The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906): This act prohibited the production of unsafe food, liquors, medicines, and drugs.
The Hepburn Act (1906): This act regulated the railways and allowed the federal government to supervise the railroad industry and to set prices for railroad charges. The act was later applied to telegraph and telephone companies.
During his presidency, Roosevelt set aside 235 million acres of public lands for conservation, doubling the number of national parks. He believed that he had to protect the country’s public lands from private exploitation.
Salvaging the economy
In 1907, the Knickerbocker Bank in New York City, one of the largest and most powerful banks in the United States, collapsed. The collapse caused a widespread panic on Wall Street and among the public. Because the federal government didn’t insure banks at the time, massive withdrawals of money could have ruined them. To prevent this, Roosevelt asked a consortium of financiers, headed by J. P. Morgan, to bail out the Knickerbocker Bank. The consortium of financiers came through, buying out other financially unstable institutions and businesses, also. Congress further stabilized the situation with the passage of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act in 1908, which provided unstable banks with federal funds. The act ended the panic and avoided a recession.
Saying no to a third term
In 1908, Roosevelt faced a difficult decision. Should he run for a third term? He knew that he could easily win reelection. However, during the 1904 campaign, he pledged not to seek a third term. He honored his pledge and handpicked a successor instead. His choice was William Howard Taft. Roosevelt believed that Taft was a progressive Republican, like himself, who would continue Roosevelt’s policies. Boy, was he wrong! Roosevelt made sure that Taft won the Republican nomination. He then campaigned for him in the election. Taft won easily, and Roosevelt retired in 1909.
To allow Taft to become his own man, Roosevelt left the country and went on a safari in Africa. He went hunting and exploring. Roosevelt then went to Europe, where he was well liked and gave guest lectures at many universities. The Europeans treated him like royalty.
While vacationing in Europe, Roosevelt heard for the first time that Taft had moved away from Roosevelt’s programs. More and more progressives complained about Taft, so Roosevelt returned home.
Roosevelt went on a speaking tour to promote progressive reforms. He also called for the country to move away from enriching a few individuals and instead care for all the people of the nation.
By early 1912, Roosevelt had decided that he couldn’t live with Taft’s policies anymore. He threw his hat into the presidential ring for the Republican nomination.
Becoming a Bull Moose
Roosevelt believed that he had a good chance of receiving the Republican nomination in 1912. However, Taft’s handlers made sure that Roosevelt didn’t win. At the convention, they refused to seat pro-Roosevelt delegates. This outraged supporters of Roosevelt, and they created the Progressive Party, or the so-called “Bull Moose Party.” The Republican Party was split, which allowed the Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the 1912 election.
Roosevelt campaigned throughout the country. He even survived an assassination attempt during one of his campaign appearances. After being shot in the chest on the way to a campaign appearance, he went on to deliver his campaign speech, saying at one point, “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” He finished his speech before collapsing and being taken to a hospital.
Roosevelt’s campaigning paid off. In the 1912 election, he received 28 percent of the vote — over 4 million votes. He actually did better than the incumbent President Taft, who came in third in the election. Not surprisingly, the Democrat Wilson won in an electoral landslide, despite receiving only 42 percent of the popular vote.
The 28 percent of the vote that Roosevelt received as a third party candidate in 1912 is still the best third-party showing in U.S. history.
Retiring for good
After losing in 1912, Roosevelt retired from politics. Instead, he sought out adventure abroad. In 1913, he went to Brazil to explore the Amazon. He explored what today is the Roosevelt River in the Amazon and collected many specimens that can be seen today in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Roosevelt returned home in 1914 and spoke out against President Wilson’s early neutrality in World War I (WWI). For Roosevelt, neutrality was a sign of weakness. At first, Roosevelt didn’t take sides in WWI because he was not sure which side to support. But after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 (see Chapter 14), he moved to the Allied side. He even offered to create a new volunteer division and to fight in Europe. President Wilson turned him down, and although Roosevelt didn’t fight in the war, his sons did — his son Quentin died fighting in France.
By 1918, Taft and Roosevelt had made up, and the Republican Party was united. The Republicans won big in the 1918 congressional elections and Roosevelt was expected to win the presidency easily in 1920. Fate had other plans. Roosevelt became ill and died in his sleep on January 6, 1919. Roosevelt’s son Archie sent a telegram to his brothers in Europe that read: “The Lion is dead.”
The President Who Hated Politics: William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
William Howard Taft, shown in Figure 13-3, was a unique figure in U.S. history. He never wanted to be president, and he hated politics. He lived his life by the frequently expressed motto, “Politics makes me sick.”
