Lesson 4: The Progressive Presidents

Question 1

Bull Mouse Party Definition

Answer 1

a group of Progressive Republicans who supported Theodore Roosevelt during the 1912 election

Question 2

Conservation Definition

Answer 2

the protection of natural resources

Question 3

Federal Reserve Act Definition

Answer 3

a 1913 law that set up the Federal Reserve System to regulate the nation’s financial sector

Question 4

Federal Trade Commission Definition

Answer 4

(FTC) a government agency created in 1914 to ensure fair competition

Question 5

National Park Definition

Answer 5

an area set aside by the federal government for people to visit

Question 6

New Freedom Definition

Answer 6

President Wilson’s program to break up trusts and restore American economic competition

Question 7

Pure Food and Drug Act Definition

Answer 7

a 1906 law that required food and drug makers to begin listing ingredients on packages

Question 8

Square Deal Definition

Answer 8

Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign promise that all groups would have an equal opportunity to succeed

Question 9

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) Definition

Answer 9

the 26th president of the United States. He expanded the powers of the executive branch in domestic conflicts between big business and labor, and led the nation to take a more active role in foreign affairs. He was instrumental in the construction of the Panama Canal and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.

Question 10

Trustbuster Definition

Answer 10

a person who wanted to destroy all trusts

Question 11

William Howard Taft (1857–1930) Definition

Answer 11

the 27th president of the United States. He was initially a Progressive supported by Theodore Roosevelt but then lost favor with the Progressives

Question 12

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) Definition

Answer 12

the 28th president of the United States. He was a Progressive Democrat who led the nation through World War I.

Question 13

What was Roosevelt’s life of public service? What occupations did he have?

Answer 13

Roosevelt could have enjoyed a life of ease. Instead, he decided to enter politics. He was determined to end corruption and work for the public interest. By age 26, Roosevelt was serving in the New York state legislature. Then, tragedy struck. In 1884, his mother and his young wife died on the same day. Overcome by grief, Roosevelt quit the legislature. He went west to work on a cattle ranch. After two years, Roosevelt returned to the East and to politics. He served on the Civil Service Commission. He then headed New York City’s police department and later became assistant secretary of the navy. In 1898, the United States went to war against Spain. Roosevelt led a unit of troops in some daring exploits. He returned home to a hero’s welcome and was elected governor of New York.

Question 14

How did Roosevelt push for Progressive reforms? How did lawmakers mock him? When did Roosevelt become president and how?

Answer 14

Since his days in the legislature, Roosevelt had pushed for reform. As governor, he continued to work for Progressive reforms. Other lawmakers called him a “goo goo,” a mocking name for someone who wanted good government. New York Republican bosses were relieved when Roosevelt resigned from the office of governor to become Vice President. Then, after President McKinley was shot in September 1901, Roosevelt became President. He was committed, he later wrote, to “making an old party Progressive.”

Question 15

What did President Theodore Roosevelt believe about big businesses and corporations? What did he believe was the difference between good trusts and bad trusts?

Answer 15

Roosevelt promised to continue McKinley’s pro-business policies. He was not against big business. In fact, he believed business was a positive force and that giant corporations were here to stay. Roosevelt saw a difference, however, between good trusts and bad trusts. Good trusts, he said, were efficient and fair and should be let alone. Bad ones took advantage of workers and cheated the public. The government must either control them or break them up.

Question 16

Why did President Theodore Roosevelt order the Attorney General to bring a lawsuit against the Northern Securities Company? What was Northern Securities? What did the verdict reached by the Supreme Court in 1904 signify about the Sherman Antitrust Act?

Answer 16

Roosevelt wanted to test the power of the government to break up bad trusts. In 1902, he asked the Attorney General, the government’s chief lawyer, to bring a lawsuit against the Northern Securities Company. Northern Securities was a trust that had been formed to control competition among railroads. Roosevelt argued that the company used unfair business practices in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. At news of the lawsuit, stock prices fell on Wall Street, New York’s center of business and finance. “Wall Street is paralyzed at the thought that a President of the United States would sink so low as to try to enforce the law,” one newspaper joked. While business leaders worried, many ordinary Americans cheered the President. In 1904, the Supreme Court ruled that Northern Securities had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. It ordered the trust to be broken up. The decision was a victory for Progressives. For the first time, the Sherman Antitrust Act had been used to break up trusts, not unions.

