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The Political Impact of Progressivism• Theodore Roosevelt became President in
1901 with the assassination of William McKinley
• Roosevelt is considered the first Progressive President
• Roosevelt, while not anti-business, was not afraid to use his power as President to curb the abuses of big business
• Roosevelt was the first President to actively use the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up trusts and monopolies
• During the first months of Roosevelt's Presidency he was faced with a coal strike from the United Mine Workers
• Roosevelt threatened to have federal troops take over the mines in order to force the workers and the owners agree to “Arbitration”
• Roosevelt called his actions an attempt to get a “Square Deal” for both sides
• Roosevelt would use the Square Deal as part of his reelection campaign in 1904
• Roosevelt also began the National Park Service and set aside millions of acres of land for public use
• While Roosevelt's Progressive ideas made few friends in the political world, it made him extremely popular with the average person
• In 1904 Roosevelt will win reelection with a landslide victory
• In 1908 Roosevelt will not run for a 3rd term and instead advocated to his vise President William Howard Taft
Taft Presidency
• Taft will win the election of 1908 running on a platform of carrying on Roosevelt's Progressive reforms
• In many ways Taft will be more Progressive than Roosevelt, Taft breaks up more Trusts and Monopolies than Roosevelt did
• Taft also sets aside almost twice as much land for national parks than Roosevelt had set aside
• Taft however was not the public figure that Roosevelt had been
• A scandal early in Taft's Presidency over the sale of public land in Alaska would haunt his Presidency
• Taft would be seen as being in the pocket of big business and did not out to help the common man
• Even Roosevelt would not like the way Taft appeared to be running the country
The Election of 1912
• In the election of 1912 Roosevelt decided to run against Taft for the Republican nomination for President
• At the Republican Convention however Roosevelt's delegates would be blocked from entering the building or participating and Taft won the nomination
• Roosevelt was furious at what he saw as big party political corruption and formed his own political party the “Bull Moose” party
• Roosevelt's Bull Moose party split the Republican party in half, half voted for Taft and half voted for Roosevelt
• The split in the Republican party allowed the Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the Presidency with less than half of the popular vote
The Wilson Presidency
• Wilson was also a reform minded President
• Wilson created the Federal Reserve System which helped stabilize the banking system and reduced the problem of “Bank Runs”
• Wilson established the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, which is in charge of making sure business comply with Federal Trade Regulations
• Wilson pushed through Congress the Clayton Anti-Trust Act which spelled out specifically what activates businesses could not engage in
• Finally Wilson exempted Labor Unions from Anti-Trust lawsuits