Questions on TR
1. Under what circumstances did Theodore Roosevelt
first become President of the United States?
a. the assassination of President McKinley
b. his overwhelming win of the popular vote
c. the impeachment of President McKinley
d. a margin of one electoral vote
2. Which quotation best
exemplifies the Roosevelt
Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine?
a. "The only thing we have to
fear is fear itself."
b. "This was their finest hour."
3. What significant role did
Roosevelt play in the SpanishAmerican War?
a. He captured the Panama
Canal.
c. "Speak softly, and carry a
big stick.”
b. He led the Rough Riders
regiment to victory.
d. "All men are created equal."
c. He planned the U.S.
military strategy for the war.
d. He was the official U.S.
negotiator with the Spanish.
Background
 Came from $
 NY legislator
 US civil service commissioner, and Assistant Sec. of the Navy
 Spanish American War  elected Gov. in NY 1898 and VP 1900
 McKinley assassinated. TR steps in.
 “Strenuous life”- boxing, wrestling, hunting, rowing, ranching, etc
 <3’s being center of attention
Twain on TR
 “Mr. Roosevelt is the Tom Sawyer of the political
world of the twentieth century; always showing off;
always hunting for a chance to show off; in his frenzied
imagination the Great Republic is a cast Barnum circus
with him for a clown and the whole world for
audience”
 What Issue does Twain have with TR?
 How does this behavior actually help TR?
TR and the Modern
Presidency
 Thought the president could do anything to meet national needs
that the Constitution did not specifically prohibit.
 Policy goals he sent to Congress
 Starts the shift in balance of power within the national government
 Efficient and expert executive branch
 Rational policy making
 Public management
 (NOT JUST DOLING OUT JOBS ANYMORE
 Used media to his advantage.
 Celebrity Status
Roosevelt and Labor
 United Mine Workers Union walked off the job in 1902
 Owners waited for the union to collapse, but it did not.
 TR does not have constitutional authority to intervene.
 He acts anyway, and invites owners and union leaders to White
House
 National interest makes it necessary for the government to take action
 Owners refuse and want TR to use army to break union and force
workers back to work.
 When had government done this before?
 What did TR do?
 Outcome
 Square deal
 active role in gov’t in labor dispute
 Strong president acts as a steward of the public
Managing Natural
Resources
 Conservation: The efficient management and use of natural
resources, such as forests, grasslands, and rivers as opposed to
preservation or controlled exploitation
 Forest Reserve Act and Forest Management Act
 Authorizes federal gov’t to withdraw timberlands from development
and to regulate grazing, lumbering, and hydroelectric sites in the forest
 Gifford Pinchot  head of Division of Forestry (Forest Service)
 Gave advice to TR who then was able to reserve 150 million acres, and
set aside another 80 million acres for minerals and petroleum
 Dozens of wildlife refuges
 Created the National Conservation Commission
Map 21-1 The growth of National Forests and National Parks
Rapid exploitation of the West prompted demands to preserve its spectacular
scenery and protect its remaining forests. In 1872 Yellowstone became the first
National Park, and the National Forest system began in the 1890s.
Conservation became increasingly important during the Progressive Era but
often provoked Western hostility.
Cont.
 Some people not fans
 Farmers did not want to pay grazing fee
 Some people set fire to forests
 Happy to take money from gov’t
 National Reclamation Act est. by the Bureau of
Reclamation
 Federal agency est. in 1902 providing public
funds for irrigation projects in arid regions
Corporate Regulation
 TRUST BUSTER
 Develop an orderly system, and such a system can only come
through the gradually exercised right of efficient gov’t control
 <3’s gov’t regulation to prevent corporate abuses and defend the public
interest
 Sues “bad trusts”
 1902 antitrust suit against Northern Securities Company organized by
JP Morgan

Government asserting itself

1904 Supreme Court dissolved trust
 1904 election TR v. Judge Alton B. Parker
 Won by pushing for more regulatory gov’t
Hepburn Act
 1906
 ICC sets max
railroad rates and
extended its
jurisdiction
 First time gov’t
sets rules in a
private enterprise
Pure Food and Drug Act &
Meat Inspection Act
 Many business
leaders also
supported too
 Certifed quality
would mean
more ppl buy
What else? In 1907 and 1908
pushed for:
--an 8 hour workday
--stock market regulation
--inheritance
--income taxes
Roosevelt
Roosevelt enjoyed this cartoon
illustrating his distinction between
good trusts, retrained by government
regulations for public welfare, and bad
trusts. On those he put his foot down.
Conclusion:
Lots of smoke, but modest
accomplishment
How much was really done??