Question 17

Why did President Theodore Roosevelt have the Attorney General file other lawsuits on Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company? What was the verdict of each? How did he respond to being a trustbuster?

Answer 17

Next, Roosevelt had the Attorney General file suit against other trusts, including Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company. In time, the courts ordered the breakup of both trusts because they blocked free trade. Some business leaders called Roosevelt a trustbuster, a person who wanted to destroy all trusts. “Certainly not,” replied Roosevelt, only those that “have done something we regard as wrong.” He preferred to control or regulate trusts, not “bust” them.

Question 18

What did President Theodore Roosevelt’s support for the Pennsylvania coal miners in 1902 signify?

Answer 18

Roosevelt also clashed with mine owners. In 1902, Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for better pay and a shorter workday. Mine owners refused to negotiate with the miners’ union. As winter approached, schools and hospitals ran out of coal. Furious at the mine owners, Roosevelt threatened to send in troops to run the mines. Finally, owners sat down with the union and reached an agreement. Roosevelt was the first President to side with labor.

Question 19

What was Roosevelt’s Square Deal that led to his victory in the Election of 1904?

Answer 19

Roosevelt ran for President in his own right in 1904. During the campaign, he promised Americans a Square Deal. By this, he meant that everyone from farmers and consumers to workers and owners should have the same opportunity to succeed. That promise helped Roosevelt win a huge victory. Railroads were a main target of the Square Deal. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 had done little to end rebates and other abuses. Roosevelt therefore urged Congress to outlaw rebates. In 1906, Congress gave the ICC the power to set railroad rates.

Question 20

How did Theodore Roosevelt work to protect consumers? What was the Pure Food and Drug Act?

Answer 20

Roosevelt wanted reforms to protect consumers. He had been shocked by Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle. In response, he sent more government inspectors to meatpacking houses. The owners refused to let them in. Roosevelt then gave the newspapers copies of a government report that exposed conditions in meatpacking plants. The public was outraged. This forced Congress to pass a law in 1906 allowing more inspectors to enter meatpacking houses. Muckrakers had exposed drug companies for making false claims about medicines. They also showed how food companies added harmful chemicals to canned foods. In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which required food and drug makers to list ingredients on packages. It also tried to end false advertising and the use of impure ingredients.

Question 21

How did Theodore Roosevelt take action to protect the nation’s wilderness? What is the National Forest Service? What is a national park?

Answer 21

Roosevelt also took action to protect the nation’s wilderness areas. To fuel industrial growth, lumber companies were cutting down whole forests. Miners were taking iron and coal from the earth at a frantic pace and leaving gaping holes. Roosevelt loved the outdoors and worried about the destruction of the wilderness. He pressed for conservation, the protection of natural resources. “The rights of the public to natural resources outweigh private rights,” he said. Roosevelt wanted some forest areas left as wilderness. Others could supply needed resources. He wanted lumber companies to plant new trees in the forests they were clearing. Mining, too, should be controlled. In 1905, with the support of Congress, Roosevelt created the National Forest Service. Under Roosevelt, the government also set aside about 194,000 acres for national parks. A national park is an area set aside for people to visit. It is run by the federal government.

Question 22

Instead of running for re-election, who did Theodore Roosevelt support in the Election of 1908? Why was he confident in his abilities when he was elected?

Answer 22

Roosevelt did not want to run for reelection in 1908. Instead, he backed William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War. Taft won easily. A confident Roosevelt said,

[Taft’s] policies, principles, purposes, and ideals are the same as mine. The Roosevelt policies will not go out with Roosevelt.

—Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to George Trevelyan, November 6, 1908

Question 23

After the Election of 1908, where did Theodore Roosevelt go? What was his influence at the time?

