BY: Kurt Adkins

 As the Machine era continued into the 20 th century a larger gap between social classes was beginning to be relevant.  As movements for social justice sprang up for men as well as women, appreciable strength was being shown at the ballot box by socialists.

 By around 1902, the magazine industry was booming. The reporters who would “dig up dirt” for magazines were dubbed “Muckrakers” by Theodore Roosevelt in  Muckrakers did their best work on social problems like child labor, addressed by John Spargo in “The Bitter Cry of the Children”.

 Progressives had two main goals.  1.To use state power to curb the trusts.  2.To stem the socialist threat by generally improving the common person’s conditions of life and labor.

 Progressives also wanted to push for direct primary elections so they could undercut the power of bosses.  Progressives essentially wanted to give power back to the people, and allow them “referendum”, as well as “initiative”.

 Robert M. La Follete (Fighting Bob) became Governor of Wisconsin in 1901 and waged war against crooked lumber and railroad interests that had taken over in Wisconsin. He wanted to take those businesses power, and return it to the people.

 In 1899 Florence Kelley took control of the National Consumers League, which pushed for female consumers to pressure for laws protecting women and children in the workplace.  Finally in 1917 the court upheld a 10 hour law for factory workers.

 Roosevelt was touched by the progressive movement and it moved him to adopt his “Square Deal” which embraced Control of Corporations, Consumer Protection, and Conservation of Natural Resources.

 Cause: Roosevelt felt for the Progressive wave at his home.  Effect: Roosevelt produced the “Square Deal” for labor making the three C’s it’s main focus.

 Roosevelt attempted to curb Railroad’s big businesses by passing the Hepburn Act of 1906which restricted free passes, with their hint of bribery.  Roosevelt also battled against trusts and in 1902 attacked the Northern Securities Company.

 Official supreme court records tell that Joe Haselbock a supervisor at Curt Muller’s Grand Laundry asked an employee Mrs. E. Gotcher to remain after hours and do an extra load of laundry, Muller was fined $10 but refused to pay and took his case to the Supreme Court where the verdict was upheld and he was forced to pay the $10.

 As Americans hungered for safer products, Upton Sinclair wrote his novel “The Jungle” focusing on the workers in the big meat canning factories, but instead the public was appalled by his description of the disgusting unsanitary food products.

 Cause: European markets had trouble with tainted meat from America and threatened to ban American meat imports.  Effect: Roosevelt along with congress passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 which made federal inspection of meat shipped over state lines mandatory.

 In 1891 the first step toward preserving the Natural Resources in the U.S. came with the Forrest Reserve Act and it authorized the President to set aside public forest land as national forests

 A panic in 1907 was dubbed the “Roosevelt Panic” because people believed his boat rocking tactics had unsettled industry.  By the end of Roosevelt’s presidency he had accomplished many things.

 In Taft’s presidency he was much different than Roosevelt, and where Roosevelt was a dashing political leader, Taft was more passive, and he was also a bad judge of public opinion.

 Taft attempted to buy the Chinese Manchuria railroads but met stiff opposition from Japan and Russia.  A Revolution in Nicaragua landed 2,500 marines there in 1912, and they remained there for 13 years.

 Taft actually busted more trusts then his predecessor Roosevelt, Taft busted 90 in 4 years, compared to Roosevelt’s 44 in seven and a half years.  The two most noteworthy of his trust busts came in 1911 when the Supreme Court first ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company.  Taft then filed a suit against U.S. Steel Corporation, which angered Roosevelt and a bruising conflict was inevitable.

 Taft signed the Payne- Aldrich Bill and betrayed the promises he made in his campaign.  When Richard Ballinger opened public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska to corporate development, Gifford Pinchot blamed Taft and soon after Taft dismissed him on the narrow grounds of insubordination.

 In early 1912 Roosevelt wrote to 7 state governors saying that he was willing to accept a republican presidential nomination.  A Taft Roosevelt battle was set as the Republican convention met in Chicago.  Taft emerged victorious and he gained the Republican nomination over Roosevelt but Roosevelt bitter in defeat was not finished yet and he led a 3 rd party crusade for presidency.