President Taft didn’t have the qualities of his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt. While Roosevelt ignored Congress and went straight to the people to get backing for his programs, Taft tried to negotiate. With the Republican Party split at the time into two factions — the Conservatives and the progressives — Taft managed to alienate both wings.
Taft was a capable administrator who introduced many needed reforms but received no credit for doing so. His distaste for politics cost him reelection in 1912, and that was okay with him.
Figure 13-3: William Howard Taft, 27th president of the United States.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Taft loved the law, and his greatest wish was to become a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ironically, this wish came true only after he left the office of president. He is the only person in U.S. history to serve as both president of the United States and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Born into politics
William Howard Taft was born into a prominent political and legal family. His grandfather was a judge, and his father was a Cincinnati superior court judge who served in the Grant administration as secretary of war and attorney general.
In 1874, Taft graduated second in his class at Yale. Taft wanted to be a lawyer, like his father, so he decided to attend Cincinnati Law School. In 1880, he graduated from law school, passed the bar exam, and started to work as a court reporter. He then worked as the assistant prosecutor in Hamilton County, Ohio. By 1883, he had opened a successful law firm.
Taft married Helen Herron in 1886. She was an extremely ambitious woman, who, ever since her childhood, wanted to be first lady. She pushed Taft into an office he didn’t want.
Taft’s early career
Taft’s legal career really began in 1887, when he became a judge on the Ohio superior court. In 1889, Taft’s public career took off. President Harrison appointed him solicitor general for the United States. In this capacity, Taft handled all federal court cases involving the federal government. He won 18 out of the 20 cases he tried. More importantly, he met his lifelong friend and sponsor, Teddy Roosevelt, who also served in the Harrison administration.
Taft returned to Ohio after only two years in office. In Ohio, he became a member of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a position he loved. After serving eight years on the court in Ohio, he was ready for the Supreme Court. However, President McKinley had a different position in mind for Taft.
/> Governing in the Philippines
In 1900, President McKinley had a tough time dealing with the newly acquired Philippines. A bloody uprising against U.S. rule took place, and the military governor General Arthur MacArthur (the father of General Douglas MacArthur of World War II and Korea fame) used full force to oppress the Filipino population.
Taft had no interest in the Philippines. When McKinley first offered him the job of pacifying the Philippines, he refused. Only when McKinley offered Taft a position on the Supreme Court after he finished his job in the Philippines did Taft accept.
Taft disagreed with General MacArthur’s brutal treatment of the Filipino population, and he was happy to see the general resign in 1901.
In 1901, Taft became the governor of the Philippines. He did an excellent job as governor. He reconciled the country and set the foundation for the modern-day Philippines by creating a local democratic government and building roads, medical facilities, and schools. He reorganized the civil administration. He even bought 400,000 acres from the Catholic Church and distributed the land to poor Filipinos. Taft became so involved in governing the Philippines that he actually rejected two offers to become a member of the Supreme Court. By 1904, Taft impressed the new President, Roosevelt, so much that he made him secretary of war. Taft quickly became Roosevelt’s right-hand man.
Dabbling in foreign policy
As secretary of war, Taft involved himself in many diplomatic activities. Roosevelt chose him to settle disputes in Cuba and take care of the building of the canal in Panama. In addition, Taft received the task of bringing Russia and Japan, at war at the time, to the bargaining table. He succeeded, and Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize. Eventually, Taft was left in charge whenever Roosevelt went on one of his many trips. According to Taft, “the president seems really to take much comfort that I am in his cabinet.”
By 1908, there was no question in the Republican Party about who would be Roosevelt’s successor. Roosevelt considered Taft a friend and someone who could continue his policies. The progressive wing of the Republican Party saw in Taft someone who would be another Teddy Roosevelt. The conservatives in the party saw in him someone who could help their cause and scale back some of Roosevelt’s policies. Everybody liked Taft and believed that he was on their side. He easily received the nomination and went on to defeat the Democratic nominee, William Jennings Bryan, without any problems.
President Taft was a loving husband. When his wife suffered a stroke in 1909, Taft spent two hours a day for the next year teaching her how to speak again.
President William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
Problems arose as soon as Taft assumed the presidency. During the campaign, Taft promised the U.S. public that he would lower tariffs, so he called a special session of Congress to make good on his campaign promise. Instead, the Conservative Republicans, representing business interests, increased tariffs on many items. Taft believed that a president should only react to Congress and not dictate policy, so he refused to react to the bill. Taft even defended the bill, disappointing many. For Taft, it went downhill from there.
