Electoral College: 292-155

Popular Vote: 7,228,864-6,370,932

right: “The American Flag has not been planted in foreign territory to acquire more territory but for humanity’s sake”

ELECTION OF 1900

Thrust into office at 42, TR was immediately confronted with renewed strikes in the anthracite coal industry. TR turned to J.P. Morgan, who helped select a commission to arbitrate the dispute. Operators reluctantly raised wages 10% and shortened the workday to 9 hours while the UMWA was denied official recognition but won limited collective bargaining rights.

Trustbuster

Square Deal

Three Cs: Consumer Protection

Corporate Regulation

Conservation

Elkins Act (1903) banned rebates by RR companies

Hepburn Act (1906) strengthened ICC

Election of 1904TR became more progressive after winning office in his own right.

His administration was able to break up Morgan’s Northern Securities (RR) Trust and initiated child labor laws, in addition to bills for slum clearance and the strengthening of federal investigative agencies. Republican power broker Mark Hanna led a “ditch Roosevelt” movement at the Convention but fell ill and died prior to the election.

Electoral Vote: 336 - 140

Popular Vote: 7,630,547 – 5,083,880

Protecting Consumers• In 1906, the Meat Inspection Act was passed, largely because of Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel The Jungle.

Protecting Consumers• In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed requiring that ingredients be placed on all food and drug items.

Election of 1908 – TR’s Secretary of War William H. Taft was tapped as his successor.

Electoral vote: 321-162

Popular vote: 7,678,395-6,408,984

Taft was able to ward off “Fighting” Bob La Follette of WI and Philander M. Cox of PA, his eventual Secretary of State

The Taft Admin. launched two times the number of anti-trust suits and supported a federal income tax. However, Taft’s enthusiastic approval of the high Payne-Aldrich Tariff led to the rise of the Republican Insurgents behind La Follette. Taft also split with TR over the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair, in which Taft appeared to reverse his predecessor’s conservationist policies.

Election of 1912: New Freedom over New Nationalism

Electoral vote: 435-88-8

Popular vote: 6,296,284-4,122,721-3,486,242

Eugene Debs won 901,551 popular votes and Socialists made huge gains at the local level, especially in the midwest.

TR embraced manifold Progressive reforms in his efforts to regain the presidency. The Bull Moose Party turned out to be a one-time experiment however as TR later alienated many of his Progressive allies with his demand for US involvement in World War I.

William Howard Taft went on to become the only U.S. President to serve as Supreme Court Chief Justice (1921-1930).

Wilson’s New Freedom

• While TR tolerated “good” trusts, Wilson believed that all trusts were monopolies, which violated freedom for workers and consumers. The top accomplishments of the Wilson administration:– Underwood-Simmons Tariff imposed income tax (16th

Amendment)– Federal Trade Commission (“watchdog agency”)– Clayton Antitrust (more specific guidelines, protection

for organized labor)– Federal Reserve System

12 regional banks were created that were publicly controlled by the new Federal Reserve Board but privately owned. The Federal Reserve banks would serve as “a lender of last resort” for all private banks, hold or sell the nation’s bonds, and issue Federal Reserve Notes (dollar bills). The focus was on creating a uniform and “elastic” credit system.

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=wpd&c=dsp&k=Federal+Reserve+pyramid

Election of 1916: “He kept us out of war.”

President Wilson faced a stiff challenge from Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes:

Electoral vote: 277-254

Popular vote: 9,126,868-8,548,728

Believing that the U.S. had been forced into the war against Germany, Wilson pushed for “peace without victory”. Wilson became the first US president to travel abroad when he attended the Paris Peace Conference to negotiate peace terms for Germany.

The Big 4: The idealist college professor learned all about European politics

the hard way.

The treaty was forged out of a desire for vengeance against Germany. Clemenceau’s nation had lost an appalling 1,697,800 citizens and suffered more than 4,000,000 casualties. The war had been even more costly for Germany, but representatives of a new German republic had little choice in accepting the harshest of terms.

Wilson was able to salvage self-determination for those Eastern European groups who had been dominated by foreign monarchies and he managed to push through his prized League of Nations charter.

Henry Cabot Lodge and the Reservationists in the US Senate insisted on many changes in the League’s covenant that threatened to strip Congress of certain constitutional authorities. Wilson refused all compromise and took his message to the American people. His whistle stop tour ended with a severe stroke, however, and his crusade fell apart.

• Despite influencing several necessary progressive reforms (Clayton Antitrust, the Underwood-Simmons Tariff and its income tax adjustment, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Farm Loan Act, and Keating-Owen which sought to end child labor), Wilson’s legacy is marred somewhat by his inflexibility concerning Versailles and a terrible record regarding race.

Election of 1920: Wilson lost his referendum on the League of Nations, as the unspectacular Warren G. Harding of Ohio defeated James M. Cox (also of OH). The election featured two prominent vice presidential nominees: Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (pre-polio).

Electoral vote: 404-127

Popular vote: 16,144,093- 9,139,661 (German and Irish voter opposed Cox because of Wilson and Versailles).

E.V. Debs received 913,693 votes even though he was being held in an Atlanta Penitentiary for protesting America’s role in World War I.

“A return to normalcy” (and more scandals than Grant)