of commerce. . . .”

–Clayton Antitrust Act, 1914

“In order that the best results might follow from an enforcement of the regulations, an understanding was reached with Japan that the existing policy of discouraging the emigration of its subjects of the laboring classes to continental United States should be continued and should, by cooperation of the governments, be made as effective as possible. This understanding contemplates that the Japanese government shall issue passports to continental United States only to such of its subjects as are nonlaborers or are laborers who, in coming to the continent, seek to resume a formerly acquired domicile; to join a parent, wife, or children residing there . . .”

–from a report of the Department of Commerce and Labor, 1908

“There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. . . . It is, therefore, to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a State to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race.”

–from U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Harlan’s dissenting opinion

1848

10.1

0

1856

33.1

114

1892

8.5

22

1912

27.4

88

1924

16.6

13

1948

2.4

39

1968

13.5

46

1992

19.0

0

2000

2.7

0

1920

4

13

1930

3.4

12

1940

8.7

27

1950

14.2

32

1960

17

31

1970

19.3

27

1980

17.5

24

1990

16.7

16

2000

16.4

13

–Alva Belmont, one of a group of women standing in front of the White House

1848

10.1

0

1856

33.1

114

1892

8.5

22

1912

27.4

88

1924

16.6

13

1948

2.4

39

1968

13.5

46

1992

19.0

0

2000

2.7

0