The Battle for National Reform

1
The Battle for National Reform

• Chapter 22

2
Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency

• The loveable president
• Changed the powers, role and perception of the
  president
• The Accidental President
• that damned cowboy! Mark Hanna
• reputation of substance, rather than of style
• New York Legislature energy among lethargy
• Rancher and peace authority in Dakota Territories
• San Juan Hill (useless but heroic)

3
Theodore Roosevelt

• Never rebelled against leaders of his party
• TR philosophy on reform / govt
• Reform protecting the govt from more radical
  challenges
• Govt not an agent of a particular interest,
  but as the mediator of public good with the
  president at its center

4
Government, Capital and Labor

• TR allied himself with progressives who urged
  regulation, but not destruction, of the trusts
• wanted to investigate the activities of
  corporations and publish them
• believed an educated public would eliminate most
  corporate abuses
• govt could legislate those that remained
• Department of Commerce and Labor

5
TR Trust Buster?

• 1902 ordered the Justice Department to invoke the
  Sherman Antitrust Act against Northern Securities
  Company (J.P Morgan)
• J.P. Morgan fix it up
• 1904 Supreme Court ordered the NSC
• Roosevelt assured Morgan that he did not wish to
  dissolve trusts
• 40 anti-trust suits filed during the TR
  presidency
• but no serious commitment to reverse the
  prevailing trend toward economic concentration

J.P Morgan
6
TR Friend of Labor?

• 1902 United Mine Workers Strike
• threatened to send in troops
• federal arbitration awards 10 wage increase and
  9 hour day
• no recognition of union
• TR viewed himself as a champion of management and
  labor

7
The Square Deal

• Through skillful politicking, Roosevelt wins
  re-election in 1904
• After re-election, free to display extent and
  limits of reform
• Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act of 1906 sought to
  restore regulatory authority to government
  (empower the I.C.C.)
• cautious
• Senator Robert LaFollette never would forgive
  Roosevelt

8
Square Deal Acts

• Pure Food and Drug Act
• Meat Inspection Act (Upton Sinclair, The Jungle)

9
The Square Deal Continued

• eight-hour day for workers
• broader compensation for victims of industrial
  accidents
• inheritance and income taxes
• regulation of the stock market
• TR criticized conservatives who obstructed these
  programs
• Lead to stalemate in agenda
• Widening gap between president TR and the
  conservative members of his party

10
Conservation

• TR life time sportsman and naturalist, was the
  first president to take an active interest in the
  new and struggling American conservation movement
• Spent four days hiking in the Sierras with John
  Muir, founder of the Sierra Club
• Sierra Club aesthetic value of forest
• TR administration supported rational and
  efficient human use of the wilderness
  scientific management

11
Gifford Pinchot

• Gifford Pinchot was TR chief forester 1907
  worked furiously to seize all the forests and
  many of the water power sites till in the public
  domain before a Conservative Congress restricted
  presidents authority.

12
Conservation Continued

• TRs administration established governments
  role as manager of the continuing development
  of the wilderness
• Pleasing the opposition Newlands Act provided
  federal funds for the construction of dams,
  reservoirs, and canals in the West
• open new lands for cultivation
• cheap electric power
• greater impact would not be felt for twenty years
  later

13
The Panic of 1907

• despite reforms govt had little control over the
  economy
• Same three mistakes as 1893
• supply production out runs the capacity of demand
• banking system inadequate
• financial mismanagement
• Roosevelt falsely blamed for mad economic
  policies

14
The Panic of 1907 Continued

• Roosevelt and Morgan make a deal Morgan props
  up shaky financial institutions in return for
  protection from anti-trust action
• TR does not run again in 1908
• conservative backlash, might not have gotten
  party bid
• panic of 1907
• promised not to run again in 1904
• retired from public life, briefly, at age 50

15
The Troubled Succession

• Hand-picked by Roosevelt to succeed him
• Attention to law and detail instead of aggressive
  like Roosevelt
• Came to office as the darling of both
  progressives and conservatives soon found he
  could not please both

16
Taft and the Progressives

• Payne-Aldrich Tariff
• called Congress to a special session to lower
  protective tariff rates
• Taft made no effort to influence Congress,
  arguing it was unconstitutional for him to do so
• P-A Tariff was weak and angered progressives

