Progressive Presidents

Progressive Presidents1. Roosevelt2. Taft3. Wilson

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1908)

•“Square Deal”▫Resolved coal miners strike in 1902

No union recognition•Trust busting

▫Enforced Sherman Anti-trust Law▫Distinction between Good and Bad

Trusts•Railroad Regulation•Consumer Protection

▫Pure Food and Drug Act▫Meat Inspection Act

Roosevelt and Conservation•Naturalist John Muir

convinces Roosevelt to start National Park System

•Set aside 150 million acres of forest not to be sold to loggers

•Newlands Reclamation Act – conservation of water in the west

William Howard Taft (1908 – 1912)

• Hand picked successor to Roosevelt

• More trust busting than Roosevelt

• Income Tax (16th Amendment)▫Originally only affected those

who made 2x the national average

• Mann-Elkins Act – ICC could oversee railroads, telephone, telegraph, and cable companies

Taft and Republicans Split

•Payne-Aldrich Tariff

•Pinchot vs. Ballinger in the forest service

•Joe Cannon’s power as speaker

•Midterm support of conservatives in 1910

Socialism• Led by Eugene V. Debs

▫ 5 time candidate for president▫ Turned to socialism after Pullman

Strike▫ Critic of business, champion of labor▫ “I have no country to fight for; my

country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.”

▫ “It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.”

▫ “While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. “

Election of 1912•Taft – Republican•Wilson – Democratic•Roosevelt – Bull Moose•Debs - Socialist

Woodrow Wilson (1912-1920)

• Tariff Reduction• Federal Reserve Act 1914• Business Regulation

▫ Clayton Antitrust Act – strengthened Sherman Act

▫ Federal Trade Commission – Action against unfair trade practices (not banking or transportation)

• Federal Farm Loan Act• Child Labor Act

▫ Prohibited shipment of goods made by children under 14 years old

▫ Overturned by Supreme Court