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The Populist Party
The Populist Party, which had a brief period of national influence in the 1880s and 1890s, before flaming out and more or less being absorbed by the Democratic Party starting with the election of 1896, was in many ways source of many of the ideas that the Progressive movement would carry through in early 20th century. Plagued by steep railroad fares, high taxes under the McKinley Tariff, and soaring debt, thousands of small farmers banded together to form the Populist Party in the late 1880s. The Populists called for a national income tax, cheaper money (what Populists called “free silver”), shorter workdays, single-term limits for presidents, immigration restrictions, and government control of railroads.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick Policy
McKinley won the election of 1900 with Roosevelt as his running mate but was assassinated by an anarchist less than six months into his second term. As a result, Roosevelt took office as one of the youngest presidents in American history. Despite his youth, Roosevelt proved to be a “bully” with his Big Stick diplomacy. One of his most important policies, the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, declared that only the United States, not Old World powers, had the authority to interfere with Latin American affairs. Roosevelt’s secretary of state, John Hay, drafted the Open Door Notes, which asked that Japan and the European powers respect China’s territorial status and fair trade. Roosevelt went on to take over Colombia’s northernmost province, Panama, in order to secure America the right to build the Panama Canal. Toward the end of his presidency, Roosevelt also toured with the Great White Fleet, a group of U.S. Navy battleships, around the world in a symbolic display of force.
Roosevelt and Progressivism
Roosevelt was just as active at home as he was abroad. During his presidency, America had become increasingly urbanized and industrialized. The Progressive movement, which formed as a response to the rapid social and economic growth and change that was taking place, helped spawn a new era of social reform. Muckrakers—journalists who wrote about political and industrial corruption as well as social hardships—had significant influence on Roosevelt, who outlined a package of domestic reforms called the Square Deal, which were meant to protect consumers, tame big business, support the labor movement, and conserve the nation’s natural resources.
Congress, meanwhile, passed the Elkins Act and Hepburn Act to regulate the railroads and the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act to regulate food inspection and sanitation. Congress passed the acts, in part, after the popularity of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, which exposed unsanitary meatpacking practices. Roosevelt also supported strikers in the Anthracite Strike, prosecuted several trusts under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and signed the 1902 Newlands Act, selling lands in the West to fund irrigation projects.
Taft’s Presidency
Roosevelt’s friend and handpicked successor William Howard Taft promised to carry out the rest of Roosevelt’s progressive policies if he were elected president. After winning the election of 1908, however, Taft proved to be more of a traditional conservative than most had expected. Although he continued progressive policy by prosecuting more trusts than his predecessor, in a more conservative vein than Roosevelt he signed the steep Payne-Aldrich Tariff in 1909 and fired conservationist Gifford Pinchot from the forestry division. Many Republican Progressives, including his former friend Roosevelt, denounced Taft as a traitor to the movement. When Republicans nominated Taft again in 1912, Roosevelt left the convention and entered the presidential race as the candidate for the new Progressive Republican or Bull Moose Party.
Wilson’s First Term
With two feuding party leaders splitting the Republican vote, Democrat Woodrow Wilson managed to win the presidential election. Also a Progressive, Wilson championed a new group of reforms, the New Freedom, which regulated big business, further supported the labor movement, and reduced tariffs. In 1913, he signed the Underwood Tariff, which was lower than Taft’s, and also reformed the national banking system with the Federal Reserve Act. The following year, Wilson passed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act to replace the much weaker Sherman Act of 1890, which was riddled with loopholes. Other progressive bills he signed into law included the Warehouse Act, the La Follette Seaman’s Act, the Workingman’s Compensation Act, and the Adamson Act. Wilson also ordered General John “Blackjack” Pershing to invade Mexico in 1916 to pursue the bandit Pancho Villa.
