1912 election – Do either of
these competing approaches
remind you of modern
political parties?
New Nationalism
•Continued consolidation of trusts
and labor unions
•Growth of federal regulatory
agencies
•Woman suffrage
•Social welfare reform: minimum
wage laws and social insurance
New Freedom
•Small enterprise,
entrepreneurship, free trade:
unregulated and
unmonopolized markets
•Competition not social
welfare programs
•Fragmentation of big
business, not regulation
•Vigorous enforcement of
anti-trust laws
TR presidency-Corporate
Regulation
• Department of Commerce and Labor (1903)
Bureau of Corporations
• Elkins Act (1903)- aimed at rebates
• Northern Securities decision (1904)
• Hepburn Act (1908) Restricted free passes
that were used for bribery, expanded the ICC
• 1902 Prosecution of Northern Securities Trust
TR Prosecuted 44
TR -labor
•
•
•
•
1902 Coal Strike Resolution/ TR
Muller v. Oregon (1908)/ Louis Brandeis
National Consumer's League
Children's Bureau and Woman's Bureau
1908
1908
Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
• The Pinchot–Ballinger controversy, also
known as the "Ballinger Affair", was a dispute
between U.S. Forest Service Chief Gifford
Pinchot and U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Richard Achilles Ballinger that contributed to
the split of the Republican Party before the
1912 Presidential Election and helped to
define the U.S. conservation movement in the
early 20th century
The BallingerPinchot Affair
helped to split
the GOP and
drive a rift
between TR
and Taft.
1912
William Howard Taft (R)
• Quiet Confidence
• Becomes the conservative
representative
Teddy Roosevelt (P)
• New Nationalism
• Abandonment of
laissez faire
• Federal Trade
Commission
• Minimum wage
• Child labor ban
• Workers’
compensation
• Women’s suffrage
• Government
mediation of labor
disputes
Woodrow Wilson (D)
• New Freedom
• Against “Triple Wall of Privilege”
– Banks
– Tariff
– Trusts
Wilson’s assault on the “triple
wall of privilege”
Tariffs
•Underwood-Simmons Tariff Bill
Banks
•Federal Reserve Act (1913)
Trusts
•Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)
•Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)
1912 election Results
• 6.2 million for Wilson (less than
majority)
• 4.1 million for Roosevelt
• 3.4 million for Taft
• 0.9 million for Debs
• Only time a 3rd party candidate has
come in second, a standing president
come in 3rd
Wilson’s 1st Two Years
•
•
•
•
Lowered tariff
Federal Reserve Act
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Progressives win big in midterm
elections
Wilson Labor
• Keating-Owen Act
• Adamson Act
• Workers’ Compensation Act
Wilson
• http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesso
n_68_Notes.htm
Reform achievements – most
significant/why?