Answer 23

Roosevelt then left to hunt big game in Africa. He left behind an impressive record as a reformer. He also left the presidency more powerful than it had been at any time since the Civil War.

Question 24

How was President William Howard Taft different from Roosevelt?

Answer 24

Taft’s approach to the presidency was far different from Roosevelt’s. Unlike the hard-driving, energetic Roosevelt, Taft was quiet and careful. Roosevelt loved power. Taft feared it.

Question 25

Which Progressive causes did William Howard Taft support? Despite his influence, what made him loss the support of progressives?

Answer 25

Nevertheless, Taft supported many Progressive causes. He broke up even more trusts than Roosevelt had. He favored the graduated income tax, approved new safety rules for mines, and signed laws giving government workers an eight-hour day. Under Taft, the Commerce Department set up an office to deal with the problems of child labor. Despite such successes, Taft lost Progressive support. In 1909, he signed a bill that raised most tariffs. Progressives opposed the new law, arguing that tariffs raised prices for consumers. Also, Taft fired a high-level Forest Service official during a dispute over the sale of wilderness lands in Alaska. Progressives then accused the President of blocking conservation efforts.

Question 26

Why did Roosevelt decide to run against Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912? Who ended up winning?

Answer 26

When Roosevelt returned from Africa, he found Taft under attack by reformers. In 1912, Roosevelt decided to run against Taft for the Republican nomination. Although Roosevelt had much public support, Taft controlled the Republican party leadership. At its convention, the party nominated Taft.

Question 27

How was the Bull Moose Party formed for the Election of 1912? Who did they elect?

Answer 27

Progressive Republicans stormed out of the convention. They set up a new Progressive Party and chose Roosevelt as their candidate. He accepted saying, “I feel as strong as a bull moose.” Roosevelt’s supporters became known as the Bull Moose party.

Question 28

How did the battle between Taft and Roosevelt help Progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson win the Election of 1912?

Answer 28

Democrats chose Woodrow Wilson, a Progressive, as their candidate. As a boy, Wilson made up his mind always to fight for what he thought was right. Wilson served as president of Princeton University and as governor of New Jersey. He was known as a brilliant scholar and a cautious reformer. Together, Taft and Roosevelt won more votes than Wilson. However, they split the Republican vote. Their quarrel helped Wilson win the election of 1912 by beating Taft and Roosevelt in many states.

Question 29

What did Woodrow Wilson’s inaugural address convey about him?

Answer 29

Woodrow Wilson’s inaugural address reflected his strong sense of good and evil.

The nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often … made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our heart-strings like some air out of God’s own presence.

—Woodrow Wilson, Inaugural Address, March 1913

Wilson asked honest, forward-looking Americans to stand at his side. “I will not fail them,” he said.

Question 30

How did President Wilson try to increase the government’s role in economy? What was Wilson’s program New Freedom? What was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913?

Answer 30

At first, Wilson tried to break up trusts into smaller companies. By doing so, he hoped to increase competition in the American economy. “If America is not to have free enterprise, then she can have freedom of no sort whatever,” he said. Wilson called his program the New Freedom. To spur competition, Wilson asked Congress to lower tariffs on goods. A lower tariff would force U.S. producers to face foreign competition. After a struggle, Congress did lower tariffs. To make up for lost revenues, it then passed a graduated income tax. To regulate banking, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. It set up the Federal Reserve System, an organization that controlled the supply of money to the U.S. financial system. The Federal Reserve also had the power to raise or lower interest rates.

Question 31

How did President Wilson try to protect competition? What is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)?

Answer 31

To ensure fair competition, President Wilson also persuaded Congress to create the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1914. The FTC had the power to investigate companies and order them to stop using unfair practices to destroy competitors.
Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914. He had wanted a much stronger law, but the new law did ban some business practices that limited free enterprise. In addition, it stopped antitrust laws from being used against unions, a major victory for labor.

Question 32

What caused the Progressive movement to slow after 1914?

Answer 32

Despite Wilson’s successes, the Progressive movement slowed after 1914. By then, Progressives had achieved many of their goals. Also, the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 drew Americans’ attention. They worried that the war might soon affect them.