1. Progressives and Election of 1912
Goal 7.2

2. Taft Elected
Teddy Roosevelt only served 2 terms. He hand picked Taft to replace him. In essence, Roosevelt wanted to still be President but it do it through Taft.
Taft wins the election of 1908 and Roosevelt goes to Africa on a safari.

3. Taft vs. Teddy

4. Taft vs. Teddy

5. Activities of Taft
Taft broke up more trusts than Roosevelt did yet Roosevelt is known as the trustbuster.
Taft tried to lower tariffs. He was warned not to do that because it would divide the Republican party.
Payne-Aldrich Tariff – hardly cut tariffs. It actually increased some of them.

6. Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy
Taft fired Roosevelt’s sec. of the interior, James Garfield. He replaced him with Richard Ballinger. He tried to place up 1 million acres of reserved land for public development. Gifford Pinchot charged the secretary with trying to turn over valuable land to companies for private profit. Pinchot leaked the story to the press and was fired for insubordination. Progressives were outraged and the Republican party split.

7. Bull Moose Party
As a result of Taft’s actions, or inactions, Teddy Roosevelt decides to run for President again. The problem was that this would spilt the Republican vote.
Roosevelt forms his own party –a progressive party called the Bull Moose Party.
His platform – New Nationalism – promised a strong executive branch to regulate big business.
Help women and end child labor. Support workers compensation laws and ICC authority over railroads.

8. New Freedom Woodrow Wilson seeks democrat nomination.
He claimed that trustbusting did nothing to restore competition to the economy. Freedom was more important.
Supported anti-trust laws, banking reform (run by the federal government), lower tariffs and small businesses.

9. Election 1912 Candidates: Democrats – Woodrow Wilson;
Republicans – William H. Taft; Progressives or Bull Moose – Theodore Roosevelt; Socialists - Eugene Debs.
Socialist get 1 million votes; Republicans and Bull Moose split votes; and Democrats win when Wilson gets 42% of the vote.