AP US History
The Progressive Era
The Election of 1912 and
New Nationalism vs. New Freedom
TAFT
TR
WILSON
Split in the Republican Party / Taft-TR Split
Republican Party became divided between the “Old Guard” and the Progressives
Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909) – significant cause for split; Progressives wanted lower tariffs and Taft had
campaigned to deal with the tariff issue; the House passed a moderately reductive bill but the Senate tacked
on upward tariff revisions (making the tariff average about 37%); Taft signed this Tariff bill, betraying his
campaign promises; Progressive wing of the Republican Party was outraged
Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy (1910) – Secretary of Interior Richard A. Ballinger opened up public lands
in WY, MT, AK to corporate development; Ballinger was sharply criticized by Gifford Pinchot, the chief of
the Agriculture Department’s Division of Forestry (Pinchot had followed TR’s lead in withdrawing land
from the public domain for conservation); Taft dismissed Pinchot for insubordination; Taft and TR
continued to drift apart
In 1911, the National Progressive Republican League was formed; Robert La Follette was the leading
candidate for presidential nominee but got elbowed out of the way by TR; Roosevelt decided that the twoterm tradition applied to consecutive terms so he could run again; “My hat is in the ring!”; Progressives
leave Republican Party for good as the third party, the Bull-Moose Party formed
Election of 1912
With this election there were four candidates and two of them were progressive candidates – Woodrow
Wilson (Democrat), William Howard Taft (Republican “Old Guard”), Theodore Roosevelt (ProgressiveRepublican “Bull Moose”) and Eugene V. Debs (Socialist Party)
Roosevelt and Wilson both came up with reform programs that they centered their campaigns around –
TR’s was called New Nationalism and Wilson’s was called New Freedom
New Nationalism
Urged federal government to increase its power to remedy economic and social abuses
Regulation of large corporations, tariff reforms, graduated income and inheritance taxes, currency reform,
selling of public land only in small parcels to bona fide settlers, labor reforms, strict accounting of
campaign funds, initiative, referendum and recall
Concentration in industry is inevitable – federal control is needed to protect the laboring man; national
interest requires that property be regulated
For social justice – minimum wage law for women; federal child labor law; enlarge conservation program;
use the federal government to solve labor problems
This will prove to be the quintessential progressive platform and set the liberal agenda for the next 50 years
New Freedom
Favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and free functioning of unregulated and un-monopolized
markets; states’ rights
Shunned social welfare proposals; emphasized competition; rejected stronger role for government in
human affairs; regarded social issues like child labor and suffrage to be state issues
Concentration in industry is NOT inevitable – the laboring man must be free from all control, either federal
or corporate; free competition will destroy monopoly
For social justice – federal controls will destroy free competition or free enterprise; the federal government
cannot act like a father to the laboring men
TR Shot!
While campaigning during the election, TR was shot on October 14, 1912 in Milwaukee
TR was to give a speech at the Gilpatrick Hotel, and while greeting the public, a saloon keeper named
John Schrank shot him with a .32 caliber bullet aimed directly at his heart.
Luckily, the manuscript of TR’s speech and his glasses case slowed down the bullet; to TR this was only a
flesh wound and he went and gave his speech anyway; in the course of his hour long speech he pulled out
the bloody speech manuscript and said, “You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose!”
TR finally went to the hospital and during his recuperation, the other candidates stopped campaigning out
of respect
Schrank was arrested immediately and gave his reason for shooting TR as, “any man looking for a 3rd
term ought to be shot.”; he was deemed insane and committed to a mental hospital until his death in 1943
Results of Election of 1912
Wilson defeated Taft & Roosevelt, but only received 41% of the popular vote
TR’s Bull Moose party fatally split the Republican party giving Wilson the win
New Freedom policies before and after 1914
Before – signed Underwood Tariff Bill; helped push through Federal Reserve Act; prevented a bill that
would have helped labor evade anti-trust laws; refused to fight for women’s suffrage; refused to fight for
National Child Labor Law; refused to restrict immigration into the United States; separated whites from
blacks in federal offices
After – almost against all odds, appointed Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court (Brandeis was a leading
spokesman for social reform); supported Federal Farm Loan Act (Federal government took responsibility
rot he inequality of farmers’ competition); pressured Democrats to accept a federal workman’s and child
labor law; announced that tariff laws be changed so business could have some reasonable protection