The muckrakers showed the problems; Progressive presidents used federal power to address them. Three presidents in a row, two Republicans and a Democrat, called themselves Progressives, though they disagreed about how far to go.
Key idea
Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) sued trusts, regulated railroads and food, and protected about 230 million acres of public land. Taft (1909–1913) filed even more antitrust suits; Standard Oil was broken up in 1911. Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) signed the Federal Reserve Act (1913) and, in 1914, the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
| President | Name for his program | Main acts |
|---|---|---|
| Theodore Roosevelt | Square Deal | Northern Securities suit (won 1904); settled the 1902 coal strike; Hepburn Act (1906); food and drug laws (1906); 150 national forests |
| William Howard Taft | (no slogan) | About 90 antitrust suits; Standard Oil and American Tobacco broken up (1911); proposed the income tax amendment |
| Woodrow Wilson | New Freedom | Lower tariffs and an income tax (1913); Federal Reserve (1913); Clayton Act and FTC (1914); child labor law (1916) |
Why it works
The election of 1912 shows the debate. Roosevelt, angry that Taft had broken with his allies, ran on a new Progressive ("Bull Moose") ticket for a New Nationalism: accept big business, but regulate it with a strong federal government. Wilson's New Freedom aimed to break up monopolies and restore competition among smaller firms. With the Republicans split, Wilson won 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 88 and Taft's 8; the Socialist Eugene Debs won about 6 percent of the popular vote. In office, Wilson ended up creating new regulators too. The Progressive era had limits: Wilson's administration also segregated several federal departments.
Work it through
Worked example: Good trust or bad trust?
Roosevelt said he did not oppose bigness itself. How would he treat a huge firm that cut prices and treated customers fairly, versus a railroad combination that fixed rates?
- Roosevelt sorted trusts by conduct, not size.
- A large firm acting fairly: regulate and watch it.
- A combination that crushed competition and fixed rates: sue to break it up, as with Northern Securities.
Answer: Regulate the "good" trust; break up the "bad" one.
Common mistake
Many students think Roosevelt opposed all big business. He distinguished "good" trusts from "bad" ones and preferred regulating most large companies to breaking them up. In fact Taft filed more antitrust suits (about 90) than Roosevelt (44).