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Progressivism Under
Taft and Wilson
Chapter 11, Section 3
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Taft’s Presidency

TR decided not to seek another term and asked Taft to,
Taft wanted to become the Chief Justice and had no
interest in the Presidency but TR and his wife talked him
into it

He defeated the Democrat Bryan in 1908 and pledged to
carry out TR’s progressive programs

He was not TR and did not have his strength or will to
carry out the job

Taft was not a popular president; what do you know about
him?
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President Taft
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Conflict Over Tariffs
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In 1908 Taft ran on a platform (?) of lower tariffs (a
Progressive goal that TR had failed to address)

Taft called a special session of Congress in 1909 to
reduce tariffs

Congress passed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff that lead to
some reductions but mostly increases and Progressives
were furious
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The Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
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Taft also angered conservationists (people in favor of the
protection of natural resources)

He appointed Richard Ballinger as the Secretary of the
Interior and he was known for taking the side of business
when it came to preservation of western lands
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Pinchot, the head of the U.S. Forest Service, had many
conflicts with Ballinger
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Pinchot has been TR’s helper in drafting the legislation
that lead to many of the conservationist efforts and he
was quite popular among Progressives
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Pinchot caught Ballinger giving use of public lands in
Alaska to businesses and called him out, Taft backed
Ballinger and lost even more favor
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Turmoil in the Republican Party:
Midterm Elections 1910
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Following the election of 1908, TR went to East Africa on
Safari and returned right before the elections in 1910
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He at first backed his old friend Taft, but quickly changed
his mind and campaigned for the Progressive candidates
backing business regulation, welfare laws, workplace
protection for women and children, income and
inheritance taxes and voting reform—He called his plan
“New Nationalism”

Democrats gained control in the House and the Senate
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The Election of 1912

TR challenged Taft for the Republican nomination but lost
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Progressive Republicans backed TR and created their own
party, The Bull Moose Party (named because people
questioned whether TR was too old to hold office and he said
was “as fit as a bull moose”
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The Bull Moose party ran on a platform of tariff reductions,
women’s suffrage, regulation of business, child labor ban,
eight hour work day, worker’s compensation plan, direct
election of senators

On 10/14 TR was shot while giving a speech but asked the
crowd to quiet down and finished. He was only alive because
his speech and glasses were so thick
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TR Gets Shot
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TR is a Bull Moose
Theodore Roosevelt worked hard
to prove that he was as healthy
and strong as ever and could run
the country.
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Taft’s Record: The Republican

Taft frequently complained about his job; “politics make
me sick”
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He preserved more federal lands, brought more antitrust
suits than TR and supported the Children’s Bureau,
passed the 16th and 17th amendments and gave the
Interstate Commerce Commission the power to regulate
telephone and telegraph rates
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Woodrow Wilson: The Democrat
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New Jersey Governor
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He criticized big business and big government
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He promoted a “New Freedom” policy and promised to
enforce antitrust laws without threatening economic
competition
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Woodrow Wilson
Wilson had served as the governor of New
Jersey, had a reputation as a dedicated
reformer and had been a college political
science professor. He believed one of his
main duties as president was to present
legislation to Congress, promote it publicly
and guide it to legislation.
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The Election

It is very difficult in a heated three way race for the party
that is closest to the third candidate (in this case
Republicans and Bull Moose)
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Wilson won the election with 42% of the popular vote but
won the electoral college by a landslide, 435 (Wilson) 88
(TR) and 8 (Taft); how does this system work?
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Tariffs and Taxes
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Wilson reduced tariffs; the Underwood Tariff Act of 1913
reduced average tariff rates from 40-25%
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To make up for the loss of tariff revenue to the
government, Wilson signed into a law a federal income tax
that was then made legal with the 16th amendment in 1913
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Attacking the Trusts
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Wilson believed that trusts/monopolies limited free
enterprise and wanted to get rid of them
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In 1914 Wilson guided Congress to pass the Clayton
Antitrust Act to strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act
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It didn’t just make them illegal as Sherman had done but
spelled out practices that businesses could not do
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It also said that labor unions could not be punished as or
labeled as trusts because the labor of a human is not a
business entity
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The Federal Trade Commission was set up to enforce the
act
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The Federal Reserve System
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Wilson wanted to regulate the banking industry and help
stabilize the nation’s economy
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He pushed congress to pass the Federal Reserve Act of 1913
and created the Federal Reserve System
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The system divided the nation into 12 districts each with a
Federal Reserve Bank that was owned by its member banks
and supervised by a Federal Reserve Board whose members
are appointed by the president

Each bank was required to become a member of the Federal
Reserve and could borrow money from the Reserve for short
term loans when too many depositors wanted their money
back at one time
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Brandeis to the Supreme Court
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Known as “the people’s lawyer” for fighting many public
issues
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Was appointed by Wilson
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He was the first Jewish member of the Supreme Court
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Together Wilson and Brandeis worked to make and
preserve federal legislation dealing with child labor
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The Election of 1916:
Wilson Wins
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Charles Evans Hughes ran on the Republican ticket and
was backed by the progressives and the Bull Moose Party
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Wilson successfully ran on the slogan that he kept the
country out of World War I, which started in Europe in
1914
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*** Wilson is inaugurated in March of 1917 and we enter
WWI in April of 1917
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Limits of Progressivism

Progressives focused mainly on municipal (city level)
problems
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Progressives did little to aid migrant farmers and
nonunionized workers
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Some Progressives supported immigration limits and
literacy tests
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Social Justice and Progressivism
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Wilson did nothing to stop Jim Crow
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Wilson initially was against women’s suffrage; sadly those
democrats who did support women’s suffrage usually only
did so because it would add to the white vote and put
African Americans further behind
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TR also did little to support African Americans
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TR, Taft and Wilson were all afraid that if they supported
expanded civil rights, they would lose southern votes
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The End of Progressivism
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WWI really brought about the end of the movement
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As more nations in Europe got dragged into the war, we
were concerned we would be too and started to focus on
preparation