The Granger Collection, New York
Questions on Taft
1. Why did Theodore Roosevelt refuse to support
President Taft's bid for reelection?
a. He felt Taft was not continuing his policies.
b. He wanted to run for reelection.
c. He felt Taft was an unfair and ineffective leader.
d. He felt Taft was too sick to continue his Presidency.
Questions on Taft
 2. Which of the following
was NOT one of Taft's
achievements?
A) He filed many anti-trust suits
against big business.
B) He strengthened the Interstate
Commerce Commission.
 3. To which position was
Taft referring when he said,
"This is the lonesomest
place on Earth."?
A) Secretary of War
B) President of the United States
C) He encouraged the rights of
women.
C) Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court
D) He continued diplomatic ties
with Latin American
countries.
D) leader of the Republican
Party
Taft and the Insurgents
 William Howard Taft
 Federal judge
 Governor-general of the Philippines
 TR’s Sec. of War
 President Roosevelt didn’t run for a third term, instead supporting
William Howard Taft, a friend and advisor who, despite a more
cautious view on reform, pledged loyalty to the Roosevelt
program.
 Upon his election, Taft worked to secure Roosevelt’s reforms
rather than build upon them.
 Taft worked to secure several reforms, such as creating a Labor
Department to enforce labor laws and increasing national forest
reserves.
 Taft’s administration is also credited with the passage of the
Sixteenth Amendment, which granted Congress the power to levy
taxes based on individual income.
Trouble In Presidency
TARIFF TROUBLE
 President Taft lost the support of most of the Progressive
Republicans, despite the reforms he helped secure.
 In April 1909, Congress passed a bill on tariffs, or taxes charged
on import and export goods.
 The House passed a version that lowered tariffs on imports, but
the Senate added so many amendments that it became a hightariff bill instead.
 Taft nevertheless signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff into law.
 Progressives were outraged because they saw tariff reduction as a
way to lower consumer good prices
CONSERVATION TROUBLE
 1910: Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger let business
leaders illegally buy millions of acres of protected public land in
Alaska.
 When Gifford Pinchot, head of the U.S. Forest Service, accused
Ballinger, Taft fired Pinchot, not Ballinger.
 Progressives thought this showed Taft was not committed to
conservation, and Roosevelt refused to support Taft from that
point on.
The Election of 1912
 Democrats-
 William Jennings Bryan steps aside so that Woodrow
Wilson would have a better chance
 Republicans Issues within party…. Candidate should be Taft or TR?
 Pick Taft
 TR creates Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party)
 Socialists- Eugene V. Debs
Wilson’s Background
•
Combo of public eloquence and cold personality
•
Self-righteous and stubborn inflexibility
•
President of Princeton University
•
Started out conservative, but championed for popular
reforms and immediately began campaign
Wilson’s Policy
•
TR’s Policy New Nationalism- 1912 program calling for
a strong national government to foster, regulate, and
protect business, industry, workers and consumers.
•
WW  New Freedom
•
•
•
Rejects TR’s “regulated monopoly”
WW wants limited gov’t intervention to break up trusts
Does not like social welfare legislation
Map The Election of 1912
The split within the
Republican party enabled
Woodrow Wilson to carry most
states and become president even
though he won only a minority of
the popular vote.
WILSON WINS!
•
TR couldn’t get enough Progressive Dems
•
Debs got 6%
•
Taft- “I might as well give up…”
•
Wilson won electoral college (only 42% of popular vote
though)
•
Dems gain control of Congress so he will be able to enact
New Freedom program
Woodrow Wilson
Implementing the New
Freedom
•
Built on Teddy’s strong model of executive authority
•
Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act
•
•
(1913) reform law that lowered tariff rates and levied the
first regular federal income tax
Federal Reserve Act
•
(1913) law that revised banking and currency through
creation of the Federal Reserve System
•
ACCESS TO CREDIT
•
Federal Trade Commission
•
(1914) gov’t agency established to regulate business activity
•
•
(embraces positive regulation)
No further reform necessary
•
What about women??
•
•
•
No support
Killed legislation trying to abolish child labor
Since raised in the south, he was all for segregation
The Expansion of Reform
 Wilson won again in 1912
 To gain support he pushed for:
 The Federal Farm Loan Act
 Farmers will be financed, and have long-term agricultural
credit
 The Warehouse Act of 1916
 Improved short-term agricultural credit
 Highway Act of 1916
 Provided funds to construct and improve rural roads
Louis Brandeis
 Known as the “people’s
lawyer”
 Wilson nominated to the
Supreme Court
 First Jew nominated to the
court and anti-Semitism
motivated some of his
opponents.
 Wilson brought progressivism to a culmination in a way
 Guided unprecedented expansion of federal power
 Consolidated reformers