THE ELECTION OF 1912 Three Men In One Man Win

Taft When T.R. left office in 1909 his hand picked successor was William Taft Taft tried to follow T.R.’s lead but soon began to push with his own ideals Taft got into a public feud with a T.R. confidant who was a conservationist and fired him Taft also signed a large tariff that made both Business and Progressives frustrated  Business wanted more and Progressives wanted less

Republican Scuffle In 1912 T.R. decided to run for the Republican Nomination for President  he was unhappy with Taft and felt Taft needed to go to preserve the good things that T.R. had done Taft still had friends in leadership position within the Rep. Party and this helped him secure the nomination over T.R. T.R. decided that he would leave the Rep. Party and he joined the new Progressive Party  it became known as the Bull Moose Party in honor of T.R. This split divided the Republican support virtually guaranteeing the Democrat Woodrow Wilson would win the election

T.R. and New Nationalism T.R. came used a campaigned based on his idea called New Nationalism  T.R. argued that a strong Federal Government was necessary to protect the basic human rights and welfare of the population  T.R. believed that the number one job of a government was to defend the welfare of the people to ensure social justice New Nationalism believed that big business was a necessity but it must be highly regulated to ensure Social Justice

Specifics T.R. pushed for in New Nationalism Government offered health insurance Social Insurance, to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled Limited judicial interference in strikes A minimum wage law for women An eight hour workday Farm relief Workers Comp. for work-related injuries Federal income tax (would require a Const. Amendment) Women’s Suffrage Direct election of Senators Primary elections for state and federal offices (let the people choose the candidates) Destroy Big Business’ hold over politicians Strict limits and disclosure requirements on political campaign contributions. Registration of lobbyists Recording and publication of Congressional committee proceedings

Wilson and New Freedom Woodrow Wilson was the gov. of New Jersey and the Dem. candidate for president in 1912 Wilson’s platform was called New Freedom  New Freedom called for less government control "If America is not to have free enterprise, he can have freedom of no sort whatever.“ Wilson argued that the Trusts and Monopolies had to go to ensure a real free enterprise system  Wilson said New Nationalism would take business from free enterprise to gov’t. control **Interestingly once Wilson becomes President he ditches most of the ideas of New Freedom and adopts many of the ideas New Nationalism (mainly gov’t power/control)