17
The Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy

• Taft replaces Roosevelts secretary of the
  interior who was a conservationist with a
  conservative corporate lawyer, Richard Ballinger
• Ballinger removes 1 million acres of public
  forests and mineral reserves to private
  enterprises
• Louis Glavis, Interior Department Secretary,
  finds evidence that Ballinger was selling areas
  of Alaska for personal profit
• Glavis, shows case to Gifford Pinchot (still head
  of Forest Service) and Pinchot takes case to
  president
• Ballinger cleared by Tafts attorney general
• Glavis fired by Taft
• Pinchot, not happy takes the case to the Press
  and asks Congress to investigate the issue
• Pinchot fired for insubordination
• Conservative Congressional Committee exonerates
  Ballinger
• Symbolic
• Taft separates himself from Roosevelt supporters
  completely
• Big business vs. progressive managed control

18
The Return of Roosevelt

• Gone for two years on an African Safari
• Return to America, a major public event turned
  down an invitation to the White House to meet
  with Pinchot
• Announced a public speaking tour
• believed Taft had completely twisted around his
  policies
• believed that he alone was capable of reuniting
  the Republican Party

19
New Nationalism

• made clear he had moved a considerable way from
  the cautious conservatism of the first years of
  his presidency
• social justice only possible through a strong
  federal government
• inheritance taxes
• workers compensation in industrial accidents
• regulation of the labor of women and children
• firmer regulation of corporations

20
Spreading Insurgency

• 1910 Congressional Elections
• Conservatives ousted, Progressives elected
• Democrats beginning to make their mark in
  Congress
• Roosevelt says he does not want to run for
  President, but rather urge Taft to return to
  progressivism two things changed his mind
• 1911 antitrust decision by the Taft
  Administration TR takes it personally
• 1912 Progressive Candidate LaFollette suffers a
  public breakdown in response to his daughters
  illness

Fighting Bob
21
The Republican Schism

• Roosevelt wins almost every primary election at
  the individual state level
• Republican Party leaders override the primary and
  refuse to admit Roosevelts delegates
• Roosevelt marches out of the convention with his
  delegates
• In August of that year, Roosevelt creates a new
  Progressive Party to nominate him as president
• fit as a bull moose Progressive becomes Bull
  Moose Party

22
Woodrow Wilson and The New Freedom

• The Rise of Wilson
• Born and raised in the South
• Author of books on the American political system
• President of Princeton University 1902 (New
  Jersey)
• Governor of New Jersey 1910
• Reputation for progressivism and unwillingness to
  compromise

Woodrow Wilson
23
Election of 1912

• traditional Republicans split
• Taft Republican Party
• Roosevelt Progressive / Bull Moose Party
• Roosevelt Impaired
• Many Republicans refused to leave the party
• Roosevelt shot by a would be assassin during the
  last weeks of the elections
• Democrats nominated a strong candidate
• Wilsons New Freedom vs. Roosevelts New
  Nationalism
• two opposing progressive perspectives
• proper response to monopolies was to destroy them
  (Wilson / Brandies) rather to regulate them
  (Roosevelt)

24
The Scholar as President

• Wilson more bold and forceful that both Roosevelt
  and Taft
• demanded fierce loyalty
• used Presidential powers to mold together a
  coalition of conservatives and progressives who
  would support his program
• Democrat majorities in both houses helped his
  platform
• elected candidates realized they would have to
  enact progressive reform to stay elected

25
The Scholar as President Continued

• Tariffs
• substantial lowering of the protective tariff
• Underwood-Simmons Tariff
• many Americans believed this act introduced real
  competition into American markets
• help break the power of trusts
• graduated income tax
• imposed a 1 tax on individuals and corporations
  earning over 4,000
• ii. rates went up to 6 on incomes over
  500,000

26
The Scholar as President Continued Again

• Banking Reform
• govt would have substantial control at the
  national level
• bankers would retain control at the local level
• Federal Reserve Act most important piece of
  domestic legislation during Wilsons
  administration
• created 12 regional banks, each to be controlled
  by the individual banks of its district
• new paper currency Federal Reserve Notes
• central institutions able to shift funds quickly
  into troubled areas

27
Problem of the Trusts

• During 1912 Campaign, Wilson promised to attack
  economic concentration (aka monopolistic trusts)
  but his philosophy began to change into one of
  regulation, like Roosevelt

28
Federal Trade Commission Act

• created a regulatory agency that would help
  businesses determine in advance whether their
  actions would be acceptable to the government
• would have authority to launch prosecutions
  against unfair trade practices
• increased governments regulatory authority
  significantly

29
Clayton Antitrust Act

• originally reflected the ideals of 1912 campaign
• Wilson did not back it strongly, weakened in
  Congress
• Promises of 1912 election never materialized

