1900 Election

Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 (Republican)

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and

blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows

in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. “

Rise to the Presidency

• Former Harvard graduate, cowboy, police commissioner, NY assemblyman, Rough Rider

• Nominated as Vice President to remove him from office as Governor of NY

• McKinley’s assassination in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz - many Republicans worst nightmare

“That damned cowboy”

• Strong beliefs / willing to compromise

• Believed in direct action• Disliked the courts, frustrated by

Congress• Saw Constitution as an

obstruction• Greatly increased the power of

the Executive Branch - power of the “bully pulpit”

Roosevelt – Reformer?

Progressive philosophy - Three C’s (Control of Corporations,

Consumer Protection, Conservation)

Control of Corporations

• Progressive philosophy - “Square Deal” for the working man

• 1902 Coal Strike - 1st time a president sided with labor

• Northern Securities case - TR used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up a monopoly (JP Morgan!)

• Roosevelt distinguished between “good” and “bad” trusts – Gentlemen’s Agreement with Corporations

• 1906 - Hepburn Act empowers the ICC to regulate the railroads

Consumer Protection• 1906 -Meat Inspection Act

and Pure Food and Drug Act Response to Upton Sinclair’s the Jungle

• Pure Food and Drug Act– Created the Food and

Drug Administration– Required licensed

physicians to sign prescriptions for medicine

– Warning labels on addictive drugs

Conservation

• Created 5 National Parks• Newlands Act - sold

public land to build dams and canals to conserve water

• 1906 - Antiquities Act - increased national forests 190 million acres

• US Forest service - led by Gifford Pinchot prevented illegal use of public lands

William H. Taft • Progressives did not see Taft

as a supportive of their policies – he abandons them

• Still pushes 90+ anti-trust suits• Biggest suit – Standard Oil v.

USA– Court breaks up Standard Oil– Adopts “Rule of Reason” –

monopolies are allowed if they are reasonable

– Suit against US Steel – biggest company, Roosevelt is outraged!

• Final straw for Roosevelt – Taft’s Sec. of Interior Ballinger fires Pinchot over a dispute between trusts and corporations

Election of 1912

New Freedom

Wilson

Use antitrust suits Against ALL trusts

Triple Wall of Privilege:Banking, Trusts, Tariffs

New Nationalism

Roosevelt

Use antitrust suits Against “bad trusts”

Laws – not courts – Should protect peopleFrom harms caused byCorporations

New Freedom – New Nationalism

Activist RoleOf the Federal

Government

Progressive Reform

Use Antitrust suits

Woodrow Wilson - Democratic ProgressivismPrime Minister style –

– President should lead Congress in making laws

– Wilson delivered message to Congress in person

The Triple Wall of Privilege– Tariff – Underwood Tariff Bill cuts the

tariff– Impact: new tax structure focused on

domestic income

– Banking – Federal Reserve Act– Impact: creates the Federal Reserve

Board with currency control

– Trusts – Clayton anti-trust (“labor’s Magna Carta”)

– Impact: updated the Sherman Act • new weapons against the trusts• guaranteed union rights (strike rights,

picketing)

Wilson’s Progressivism

• More Progressive Reforms

– Federal Farm Loan Act – credit to farmers at a low interest rate

– Keating-Owen Act – limits child labor (struck down in Hammer v. Dagenhart, 1918)

– Workingmen’s Compensation Act – disability payments to federal workers

Limits of Wilson’s Reforms

– African Americans had little influence over Wilson

– Suffragettes were dismissed by Wilson