Chapter 21, Section 4 “ The Progressive Presidents ”

Chapter 21, Section 4“The Progressive Presidents”

Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal

• Square Deal – a nickname for Pres. Roosevelt’s policies that attempted to balance the interests of businesspeople, laborers, and consumers– 1902 Coal Miners Strike – he threatened

to take over the mines unless managers and strikers agreed to arbitration (first time govt. intervened in a strike and didn’t side with business)

– First president to successfully use the Sherman Anti-trust Act to break up monopolies and trusts

– TR supported laws regulating businesses• 1903 Elkins Act authorized the

Interstate Commerce Commission to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates

• 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act

“The Jungle”• Muckrakers helped build support for

President Roosevelt’s efforts to regulate big business

• Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” published in early 1906 about immigrants working in a meat-packing plant shocked the nation with its description of unhealthy practices there

• Pure Food and Drug Act – law passed by Congress in 1906 that prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of mislabeled or contaminated food and drugs

• Meat Inspection Act – law passed by Congress in 1906 that authorized the Dept. of Agriculture to inspect and condemn any meat product found unfit for human consumption

Roosevelt & Conservation

• T.R. was very worried about the loss of natural resources

• Preserved more than 200 million acres– Wildlife refuges– National parks– Protected the Grand

Canyon in Arizona

Presidency of William Howard Taft• Taft won the presidency in 1908,

promising continued Progressive reforms

• As president, Taft upset Progressives by not aggressively pursuing reforms

• Taft passed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909– Roosevelt and Progressives

furious with Taft• Reduced tariffs on some imports,

but raised others.• Progressives wanted all to be

lowered.

Election of 1912

• Roosevelt decides to run again for President.

• Taft wins the Republican nomination

• Teddy decides to form the Bull Moose Party- “he was as strong as a Bull Moose”

• Taft and Roosevelt split votes. Dem. Wilson Wins

Presidential Election of 1912

Woodrow Wilson’s Reforms• In his inaugural address, focused

on the social well-being of working-class Americans.

• Underwood Tariff Act of 1913, lowered tariffs, and introduced income tax.

• 16th Amendment – Allows federal government to impose direct taxes on citizens’ income.

• 1913 Federal Reserve Act – national banking system to regulate the economy.