I. We have discussed previously the reform efforts
undertaken by progressive leaders at the local and state levels. They
included:
A. Attempts to eliminate or
reduce the corruption of “Machine Politics” at the municipal (city) level.
B. The widespread
introduction of institutions for social welfare—houses, soup kitchens, and
other institutions aimed at helping poor and unemployed people during hard
times (Social Gospel reforms).
C. Political reforms at the
state level—direct election of Senators, the Primary Election system,
initiative and referendum, etc.
II. Now we will look in more detail at the Progressive
reform efforts that were occurring at the national level.
III. The federal government was somewhat slower to
respond to the Progressive impulse sweeping the nation after the turn of the
century, but everyone recognized that change at the national level was
essential for true progress to be made.
IV. The basic changes people sought were both
conservative and liberal in nature, but they all reflected one common theme:
the federal government was expected to take an active role in shaping
society and the economy.
V. Theodore Roosevelt was the first progressive
president. We have seen that in foreign affairs, Roosevelt led the nation to
new levels of international activism. The role of the federal government and
especially the President in American society reflected that new activism as
well.
A. Roosevelt believed that
the federal government should serve as an “honest broker” in relations
between conflicting factions in the economy—for example—labor and
corporations.
1. Previous governments had
favored corporations exclusively. Roosevelt sought to treat labor and
capitol evenhandedly.
2. In 1902, a coal strike
threatened the nation’s supply of heating coal. Roosevelt invited the
miner’s union and the mine owners to the white house to negotiate a
settlement—the unions accepted, but the owners refused. Roosevelt threatened
the owners with a federal takeover of the mines, and they finally agreed to
negotiate. Labor got about half of the pay increase it was asking for.
3. On other occasions,
Roosevelt used federal troops to keep companies operating during strikes.
B. One of the first
industries Roosevelt decided to exert greater control over was the Railroad
industry.
1. Roosevelt sought to give
the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) significantly greater powers in regulating the railroads and setting
rates. He pushed a bill through the House of Representatives, but
conservatives in the US Senate blocked it. After some negotiation, the
Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act became law.
2. The Hepburn Act was
followed by a series of further regulatory bills, many inspired by the work
of Muckrakers like Upton Sinclair. Following Sinclair’s publication of
The Jungle, an expose’ of the Chicago meat-packing industry, Roosevelt
pushed for and got the Meat Inspection Act, which allowed the government to
send inspectors randomly to any company involved in meat packing and
processing.
3. Other
regulatory efforts were also undertaken:
a. The
Pure Food and Drug Act—to regulate drugs.
b. Regulation of the Stock Market
c. 8 hour
workaday
d. Workman’s Compensation
e.
Railroad Property Valuation (by the ICC)
f.
Inheritance and Income tax
C. A second front on
Roosevelt’s Progressive agenda was in the arena of Conservation. Roosevelt
was an ardent sportsman and naturalist and he believed strongly that
America’s wealth of wilderness should not be wasted.
1. Roosevelt, following the
advice of his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, began early in his
administration to restrict the use of federally owned lands by private
concerns.
2. Westerners and
conservatives in Congress tried to stop him, but with Pinchot, he was able
to add 125 million acres to the national forest system, and millions of
acres of other lands containing valuable mineral deposits to the federal
system.
3. Pinchot and Roosevelt
were attacked from both sides for their conservation activities—for the
conservatives, placing land in federal hands permanently seemed like
socialism; for the preservationists, it did not go far enough.
D. The struggle between
conservation and preservation was one of the more interesting of the
Progressive Era—and it is one that continues today.
1. Conservationists, led by
Gifford Pinchot, believed in carefully managed development of America’s wild
lands and natural resources. They wanted efficient, scientific development
controlled by the federal government.
2. Preservationists, led by
John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club) argued that much of America’s wild
lands were intrinsically valuable and had an aesthetic value in and of
themselves. They believed that such lands should be left alone forever, and
that all development of them should be prohibited forever.
a. Yellowstone Park had been
established in the 1870s, and Muir and his followers wanted huge chunks of
the American West (and Alaska) protected.
b. He took Roosevelt camping
in what is now Yosemite National Park and convinced him to designate it a
national park.
3. The
preservationists won some battles, but lost most to the conservationists.
4. Today, the same division
exists within the US environmental movement, with groups like the Sierra
Club and EarthFirst! representing the preservationist view and groups like
the National Wildlife Federation and Ducks Unlimited representing the
conservationist point of view.
5. Roosevelt left the
Presidency in 1908, choosing not to run for another term. He left the
country changed in many ways, most important of which was his re-definition
of the role of the president and the general idea of an activist
government.
Lecture
12:Progressivism on Hold: The Presidency of William Howard Taft
I. The increasing "radicalism" of Roosevelt in the
final two years of his presidency alienated the "Old Guard" Republican
leadership in the US Senate. It became clear, especially after the Panic of
1907, that the Old Guard would oppose his re-nomination, so Roosevelt opted
to forgo running for another term as president.
