William Howard Taft

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William HowardTaft
Born 1857-1930 State from Ohio
Political Party Republican (remember Roosevelt
told Americans to vote for him)

• 1909-1913
• VP James Sherman

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I. DOMESTIC

• Political and
• economic issues

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• 1. Presidential Election of 1908
• a. William H. Taft
• i. Republican
• ii. Theodore Roosevelts handpicked successor
• iii. Progressive ideas

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• b. William Jennings Bryan
• i. Democrat
• ii. Remember, he ran for president in 1896 and
  gained the populists support.
• c. Eugene V. Debs
• i. Socialist
• ii. Remember, he was the head of the American
  Railway Union (Pullman Strike).

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• d. Taft wins-
• i. Taft was not one who enjoyed the spotlight
  like his predecessor Roosevelt.
• ii. Concerned about the expansion of federal
  powers, he will have a much more moderate view of
  the presidency than Roosevelt did.

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Worst loss yet for Bryan!Electoral college 321
182
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Taft Roosevelts hand-picked successor!
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• 2. Taft as a Trustbuster
• a. Filed 90 antitrust suits
• i. Most significant victory was the dismantling
  of both the American Tobacco Company and the
  Standard Oil Company in 1911.
• ii. How does this compare to TR?

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• (9) Passed the Mann-Elkins Act in 1910.
• i. reinforced power of Interstate
• Commerce Commission to set a maximum haul
  rate for RRs.
• ii. banned practice of charging more for short
  hauls than for long hauls.
• iii. placed the telephone
• telegraph industries under the
• regulation of the ICC.

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• 3. Taft regulates Labor
• a. Taft created a Department of Labor to enforce
  labor laws
• b. Passed mine-safety laws and established the
  8-hour workday for all federal employees.

Some of the children who worked in mines
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• 4. Taft on Tariffs
• Taft worked with Congress to reduce tariffs and
  still protect US business interests (reversed the
  Dingley Tariff passed in 1897)
• (5) The Payne-Aldrich Tariff
• i. Taft favored low tariffs, like
• the progressives did. However, he
• was not strong enough to oppose the Senators
  who produced a very high tariff bill known as the
  Payne-Aldrich Tariff.

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• ii. The Payne-Aldrich Tariff was supposed to
  reduce the US tariff rate to 37 . Taft had
  requested more reduction. When this request was
  ignored, Taft reluctantly signed the bill anyway.
  
• iii. Created high tariffs on iron ore, coal, and
  fur/ leather

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• iv. This tariff split the Republican Party into
  the Progressives and the Old Guard
• v. This helped fuel the break between Taft and
  his predecessor and mentor- Theodore Roosevelt.

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• 16th Amendment - 1909
• Provided for a federal income tax
• Remember this had been a topic on the agenda of
  Populists in the 1896 election and pushed through
  by progressives
• Proposed in 1909 not ratified by the states
  until 1913 (Under W. Wilson)

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Schedule X Single
If taxable income is  over-- But not over-- The tax is
0 7,825 10 of the amount over 0
7,825 31,850 782.50 plus 15 of the amount over 7,825
31,850 77,100 4,386.25 plus 25 of the amount over 31,850
77,100 160,850 15,698.75 plus 28 of the amount over 77,100
160,850 349,700 39,148.75 plus 33 of the amount over 160,850
349,700 no limit 101,469.25 plus 35 of the amount over 349,700
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B. SOCIAL ISSUES
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• 1. Review of progressivism a political and
  social movement in the early 20th century to
  improve conditions in both U.S. government and
  society.
• Some of the key areas progressives focused on
• Womens suffrage Working Conditions
• Prohibition Child Labor
• Living Conditions

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• (8) Ballinger-Pinchot affair The head of the
  U.S. Forest Service
• accused Tafts Sec. of the Interior of
  favoring private business over
• conservation.
• caused a further break b/w TR and Taft
• Taft supports conservation he promoted
  environmental conservation by adding to the
  nations forest reserves but not as strongly as
  Roosevelt did.

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• b. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire March 25, 1911
  fire broke out in a garment
• factory. With locked stairwells, the
• young, female immigrant workers could
• not escape. Over 140 died.

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• (2) Muller vs Oregon
• i. 1908 Supreme Court Case that
• challenged a law limiting women to a 10-hour
  work day. It kept the law.
• ii. Lawyer Louis Brandeis defended
• the law, arguing that long hours
• caused women to have poor health.
• iii. The court ruled in favor of keeping
• the limit, and this case served as an
• example for similar progressive cases
• to follow.

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(3) Henry Fords Motor Company

• Henry Ford made his car reasonably priced,
  reliable, and efficient with the introduction of
  the Model T in 1908 With the assembly line.
• This vehicle initiated a new era in personal
  transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain,
  and handle on rough roads, immediately becoming a
  huge success.
• The Model T made its debut in 1908 with a
  purchase price of 825.00. Over ten thousand were
  sold in its first year, establishing a new
  record. Four years later the price dropped to
  575.00 and sales soared. By 1914, Ford could
  claim a 48 share of the automobile market.
• The assembly line reversed the process of
  automobile manufacture. Instead of workers going
  to the car, the car came to the worker who
  performed the same task of assembly over and over
  again. With the introduction and perfection of
  the process, Ford was able to reduce the assembly
  time of a Model T from twelve and 1/2 hours to
  less than six hours.

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(4) The NAACP is formed by WEB DuBois in 1908

• The National Association for the Advancement of
  Colored People (NAACP) has been instrumental in
  improving the legal, educational, and economic
  lives of African Americans.
• Combining the white philanthropic support that
  characterized Booker T. Washington's
  accommodationist organizations with the call for
  racial justice delivered by W. E. B. Du Bois's
  militant Niagara Movement, the NAACP forged a
  middle road of interracial cooperation.

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(6) Dawes Act of 1909

• Under the Dawes Act, 700,000 acres of former
  tribal land is opened to white settlers in
  Washington, Idaho and Montana. The steady erosion
  of tribal integrity represented by the Dawes Act
  will continue until its repeal in 1934.

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(10) Standard Oil vs the US

• a 1911 case in which the Supreme Court of the
  United States found Standard Oil guilty of
  monopolizing the petroleum industry through a
  series of abusive and anticompetitive actions.
  The court's remedy was to divide Standard Oil
  into several competing firms.

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II. FOREIGN
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• (7) Dollar Diplomacy
• U.S. should use economic influence instead of
  military force.
• Taft expanded US influence in Latin America using
  the motto Substituting dollars for bullets.
• Taft wanted to substitute European loans to Latin
  America with American loans.
• He believed that increasing US economic power
  would lessen the chances of European
  intervention.

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MAP OF LATIN AMERICA
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(No Transcript)
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• 3. Dollar diplomacy promoted American business
  interests abroad, specifically in the Caribbean,
  which had been hit with several revolutions.
• a. Honduras
• b. Haiti

(In both of these countries, we poured U.S. money
in so as to keep out other countries money!)
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• c. Nicaragua- June 1911, the US government agreed
  to help Nicaragua obtain private loans from
  American banks. In return, the Nicaraguan
  leaders gave the US the right to send troops into
  their country when US leaders thought it
  necessary to protect American investments.

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• Roosevelt became
• so angry with Tafts
• break from Teddy-
• politics that he will
• re-enter politics,
• hoping to gain the
• Repub nomination for
• president in the 1912
• election. While the
• two duke it out, they
• will open the door for
• the undivided party
• the Democrats with
• Woodrow Wilson.
• more later