PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS 1901 1921 TEDDY ROOSEVELT 1901 1909

PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS 1901 -1921

TEDDY ROOSEVELT • 1901 -1909 • Square Deal to determine bad from good corporations and regulate as needed under the Sherman Antitrust Act • Helped protect nature through the conservation movement

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT • 1909 -1913 • Chosen by Roosevelt as his successor he won the presidency • Was even more of a trustbuster than Roosevelt had been • Supported the 16 th amendment that which enacted a graduated income tax

FALL OUT WITH PROGRESSIVES • Taft didn’t appoint any progressives to his cabinet • Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff which lowered tariffs but not as much as the progressives wanted

FALL OUT WITH ROOSEVELT • Finally, the new secretary of the interior, Richard Ballinger returned some of the forest reserves to public domain allowing mining and lumber companies to use it • Pinchot accused Ballinger of making deals with businesses and undoing the goals of Roosevelt • Taft fired Pinchot as head of Bureau of Forestry

ELECTION OF 1912 • Roosevelt, furious with Taft, returned from his African Safari to run against Taft in the election of 1912 • Roosevelt split the Republican party when he created his Bull Moose Party • Taft and Roosevelt ran against each other as well as Democrat Woodrow Wilson, and Socialist Eugene V. Debs

ELECTION OF 1912

WOODROW WILSON • Wilson was able to very easily win the election • Wilson’s program, The New Freedom, tried to both limit the power of the federal government while also limiting the power of big businesses

WILSON AS A PROGRESSIVE • Wilson implemented the Underwood Tariff which lowered taxes on imported goods and also imposed a graduated income tax on the wealthiest 5% of the population • Wilson also strengthened the Unions through the Clayton Act and outlawed child labor and established an 8 hours work day through the Keating-Owen Act and the Adamson Act

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT • Under Wilson the Federal Reserve System was created. It was overseen by a board appointed by the president and controlled interest rates, issued currency, and helped prevent them from failing • The Federal Trade Commission was also created during this time intended to investigate and prevent monopolies and unfair business practices