1912 Presidential Election
 Ballinger-Pinchot Affair (conservation)
 Payne-Aldrich Tariff (protective tariff)
Gifford Pinchot
Richard Ballinger
1910-1912 The Republican Party splits

The current Secretary of the Interior in Barack
Obama's administration is Sally Jewell of
Washington. She was confirmed by the Senate
on April 10, 2013
The U.S.
Department of the
Interior protects
America’s natural
resources and
heritage, honors our
cultures and tribal
communities, and
supplies the energy
to power our future.
Retains high tariffs
 Did not support Roosevelt’s conservation efforts
 Busted 90+ trusts, did not distinguish between good
and bad trusts

Taft (Republican)
High import tariffs.
Put limitations on female and child labor.
Workman’s Compensation Laws.
Against initiative, referendum, and recall.
Against “bad” trusts.
Creation of a Federal Trade Commission.
Stay on the gold standard.
Conservation of natural resources because they are finite.
Republican Party Platform
A negative attack by President
Taft’s campaign alleging that
Wilson would result in a
reduction of pensions.
Roosevelt and the liberal Republicans leave the
Republican convention.
 Roosevelt announces that his “hat is in the ring” for
the election as a third party candidate.

When asked if he was fit to run, TR replied he was as
fit as a “bull moose.”
• Roosevelt supported government
protection of human welfare and
property rights.
• He insisted that only a powerful
federal government could regulate
the economy and guarantee social
justice, and that a President can
only succeed in making his
economic agenda successful if he
makes the protection of human
welfare his highest priority.
New Nationalism
Women’s suffrage.
Graduated income tax.
Inheritance tax for the rich.
Lower tariffs.
Limits on campaign spending.
Currency reform.
Minimum wage laws.
National health insurance.
Abolition of child labor.
Workmen’s compensation.
New Nationalism

Roosevelt riding to the convention center in Chicago, Illinois
The
AntiThird-Term
Principle
 Banking
 Tariffs
Democrat Woodrow Wilson
proposes a New Freedom for
America
 Trusts
New Freedom: Wilson wanted to attack the
“triple wall of privilege”
Government control of the monopolies
 trusts in general were bad
 eliminate them!!
Tariff reduction.
One-term President.
Direct election of Senators.
Create a Department of Labor.
Strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Did NOT support women’s suffrage.
Opposed to a central bank.
Democratic Platform

The banking system pinched small farmers and
entrepreneurs. The gold standard still made currency
too tight, and loans were too expensive for the
average American. Wilson signed the Federal
Reserve Act, which made the nation's currency more
flexible.
Federal Reserve Act

Tariffs protected the large industrialists at the
expense of small farmers. Wilson signed the
Underwood-Simmons Act into law in 1913, which
reduced tariff rates.
Underwood Tariff

Unlike Roosevelt, Wilson did not distinguish between "good"
trusts and "bad" trusts. Any trust by virtue of its large size
was bad in Wilson's eyes.

The Clayton Antitrust Act clarified the Sherman Act by
specifically naming certain business tactics illegal.
Clayton-Antitrust Act

This same act also exempted labor unions from
antitrust suits, and declared strikes, boycotts, and
peaceful picketing perfectly legal.
Clayton Antitrust Act
The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am
for Socialism because I am for humanity.
The Socialist Party & Eugene Debs
Government ownership of railroads and utilities.
Guaranteed income tax.
No tariffs.
8-hour work day.
Better housing.
Government inspection of factories
Curb power of federal gov’t to issue
injunctions.
Women’s suffrage.
Socialist Party Platform
Wilson
Roosevelt
Taft
Debs
Electoral
votes
435
88
8
0
Popular
vote
6,296,284
4,122,721
2,486,242
901,551
States
carried
40
6
2
0
Results: A Wilson victory
New Nationalism
Ideas from Hebert
Croly
 Proposed broad social
welfare
 Economic competition
bad  drives down
wages
 Aimed at regulating
trusts, not breaking
them up

New Freedom
Ideas from Louis
Brandeis
 Favored breaking up
trusts to restore
competition
 Competition is good in
the market place

New Nationalism v. New Freedom