Roosevelt and Taft

Roosevelt as a Trust Buster Although Roosevelt felt trusts and other large businesses were efficient and part of the reason for America’s prosperity, he was concerned that the monopoly power of some trusts hurt the public interest. He wanted to ensure that trusts did not abuse their power and was known as a trustbuster that went after big corporations if they violated their power.

Upton Sinclair In 1906, Upton Sinclair published the book called “The Jungle”. Based on observations of the slaughterhouses in Chicago, the book featured appalling descriptions of the meat-packing industry. Excerpt from Sinclair’s book: “There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about [upon] it.” – The Jungle Led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act that required meat to be inspected and set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants.

Roosevelt & Conservation Roosevelt believed in environmental conservation because the nation’s bountiful natural resources were being used up at an alarming rate. Roosevelt urged Americans to CONSERVE those resources. He applied this philosophy to the dry WESTERN states, where farmers and city dwellers competed for scarce water. In 1902, the Newlands Reclamation Act was passed that authorized the use of federal funds from public land sales to pay for irrigation and land development projects. Legislation was passed that gave the federal government the power to conserve natural resources. Roosevelt added over 100 million acres to the protected national forests and established five new national parks and 51 federal wildlife reservations.

Taft's Achievements Taft was a strong opponent of monopolies and actually brought twice as many antitrust cases in four years as his predecessor Roosevelt had in seven years. He was a trustbuster as well. Established the Children’s Bureau in 1912. This was an agency that investigated and publicized the problems of child labor. The agency exists today, and deals with issues such as child abuse prevention, adoption, and foster care.

Roosevelt vs. Taft In 1911, Taft introduced an antitrust lawsuit against U.S. Steel for buying the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company and claimed this violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. Lawsuit was the file straw for Roosevelt who had approved U.S. Steel’s to buy the company. Roosevelt believed that Taft’s focus on breaking up trusts was destroying the carefully crafted system of cooperation and regulation that Roosevelt had established with Big Business. Roosevelt criticized Taft’s decision and argued that the best way to deal with the trusts was to allow them to exist while continuing to regulate them. After Roosevelt broke with Taft, progressives convinced him to reenter politics which he did in the Election of 1912.