27 William Howard Taft Busted Standard Oil Dollar Diplomacy Payne-Aldrich Act Gifford-Pinchot Conflict

Busted Standard Oil Taft's intent to provide more efficient administration for existing reform policies was perfectly suited for the prosecution of anti-trust violations. More trust prosecutions (99, in all) occurred under Taft than under Roosevelt, who was known as the "Great Trust-Buster.“ The two most famous antitrust cases under the Taft Administration, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and the American Tobacco Company, were actually begun during the Roosevelt years.

He also won a lawsuit against the American Sugar Refining Company to break up the "sugar trust" that rigged prices. And when Taft moved to break up U.S. Steel, Roosevelt accused him of a lack of insight -- unable to distinguish between "good" and "bad" trusts.

Above is a 1910 political cartoon featuring Taft and his Veto Pen.

Dollar Diplomacy Whereas Theodore Roosevelt had employed “Big Stick” diplomacy to bend weaker nations to his will, William Howard Taft preferred to use money as leverage. Taft believed that he could convince smaller, developing nations to support the United States by investing American dollars in their economies. “Dollar Diplomacy,” as pundits dubbed it, not only made allies but also made money for American investors.

Taft put his new policy to the test in Manchuria, where he offered to purchase and develop the Manchurian Railway to prevent Russia and Japan from seizing control of it and colonizing the region. However, both powers refused to hand the railway over to the United States, and the deal quickly fell through.

Payne-Aldrich Act Many Progressive Republicans hoped that Taft would keep his campaign promise to reduce the protective tariff. Although he tried, Taft did not have enough political clout to prevent conservatives within the party from repeatedly amending a bill for a lower tariff. By the time the Payne-Aldrich Tariff a tariff that effected only modest reductions.

Although during the course of congressional action Taft had threatened to veto a tariff bill with insufficient reductions, when the Payne- Aldrich bill came to his desk he signed it, later claiming it was the best tariff bill ever passed by Congress. Taft's reversal on tariff reform immediately alienated progressives who saw high tariffs as the "mother of trusts.“