Progressive Era Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt
1901 – 1909
William Howard Taft
1909 – 1913
Of the three, who was the MOST
Progressive? Why?
Woodrow Wilson
1913 – 1921
Who was the most progressive?
• Three Presidents have claimed to be a Progressive
President.
 You are a judge in the court of history and must decide.
• Each president will state their case based on their
accomplishments
• You will form an opinion based on the four goals for the
progressive movement.
1. Protect social welfare
2. Promote moral improvement
3. Create economic reform
4. Foster efficiency
Roosevelt Assumes Presidency After
McKinley’s Assassination (1901)
• Believed that the
President should exercise
vigorous leadership in the
public interest
– President acted as the
“steward,” or manager of
the people’s interest.
• Used Presidency as “Bully
Pulpit”
– a public office or position of
authority that provides its
occupant with an
outstanding opportunity to
speak out on any issue
Teddy Roosevelt’s & Labor
1902 Coal Strike in Pennsylvania
• 150,000 coal workers went on strike for:
– 20% pay raise
– 9 hr. day
– union recognition
• T.R. called both sides to White House to negotiate
settlement
• Owners unwilling to compromise = TR threatened to take
over mines
• OUTCOME:
– Miners won 10% pay increase, BUT did not have their union
recognized
• 1st time that the federal government intervened in a
strike to protect the rights of workers
Teddy the Trust Buster
• Teddy revived the use of the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) .
• Supported the growth of industry but
believed there were GOOD trusts and BAD
trusts
– Goal was to prevent abuses of power so
he favored regulation – not destruction
of trusts
• 1902 filed lawsuit against the Northern
Securities Company (J.P. Morgan)
– Northern Securities v. U.S. (1904)
• Supreme Court ordered the trust to be broken
up (it was in violation of the Sherman Anti
Trust Act)
• Roosevelt later broke up Standard Oil and
American Tobacco Company
Roosevelt & the Railroads
• Elkins Act
– Outlawed railroads from receiving rebates
– Fined companies engaging in illegal rebating
• Hepburn Act—ICC given power to:
– Set maximum railroad rates.
– Inspect RR company’s books
– Investigate RRs, sleeping car cos, oil pipelines, & other
transportation firms
Roosevelt Protects Consumers
• Meat Inspection Act
– Passed After TR read the Jungle
– forced meatpackers to use strict sanitation
guidelines
– created the program of federal meat
inspection that was in use until the 1990s
• Pure Food and Drug Act
– Response to false advertising of food and
drugs
• these products contained dangerous
chemicals and additives such as opium,
cocaine, or alcohol
– Stopped the sale of contaminated foods and
medicines and called for labels to be truthful
Roosevelt & Conservation
• Roosevelt added 150 million acres to the National
Forest System & created 5 new national parks.
• "Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages
have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."
William Howard Taft
• Chosen by TR to run for Republican
nomination
• Wins the election of 1908
• Taft lacks TR’s political skill
• Taft pledged to continue Roosevelt’s
progressive reforms.
– Pursued even more antitrust cases
– Supported other Progressive measures
like setting aside a great deal of public
land for conservation.
• Under Taft, Congress proposed the
16th and 17th Amendments.
Conflict Among Republicans
• Payne-Aldrich Tariff
– Taft called Congress into
session in 1909 with plans to
discuss the lowering of the
tariff
– Bill lowered tariff on some
products, but also raised it on
others.
• Lowered 650 tariffs, raised 220
tariffs, and left 1,150 tariffs
untouched
– Effect: angered many
Democrats, Progressives, and
progressive Republicans
Conflict Among Republicans
• Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
– 1910: Secretary of the Interior Richard
Ballinger let business leaders illegally buy
millions of acres of protected public land
in WY, MT, AK.
– Pinchot (Chief of Forestry) demanded
that Taft dismiss Ballinger.
– Taft supported Ballinger& dismissed
Pinchot on the basis of insubordination.
– Effect: divided the Republican Party.
• Progressives thought this showed Taft
was not committed to conservation
• Roosevelt refused to support Taft from
that point on.
Election of 1912
Woodrow Wilson’s Reforms
• Underwood Tariff Act – 1913
– Greatly reduces tariffs - tax on imported goods
• 16th Amendment – 1913
– Legalized Income Tax
– Made up for lost tariff revenues
• Federal Reserve Act – 1913
– Created the federal reserve board to oversee a nationwide
system of 12 regional reserve districts each with its own central
bank and had the power to issue paper money
– Central banks loan money to smaller banks within each district
• Meant to keep banks from failing
• Determines Interest Rates for loans
– Manages money supply, controls inflation
Stronger Antitrust Laws
• Though Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890
to limit the power of monopolies, lax enforcement and
loopholes allowed many unfair business practices to go on.
• Wilson had two solutions to these problems.
The FTC
• The Federal Trade
Commission, created by
Congress in 1914 and
supported by Wilson
• Enforced antitrust laws and
was tough on companies
that used deceptive
advertising
• Could undertake special
investigations of
businesses
Clayton Antitrust Act
• Passed in 1914
• Clarified and extended the
Sherman Antitrust Act
• Prohibited companies from
buying stock in competing
companies in order to form
a monopoly
• Supported workers by
making strikes, boycotts,
and peaceful picketing
legal for the first time
Conclusion
• How did the “PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS” influence
Government?
– Used the government as a means to reform & regulate big
business/broke up unfair trusts
– Government regulation/protection for consumers (pure food
& drug act)
– Regulated the money supply/attempted to add fairness to the
tax system
– Protected the environment/created the national parks system