1. Roosevelt was the most active
president in the history of the
nation. He often carried a pistol
for self-protection..

2. Using Federal Power Roosevelt was a historian, and he
was convinced that the United States
needed a strong federal government
to keep bad actors in check.
Roosevelt was the first president to
use the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to
go after Northern Securities Co. in
1902.
Roosevelt also ended a coal miner’s
strike and had the owners give a
modest raise to the workers.
Railroads were kept under some
control with the Elkins Act (1903),
and the Hepburn Act (1906).

3. (Slide 1 of 2)

4. (Slide 2 of 2)

5. Health & the Environment
Government workers inspect meat as it moves through the packinghouse. After reading The Jungle, Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act to
Improve conditions in the packing industry. He also signed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.

6. Roosevelt & Conservation
President Roosevelt was an early environmentalist. He set aside huge
chunks of land for future generations of Americans to enjoy.

7. Roosevelt & Civil Rights
By the standard of many in his time Teddy
Roosevelt was considered to be pro-civil rights,
even in a time of Jim Crow Laws. One example
was when he invited Booker T. Washington to
dine at the White House. That was the first time
a Black man had ever been invited there.
As a result there was tremendous anger from
the South.
Washington was going along with the idea of a
segregated society where African-Americans
would become educated in schools like the
Tuskegee Institute and find a place serving in
a segregated society.
There was controversy from another African-
American leader at the time…
Booker T. Washington

8. W.E.B. Dubois’
response
Harvard educated, W.E.B. Du Bois founded the NAACP 
A PERSONAL VOICE
W. E. B. DU BOIS
“ So far as Mr. Washington preaches Thrift, Patience, and
Industrial Training for the masses, we must hold up his hands and strive with him But so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds,—so far as he, the South, or the Nation, does this,—we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them.”
—The Souls of Black Folk

9. 4. Progressivism Under Taft
A PERSONAL VOICE
GIFFORD PINCHOT
“ The American people have evidently made up their
minds that our natural resources must be conserved. That is good. But it settles only half the question. For whose benefit shall they be conserved—for the benefit of the many, or for the use and profit of the few? There is no other question before us that begins to be so important, or that will be so difficult to
straddle, as the great question between special interest and equal opportunity, between the privileges of the few and the rights of the many, between government by men for human welfare and government by money for profit.”
—The Fight for Conservation

10. Taft Becomes President
Since Roosevelt promised not to run in 1908 he selected his trusted friend and secretary of War, William Howard Taft to succeed him. Taft won the election easily.
As the heaviest man to ever be president Taft did not enjoy the job as much as Roosevelt (He once got stuck in the White House tub). Taft was somewhat more conservative than Roosevelt. He actually prosecuted many more trusts than Roosevelt but never got credit for it. It’s hard to follow a good act.
Despite campaigning on lowering tariffs he signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff bill, which raised tariffs and angered Progressives.
Taft also reversed some of the conservation efforts of the Roosevelt administration. Taft’s old friend Teddy Roosevelt became a new and dangerous enemy.

11. The Republican Party Splits
The Milwaukee Speech: “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best…” Even though he had been shot in the chest Roosevelt finished his speech. Despite his bravado republicans were split between Taft & Roosevelt, which was a disaster for the party…

12. Democrats Win in 1912
A PERSONAL VOICE
WOODROW WILSON
“ If the government is to tell big business men how to run their business, then don’t you see that big business men have to get closer to the government even than they are now? Don’t you see that they must capture the government, in order not to be restrained too much by it? I don’t care how benevolent the master is going to be, I will not live under a master. That is not what America was created for. America was created in order that every man should have the same chance as every other man to exercise mastery over his own fortunes.”
—quoted in The New Freedom

13. Wilson’s New Freedom A PERSONAL VOICE CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT
“ I do feel keenly that the turn of the road has come I really believe that we might pull off a campaign which would mean the vote within the next six years if we could secure a Board of officers who would have sufficient momentum, confidence and working power in them Come! My dear Mrs. Park, gird on your armor once more.”
—letter to Maud Wood Park
Woodrow Wilson might be the most intelligent president
In our nation’s history. He had been president of Princeton
University before coming to the White house in He
grew the size of the federal government and used his
influence to pass a lot of progressive legislation through
Congress. He instituted federal income tax and put the
nation’s banking system in order with the Federal Reserve…
Woodrow Wilson

14. Wilson Wins Financial Reforms
Though he was more liberal than either Taft or Roosevelt, Wilson was
originally from the South, so he reversed the modest gains people of color
had made during the previous administrations.
His plan was called the “New Freedom,” which meant he would go after trusts,
Tariffs, and high finance.
He passed the Clayton Anti-trust Act in 1914, a stronger version of the
Sherman Anti-trust Act. He set up the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to
Regulate the activities of big business. He reduced tariffs substantially with
the Underwood Act. Where to get new tax revenue? No problem, Federal
Income Tax.
Had the First World War (and the death of his first wife) not occurred in 1914
Wilson probably would have passed many more reforms.

16. Women Win Suffrage
The original members of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, had died by this time, but the banner was
raised by Carrie Chapman Catt. Influenced by British suffragette Emmelene
Pankhurst (above left), more concentrated efforts were made.
In World War One women had performed well in the workplace for the many
men going off to war, and in 1919 the right to vote had been achieved.

17. Wilson & Civil Rights
A PERSONAL VOICE
WILLIAM MONROE TROTTER
“ Only two years ago you were heralded as perhaps the second Lincoln, and now the Afro-American leaders who supported you are hounded as false leaders and traitors to their race As equal citizens and by virtue of your public promises we are entitled at your hands to freedom from discrimination, restriction, imputation, and insult in government employ. Have you a ‘new freedom’ for white Americans and a new slavery for your ‘Afro-American fellow citizens’? God forbid!”
—address to President Wilson, November 12, 1914
President Wilson had reversed many civil rights, and
This caused anger in the African-American community.