The Republican Party split into two factions during Taft’s presidency. On the one hand was the Conservative wing, which was pro-business and anti-reform in nature. The Conservatives supported high tariffs, no government intervention in the economy, and no social reforms. The other wing of the Republican Party consisted of pro-Roosevelt progressives, who believed in more reformist policies, lowering tariffs, and curbing business excesses. By the end of his term, Taft had alienated both wings of the party.
Next came the Pinchot disaster. Gifford Pinchot was the head of the U.S. forestry service and one of Roosevelt’s closest friends. Pinchot falsely accused the new secretary of the interior, Richard Ballinger, of allowing private companies to exploit public lands in Alaska. Taft fired Pinchot, annoying Roosevelt and many progressive Republicans.
Taft was the heaviest president in U.S. history, weighing close to 350 pounds. At one point, he got stuck in the White House bathtub and had to be pried out. Subsequently, a new and larger tub, with room for four people, was put in the White House. He was also the first U.S. president to play golf.
Beating the odds and accomplishing quite a bit
Overall, Taft’s accomplishments were impressive. But he was an administrator, not a politician, and he didn’t publicize his accomplishments, so he received no credit for his policies. Despite many setbacks, Taft accomplished quite a bit while in office, including
The vigorous pursuit of monopolies and trusts. He actually pursued twice as many anti-trust lawsuits as the Roosevelt administration.
The expansion of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission. He allowed the commission to regulate telephone, radio, and cable services.
The addition of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in 1913. This amendment, which was passed during the last days of Taft’s presidency, allowed the U.S. government to collect income taxes.
The introduction of the Publicity Act in 1910. This act forced political parties to publicize the sources of their campaign funds and their subsequent expenditures.
The setting aside of over 72 million acres of public lands for conservation.
The introduction of the eight-hour workday for work on federal projects.
Only Taft’s foreign policy was truly a failure. He attempted to open up many regions in the world to U.S. investment. He failed in China and in the Caribbean. His greatest foreign policy triumph, the signing of a free trade agreement with Canada, failed when the Canadian population rejected the treaty in a popular vote.
Losing the presidency, gaining the Supreme Court
Taft knew that he had no chance of getting reelected in 1912. He probably would have defeated the Democrat Wilson in a two-man race, but with Roosevelt in there, he had to lose. He spent no time campaigning, so why didn’t he just withdraw from the race? It has been speculated that he was mad at his former friend Roosevelt, so he wanted to make sure that Roosevelt, running on the Bull Moose ticket, didn’t win either.
In the election, Taft received an abysmal 23 percent of the vote and carried only two states — the worst electoral showing by an incumbent president in U.S. history. After Taft happily retired in 1913, he taught law at Yale University. The students loved him. He also became an accomplished author of legal works. In 1921, his greatest wish came true. President Harding appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Taft excelled in his new position. He reformed the judicial system and also talked Congress into giving the Supreme Court its own building. He aligned himself with the Conservative faction in the Supreme Court, but he mediated successfully with the more liberal justices. Taft was finally happy.
In February 1930, Taft became ill. He retired from the Supreme Court and died at home a few months later.
Fellow Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said of Taft, “Its very difficult for me to understand how a man who is so good as chief justice could have been so bad as president.”
President Taft’s lasting legacy was not just his years as president or chief justice of the Supreme Court, it was his ability to serve his country. His descendants continued his legacy of serving the country. His son, Robert, became a successful United States senator, representing Ohio until his death. One of President Taft’s descendents, Bob Taft, was elected governor of Ohio in 1998.
Chapter 14
Protecting Democracy: Woodrow Wilson
In This Chapter
Being a student of politics
Becoming president
Preparing the country for war
Saving democracy in Europe
W oodrow Wilson was a visionary — ahead of his time — and one of the best presidents in U.S. history. Besides saving democracy in Europe, he implemented many reforms that propelled the United States into the 20th century. His greatest domestic accomplishment occurred shortly before he left office, when women received the right to vote.
In the area of foreign affairs, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, designed to bring about an end to war in Europe and war in general, laid the foundation for the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations.
Studying Government
Woodrow Wilson was a thinker, philosopher, and student of government. As a professor of government, Wilson was familiar with the governmental process. (His dissertation was on Congress.) Wilson used this knowledge to his advantage during his presidency. More importantly, Wilson was an idealist, believing in the goodness of people. He wanted to bring about prosperity, an egalitarian society where people enjoyed similar rights regardless of background, and world peace. He initiated major reform domestically, and worldwide, after the end of World War I (WWI).
Wilson is the best-educated president in U.S. history. He held a PhD in government, taught government at Princeton, and published several well-received books. He was even president of Princeton University before he became president of the United States.
US Presidents For Dummies Page 24
