1. Notes: Roosevelt vs. Taft vs. Wilson SMACKDOWN! Who will win?
EQ: How well did Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson promote progressive goals in national policies?

2. 1. Roosevelt Plan called “Square Deal”
Believed there were “good trusts” and “bad trusts”
Used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up about 40 trusts/monopolies

3. Taft’s Presidency
Roosevelt did not run in 1908 as promised and chose his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, to be his Republican successor.

4. 2. Taft
Quiet and cautious, Taft said “When I am addressed as ‘Mr. President,’ I turn to see whether you are at my elbow.”
Brought more than 90 lawsuits against trusts
Payne-Aldrich Tariff angered Progressives
Called for reform of banking system
16th Amendment created a federal income tax
17th Amendment – direct election of senators

5. The Return of the Animal Lover/Killer
Roosevelt returns from Africa to run for president as a Republican in 1912, but Taft wins the nomination. So Roosevelt forms a new Progressive Party, aka the Bull Moose Party.

7. Election of 1912 Election of 1912 Candidates Party Electoral Vote
Popular Vote
T. Woodrow Wilson (NJ) Thomas R. Marshall (IN)
Democratic
435
6,293,152
Theodore Roosevelt (NY) Hiram W. Johnson (CA)
Progressive 88
4,119,207
William H. Taft (OH) James S. Sherman (NY) Nicholas M. Butler (NY)
Republican 8
3,486,333
Eugene V. Debs (IN) Emil Seidel (WI)
Socialist
900,369
Eugene W. Chafin (IL) Aaron S. Watkins (OH)
Prohibition
207,972

10. 3. Wilson Idealist and scholar
“New Freedom” plan gave more economic freedom to small businesses and “regular folk”
Clayton Antitrust Act – allowed unions to form
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
Federal Reserve System stabilized banking system
18th Amendment – Prohibition ratified
Supported women’s suffrage, 19th Amendment ratified