Reformers in the White House: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson

Roosevelt “Square Deal” – fair treatment to all 1902 PA Coal Miner’s Strike Took side of workers!

Department of Commerce and Labor Monitor businesses engaged in interstate commerce Elkin’s Act Fine railroads that give special rates

Hepburn Act “Trust-buster” Set max rates on shipping, ferries, toll bridges, oil pipelines “Trust-buster” “good” vs. “bad” trusts Northern Securities Company

Pure Food and Drug Act FDA Meat Inspection Act

“If the contents of the package… “If the contents of the package…..fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, cannabis…..” “If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any portion of an animal unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if it is the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter”

Conservation 100 million acres 5 national parks 18 national monuments Grand Canyon Petrified Forest

Gifford Pinchot – Division of Forestry National Reclamation Act Reservoirs Dams Water flow patterns

Taft Payne-Aldrich Tariff Busted 90 trusts (2x as many as TR) Not low enough for TR Busted 90 trusts (2x as many as TR) No distinction – “good” vs. “bad” Set aside over 100 million acres Fired Gifford Pinchot

Taft vs Roosevelt vs Wilson Election of 1912 Taft vs Roosevelt vs Wilson (Rep.) (Bull Moose/Rep. (Dem.) Progressive)

Wilson New Freedom (trust-busting) Underwood Tariff Bill Lower than Payne-Aldrich 16th Amendment Graduated income tax Clayton Anti-trust Act Protected unions

Federal Trade Commission Anti-monopoly Monitor ads and labeling

Workingman’s Compensation Act Adamson Act Railroad employees – 8 hours/day

Roosevelt’s Anti-trust Acts COSTS BENEFITS

Roosevelt Taft Wilson Foreign Policy Relationship between Fed. Govt. and Private Business Constitutional Amendments

Roosevelt’s Anti-trust Acts COSTS BENEFITS Used unevenly and unfairly Violation of 5th and 14th Amendments? (govt. cannot take private property without “just compensation” Makes it hard for industries to do business Could cost people jobs Industry’s shareholders could lose $ Protect small businesses Protect individuals from unfair business practices

Roosevelt Taft Wilson Foreign Policy “Big Stick” Diplomacy, more aggressive Panama Canal, Roosevelt Corollary “Dollar” Diplomacy, promote US interests through trade and investment “Moral” Diplomacy, Intervention in Mexico, WWI Relationship between Fed. Govt. and Private Business “Trustbuster”, distinguished between “good” and “bad” trusts, Department of Commerce and Labor, Interstate Commerce Commission, Elkin’s Act, Hepburn Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act Twice as many trusts “busted”, no distinction between “good” and “bad” New Freedom, Clayton Anti-trust Act, Adamson Act, Federal Trade Commission Constitutional Amendments 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments (income tax, direct election of Senators, Prohibition, Woman’s Suffrage)