Wilsons conclusion supervision over
dismemberment
30
Retreat and Advance

• Fall of 1914 Wilson decides Reform Movement is
  complete and that agitation for reform would end
• refused to support the movement for national
  womans suffrage
• condoned re-imposition of segregation in the
  agencies of federal government
• dismissed efforts from Congress to support new
  reform legislation
• Congressional elections of 1914 shattered
  Presidents complacency Democrats ousted by
  re-united Republicans
• With 1916 on his mind, Wilson began to push for
  a second flurry of reforms
• Nominated Louis Brandies to the Supreme Court
• Supported a measure to make it easier for farmers
  to receive credit
• Workers compensation for federal employees
• Keating-Owen Act first federal law regulating
  child labor / struck down by Supreme Court

31
The Big Stick America and The World,1901
1917 (Pre-WWI PPT)

• Little public involvement in countrys
  international affairs prior to World War I

32
Roosevelt and Civilization

• TR believed in the value and importance of using
  American power in the world (Proverb Speak
  softly, but carry a big stick)
• Clear distinction between civilized and
  uncivilized nations
• civilized Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic
• uncivilized non-white, Latin or Slavic
• Economic development also important American
  interests
• civilized producers of industrial goods
• uncivilized sources of raw materials
• relationship between the two viewed as vital
• Roosevelt believed in order to preserve order and
  stability, build a strong navy

33
Protecting the Open Door in Asia

• TR was concerned with military tensions between
  Japan, Russia, Germany, France and Asia
• Mediated conflict between Russia and Japan in
  1905
• part of deal stated US could trade freely in the
  region
• Roosevelt wins Nobel Peace Prize in 1906
• Russian Fleet destroyed by Japan Japan begins
  to exert authority in Pacific
• Domestic issues
• extension of Chinese Exclusion Act
• Oriental School
• Hearst Papers Yellow Peril
• The Great White Fleet on world tour

34
The Iron-Fisted Neighbor

• Principal Sphere of interest Latin America
• 1902 Venezuela European powers converge off
  Venezuelan coast, TR uses threat of US naval
  power to force Germany to withdrawal
• Roosevelt Corollary TR states that US has the
  right to intervene in domestic affairs of its
  neighbor if they proved unable to maintain order
  on their own
• Dominican Republic debts to Europe
• Cuba Platt Amendment

35
The Panama Canal

• Roosevelt determined to achieve dream of
  connecting Atlantic to Pacific
• Original site was Nicaragua
• French originally tried and failed in
  Panamauneven ground would require locks
• US chose Panama when French lowered their price
  of their prior holdings from 109 mil. To 40
  mil.
• 1901 Hay-Pauncefote Treaty eliminated Britain
  from the deal
• Trouble with closing deal with Columbia
• John Hay and suspicious deal with Columbian
  official
• TR upset when Columbians change their mind, calls
  them inefficient bandits and blackmailers

36
The Panama Canal Continued

• US and French organize and support revolution in
  Panama
• U.S.S Nashville off the coast in Panama to
  maintain order
• US military presence kept Colombia from
  suppressing the rebellion
• Independent Nation of Panama officially
  recognized by the US
• 1914 Panama Canal opens TR exclaims I took the
  Canal Zone and let Congress debate!

37
Taft and Dollar Diplomacy

• Taft also worked to expand the nations economic
  interest overseas, but little interest in world
  stability
• P.C. Knox worked to expand US investments into
  less developed regions
• Failure and greed of Taft-Knox diplomacy Asia
• Taft expands Americas economic influence in
  Manchurian region, counter to Roosevelt policy
• Constructing railroads
• Russians loose alliance with Japanese and
  American railroad project quickly collapses
• Failure and greed of Taft-Knox diplomacy
  Caribbean
• Nicaragua 1909, American corporate inspired
  revolt
• American seize customs houses
• Knox encourages American bankers to offer
  substantial loans to the new government, thus
  increasing US financial leverage

38
Diplomacy and Morality

• Dominican Republic
• Mexico
• Porfirio Diaz, corrupt leader in Mexico, but
  friendly to American Businessmen
• Victoriano Huerta seizes leadership, Wilson calls
  him a government of butchers
• Battle at Veracruz US on brink of war
• Carranza takes leadership, unfriendly to US
• US supports coup by Poncho Villa, then abandons
• PV retaliates attack on US soil
• General John Pershing chases Villa and attacks
  Mexico on Mexican soil
• Never find Villa