II. Roosevelt's choice of a successor was William
Howard Taft, who had been his "right-hand man."
III. Taft was a huge man, weighing between 300 and 350
pounds. Though the Progressive wing of the Republican party believed he was
one of them and would pursue Roosevelt's reform agenda, the conservative
"Old Guard" believed he was a true conservative.
IV. Taft's Presidency was a disaster, largely because
he could not please both the Progressives and the Old Guard.
A. In almost every instance,
Taft sided with the "Old Guard," while maintaining the rhetoric of
progressivism.
V. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft was a cautious president who
believed strict adherence to the law. He was not a risk-taker and was not
interested expanding the powers and role of the presidency as Roosevelt had
been.
VI. Also unlike Roosevelt, Taft had no charisma and was
not an accomplished public speaker. He was bland and had no ideas of his own
and no vision of what he hoped to achieve.
VII. Taft's Presidency began with a continuation of the
policies of Roosevelt. The first "fiasco" was tariff reform.
A. Tariff reduction had been
a consistent demand of progressives, who believed that the power of US
corporations would be reduced by increased competition from abroad.
B. Theodore Roosevelt had
tried and failed to get significant tariff reductions.
C. A few months after taking
office, Taft called a special session of Congress to consider tariff reform.
D. He got a good reduction
passed in the House of Representatives but the bill stalled in the Senate.
E. Senator Robert La Follett,
a leading Progressive in the Senate, believed he could defeat the Old Guard
and get the bill passed in the Senate--with the help of the President-- but
Taft refused to help-arguing that the President shouldn't use his power to
try to influence the Congress.
F. The Old Guard made many
changes in the bill, and the net result was the Payne-Aldrich Tariff--in
which some tariffs were reduced a little were others were actually
increased.
G. Senator La Follett
believed that Taft had abandoned him and the Progressive wing of the
Republican Party.
VIII. A second arena in which Taft alienated the
progressives was in conservation policy.
A. Roosevelt, on the advice
of Gifford Pinchot, had moved aggressively to add land in the west to the
public domain, essentially removing it from the private market and
preventing its development by private actors.
B. In 1909, Taft's Secretary
of the interior (Richard Ballinger) concluded that Roosevelt had illegally
added some one million acres of land to public domain.
C. He removed the land from
the public domain over the objections of Pinchot and the conservation
movement, making it available for private purchase and development. Rumors
abounded that it had been a deal to help a huge coal company
(Morgan-Guggenheim) to gain access to the resources on the lands.
D. Pinchot, convinced that
the rumors were true, took the matter to Taft. Taft naturally sided with
Ballinger.
E. Pinchot then went public
and took the matter to the Congress, which opened an investigation and held
hearings.
F. Pinchot was fired by Taft
for insubordination, but the whole affair resulted in the widespread belief
that Taft had become a tool of big business. He lost all support from the
progressives after the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair.
IX. During these years, Roosevelt had been abroad,
first on a long safari in Africa, then on a tour of European capitols.
X. Upon hearing of the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair,
Roosevelt returned the the US, where he met with Pinchot, but refused to
meet with Taft.
XI. Almost immediately, Roosevelt began making
speeches, further undermining Taft's leadership of the Republican Party.
XII. The Congressional Elections of 1910 demonstrated
that Taft had lost control of the party, with either progressive Republicans
or Democrats making huge gains in state legislatures, state governorships,
and in the House of Representatives.
XIII. Roosevelt insisted that his only objective was to
pressure Taft into returning to a Progressive posture.
XIV. However, in 1911, Taft filed a Sherman Anti-Trust
lawsuit against The United States Steel Corporation, arguing that its 1907
purchase of the Tennessee Iron and Coal Company was illegal.
A. This was a purchase that
Roosevelt had personally approved as part of his effort to stimulate the
economy during the Panic of 1907.
B. Roosevelt was offended,
and bothered more generally by Taft's legalistic approach to the management
of larger corporations. He decided to oppose Taft in the Republican primary
race for President.
XV. In the primary campaigns, Roosevelt and Taft ran
very close and in several states, the Republican Party was severely split.
A. It became clear that the
Republican candidate for President would be chosen on the floor of the
Republican Convention--but some states sent two sets of delegates to the
national convention--one set that favored Taft, the other favoring
Roosevelt.
B. The national leadership of
the Republican Party had to choose which delegations to seat--and, dominated
by the Old Guard, they naturally chose those delegations in favor of Taft.
C. This meant that the
nomination for President would go to Taft.
D. Roosevelt took his
followers and left the Republican Convention, announcing the creation of a
new party and that he was running for President as the candidate of the
"Bull Moose” Party.
XVI. Roosevelt’s' decision to run as a 3rd party
candidate was tantamount to giving the election to the Democrats.
A. Roosevelt knew he could
not win, and he knew that if he ran, neither could Taft.
B. Perhaps this was
Roosevelt's greatest service to his country, for the election of 1912 not
only resulted in victory for Woodrow Wilson, the greatest reform-president
of the Progressive Era--it also destroyed the power of the Old Guard in the
US Congress. |