Roosevelt and Taft 9/30/2015

Roosevelt takes on Trusts Square Deal: ◦Roosevelt’s reform programs Why was Roosevelt considered a trustbuster? ◦1902: Had the attorney general to sue Northern Securities, J.P. Morgan’s holding company, for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. He was trying to monopolize the railroad systems.

Commerce Clause Describe the effect Supreme Court decisions had on the expansion of government in business. ◦Gave it more and more power to regulate private business

Coal Strike of 1902 Explain Roosevelt’s role in the Coal Strike of ◦He helped settle the conflict between the United Mine Workers and their employers ◦The UMW and mine owners accepted arbitration

Regulating big business Roosevelt’s views on big business ◦He agreed with opponents of trust-busting ◦Trusts were most efficient way to do business ◦Breaking trust would raise prices ◦U.S. steel was competing with companies from Europe ◦Standard Oil competing with ◦Burmah Oil (BP) ◦Royal Dutch Petroleum (Shell Oil)

“Gentleman’s Agreement” 1903 created Department of Commerce and Labor The Department would meet privately with big business. Big companies, such as U.S. Steel, would open up their files. The Department would let them fix their problems quietly

Interstate Commerce Commission Under the Hepburn Act of 1906, The ICC worked with railroad company’s to set rates

Meat Inspection Act(1906), Pure Food and Drug Act Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle ◦Wrote about nasty conditions of meat packing plants in Chicago Federal inspection of meat USDA set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants Pure Food and Drug Act ◦Prohibited manufacture, sale or shipment of impure or falsely labeled food and drugs ◦Creation of the FDA: regulates food and drugs today

Conservation Newlands Reclamation Act ◦Federal funds from public land sales to pay for irrigation and land development United Forest Service(1905): Lead by Gifford Pinchot ◦Save nation’s forests ◦Management of timber resources in the west

Roosevelt’s impact Increased power of the federal government Increased concern for the environment

Taft Reforms (1908) Payne-Aldrich Tariff ◦Hardly cut tariffs and raised them on some goods ◦Progressives angry for not cutting tariffs ◦Conservatives agreed with the high tariffs ◦Split the Republican party Ballinger replaced Garfield as Secretary of the Interior ◦Ballinger opened up public lands for development ◦Pinchot fired by Taft for insubordination ◦Pinchot claimed Ballinger opened lands in Alaska for his own profit

Taft Achievements 1912: Children’s Bureau: ◦Investigated and publicized problems of child labor 1910: Bureau of Mines ◦Monitor activities of mining companies, expand national forests and protect waterpower sites ◦New technologies in mining

Taft v. Roosevelt 1911: Taft broke up purchase of Tennessee Coal and Iron Company by U.S. Steel. ◦He believed it went against the Sherman Antitrust Act Roosevelt had approved the deal. ◦Roosevelt believed Taft was going against his system of cooperation and regulation 1912: Roosevelt ran against Taft to replace him as the Republican nominee for president