Taft and Wilson

Continuing the Progressive Plan

William Howard Taft

Part One

Taft Becomes President• TR’s Secretary of

War• Hand-picked• Far less popular• More cautious• Wanted to

continue TR’s Progressivism

• Difficulty with Conservatives

Taft’s Record• 90 Anti-Trust cases (more

than TR!)• Standard Oil busted• Set aside more public

lands than TR• Income Tax• But…supported higher

tariffs (Payne-Aldrich tariff)—alienated progressives

• And…fired US Forest service head after he criticized Sec. of Interior

1912 Election

Friends Again!

Part Two

Woodrow Wilson

Wilson’s Legacy• Lowered tariffs (good for

consumers—cheap foreign goods)

• Federal Reserve Act (we’ll talk about this later)

• Federal Trade Commission (truth in advertising & labels; monitored businesses—no monopolies)

• Clayton Act (further defined what an illegal trust was; unions were NOT)

• Worker’s compensation law

Legacy of Progressivism

• Lots of changes—used government to cure society’s ills

• Status of Women changed• Workers’ lives improved• Ignored race issue (Wilson—

segregated the Federal Government)

• World War I ended the Progressive Era