TR, Taft, & Wilson

1. Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson

2.  After McKinley’s
assassination
◦ “Now look, that
damned cowboy is
president.”—Mark
Hanna
 Inaugurated at age
42, youngest
president ever

3.  NYC Police Commissioner, 1895-1897
◦ Friend of Jacob Riis
 Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1897-1898
 Spanish-American War, 1898
◦ Roosevelt’s Rough Riders
 Governor of New York, 1899-1900
◦ Too progressive for many Republicans
 Vice President, 1901
 26th President, 1901-1909

4. Attended Harvard
Dakota Rancher (1884-1887)
NYC Police
Commissioner
(1895-1897

6. The Teddy Bear

7.  Delivered a 20K word
address to Congress
asking it to curb the
power of big
corporations
◦ Known as a “trust-buster”
◦ Brought 40+ anti-trust
suits to court
 Included biggest RR at
the time & Standard Oil
Co.
 Standard Oil had to pay a
$29 million fine
 One month in to
office he invited
Booker T.
Washington to dinner
at the White House
◦ 1st time an African
American had been
invited to the WH
◦ Outraged some white
southerners

10.  Phrase used as early as 1902; became slogan
for re-election in 1904
 Domestic program, 3 basic ideas:
◦ 1. Conservation of natural resources
◦ 2. Control of corporations
◦ 3. Consumer protection

12.  Newlands Reclamation
Act, 1902
◦ 21 federal irrigation
projects
 National Forest Service
est. in 1905
 Created 5 Nat’l Parks &
18 Nat’l Monuments
 148 million additional
acres of forest put
under federal
protection

14.  The Department of
Commerce & Labor
was created in
1903Elkins Act
◦ Stopped practice of
RRs giving cheaper
rates to favored
companies
 Hepburn Act
◦ Strengthened ICC
 Able to take on unfair
practices used by RRs

15.  Arbitration in
Pennsylvania United
Mine Workers strike
◦ Ended strike
◦ Higher pay & fewer
hours for workers
 Worker’s Comp. for
many federal
employees in 1908

16.  Meat Inspection Act
& Pure Food and
Drug Act
◦ Both were inspired by
Upton Sinclair’s The
Jungle

17.  Was Roosevelt’s
Secretary of War
 Expected to carry
on many of Teddy
Roosevelt’s reforms
 Set his own agenda

18.  Filed twice as many
anti-trust suits (than
T. Roosevelt)
 Mann-Elkins Act
◦ Allowed ICC to regulate
telephone & telegraph
companies
 Payne Aldrich Tariff
◦ Frustrated Progressives
◦ Raised rates on print
paper

19.  Est. Department of
Labor & Federal
Children’s Bureau
 Mine safety laws
 8 hour workday for
Railroad workers

20.  Restored Alaska
land to the U.S.
Forest Service
 Protected more
land than TR

21.  More progressive
than TR?????
 But some missteps
◦ Esp. firing of Gifford
Pinchot from Forestry
Service
 Close friend of TR
◦ Reversal on tariff
reform split the GOP
 Gets less
recognition though?
 Only one term
 Election of 1912
 Later Chief Justice
of SC

22. TR goes for the GOP nomination but loses
to Taft
TR forms the Progressive Party “Bull
Moose”
Woodrow Wilson wins the Democratic
nomination on the 46th ballot VP - WJB
- President of Princeton
- Governor of New Jersey

23. 
Voter Results
Popular Vote Electoral Vote
Wilson - 41.9% 435
Roosevelt - 27.4% 88
Taft - 23.2% 8

24.  Took advantage of
split in Republican
party
 Promised New
Freedom – place
strict controls on
businesses

25.  Underwood Tariff Act
◦ Cut rates from 40% to 27%
 Federal Reserve Act
◦ Central banking system
◦ Stabilized inflation
 Clayton Anti-Trust Act
◦ Exempted unions from anti-trust
laws
◦ Limited injunctions
 Federal Trade
Commission
◦ Promotes consumer
protection

26.  Federal Farm Loan Act
 Adamson Act
◦ 8 hour work day for interstate RR workers
 Federal Workmen’s Compensation Act
◦ Compensation for wages missed due to work-related
injuries
 Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
◦ Short-lived, but prohibited sale of goods produced
by factories that employed children under the age
of 14

27.  16th—1913
◦ Graduated Income
Tax
◦ Led to reduced tariffs
 17th—1913
◦ Direct election of U.S.
Senators
 18th Amendment—
1920
◦ Prohibition of
alcoholic beverages
 19th Amendment—
1920
◦ Women’s suffrage