Exploring American
History
Unit VII – Beginning of
Modern America
Chapter 21 - The Progressive Spirit of
Reform
Section 4- The Progressive Presidents
The Progressives – 3:21 min.
The Progressive
Presidents
The Big Idea
American presidents in the early 1900s did a great
deal to promote progressive reforms.
Main Ideas
• Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reforms tried to
balance the interests of business, consumers, and
laborers.
• William Howard Taft angered Progressives with his
cautious reforms, while Woodrow Wilson enacted
far-reaching banking and antitrust reforms.
Theodore Roosevelt – 5:13
Main Idea 1:
Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive reforms
tried to balance the interests of business,
consumers, and laborers.
• Theodore Roosevelt called his reform policy
the Square Deal.
• Used his policy to help settle the 1902 coal
miners’ strike
• Threatened to take over the mines unless
managers agreed to arbitration, a formal
process for settling disputes, with the strikers
Theodore Roosevelt
 1901-1909- 26th President
(Republican)
 McKinley’s Death
 Rough Riders and San Juan Hill
 Square Deal
 1902 Coal Strike
 Northern Securities Case
 Meat Inspection Act 1906
 Food and Drug Act 1906
 Employer’s Liability Act
 Newlands Reclamation Act 1902
Regulating Big Business
• Influenced by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle,
Roosevelt urged Congress to enact meat
inspection laws.
• Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act
in 1906.
– Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of
mislabeled or contaminated food and drugs
• Roosevelt persuaded Congress to regulate
railroad shipping rates.
• Was the first president to successfully use the
1890 Sherman Trust Act to break up a monopoly
• The public largely supported this expansion of
federal regulatory powers.
Roosevelt’s View of the
Presidency
• Protecting the Consumers
– Food and Drug industries- selling dangerous
products to unknowing public.
– Tainted food and medicines that did not work
or were dangerous narcotics (cocaine, opium
and heroine)
– Upton Sinclair and The Jungle.
– Meat Inspection Act- federal inspections of
meat shipped across state lines.
– Pure Food and Drug Act- forbid sale,
manufacture or transportation or food or
patent medicine containing harmful
ingredients. Food and medicine must carry a
label of ingredients.
Conservation
• Roosevelt strongly supported conservation, the
protection of nature and its resources.
– Considered it an important national priority
• Some preservationists wanted to protect nature to save its
beauty.
• Other preservationists wanted to make sure the nation
used its natural resources efficiently.
• Roosevelt responded by
– Adding 150 million acres of public land to the Forest Service
to regulate use of forest resources by business
– Doubling the number of national parks to preserve natural
beauty
– Created 18 national monuments
– Started 51 bird sanctuaries
Roosevelt’s View of the
Presidency
• Environmental Conservation
– Roosevelt believed each generation should
protect and conserve nature for the future.
– John Muir- Naturalist, wanted to preserve
nature in its natural state.
– Roosevelt- active management of public lands
for various uses. Some land as wilderness and
some for economic uses.
– Newlands Reclamation Act- 1902- Federal
government created irrigation projects with
money from sale of public lands. Irrigation
would reclaim over 20 projects
– Gifford Pinchot- 1st chief of the U.S. Forest
Service which added over 150 million acres to
national forests. Followed Roosevelt’s beliefs.
– The Antiquities Act of 1906- created 18
national monuments.
Roosevelt’s Progressive Reforms
• Recall - What did the Square Deal
policy do for the public good?
• Make Generalizations – In what
way does the Pure Food and
Drug Act Protect Citizens?
• Evaluate – What do you think
about Roosevelt’s
accomplishments in
conservation?
Price of Progress
William Howard Taft
 1909-1913- 27th President
(Republican)
 16th Amendment
 Payne-Aldrich Tariff
 Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
 Mann-Elkins Act 1910
 Roosevelt returns
 Election of 1912- Republicans split.
 Taft-
45 indictments against trusts; civil service
jobs; million acres to national reserves; protected
mineral rights; postal saving banks, 2 new states,
16th amendment (income tax); Dept. of
Commerce and Dept. of Labor.
 Roosevelt-
Good and bad trusts, Issues,
Progressives (Bull Moose) and New Nationalism
 Wilson- Issues and New Freedom
 Debs- Socialist
 Outcome of Election
William H. Taft- 3:40
Main Idea 2:
William Howard Taft angered Progressives with his
cautious reforms, while Woodrow Wilson enacted
far-reaching banking and antitrust reforms.
• William Howard Taft moved more
cautiously than Roosevelt had toward
reform and regulation.
• Progressives were disappointed in Taft’s
approach to reform.
• Taft’s signing of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff,
which raised prices for consumers, was
opposed by many Progressives.
The Republican Party Splits
• In the 1910 congressional elections, Roosevelt campaigned for the
Progressive Republican who opposed Taft.
• Roosevelt proposed a program called the New Nationalism, a set of
laws to protect workers, ensure public health, and regulate business.
• Reformers loved the New Nationalism, but Roosevelt’s help wasn’t
enough to secure a Republican victory.
• Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives for the first
time in 16 years.
• By the presidential election of 1912, the Republican Party was split.
• The Republican party nominated
President Taft as its candidate,
outraging Progressive
Republicans.
• The Progressives split to form
their own party, the New
Progressive (“Bull Moose”)
Party, with Roosevelt as its
candidate.
• With the Republicans split, Democrat Woodrow Wilson easily took
the election, receiving almost 350 more electoral votes than Roosevelt
and over 400 more than Taft.
Election of 1912
• All four candidates were reformers.
• Taft ran for reelection on the Republican ticket.
• Roosevelt, angry at Taft, formed the Progressive
Party to run for president.
• Woodrow Wilson ran on the Democratic ticket and
was elected president by a wide margin.
• Eugene V. Debs ran on the Socialist Party ticket.
• Woodrow Wilson won by a wide margin as the
Republican voters split between Taft and Roosevelt.
Woodrow Wilson
1913-1921- 28th
President
(Democrat)
Leadership
Underwood Tariff
Act
Federal Reserve Act
1913
Clayton Anti-Trust
Act 1914
Federal Trade
Commission Act
1914
Wilson’s Reforms
• Introduced the modern income tax, made
possible by ratification of the Sixteenth
Amendment in 1913
• Addressed banking reform with the Federal
Reserve Act in 1913, creating a national banking
system
• Pushed for laws to regulate big business
– The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 strengthened laws
against monopolies.
– The Federal Trade Commission, created in 1914, had the
power to investigate and punish unfair trade practices.
Reforms of Taft and Wilson
• Explain – To what was Wilson
referring when he used the term
“human cost”?
• Sequence – Describe the
sequence of events leading up to
and including the election of
Wilson.
Reforms of Taft and Wilson
• Recall – What allowed the
modern income tax to go into
effect?
• Explain – What power does
the Federal Trade
Commission have?