Presidential Legacies: The Progressives Part 2

William Howard Taft (1909-1912): Theodore Roosevelt stepped down in 1909 with the inauguration of his hand picked successor William Howard Taft. Roosevelt then went on safari. He wanted to give Taft the stage to himself. Shortly thereafter, Roosevelt received disturbing news. Taft was betraying Rooseveltism.

The difference between the two administrations was both negligible and huge. Taft continued his predecessor’s trust busting policies. However, Taft busted all monopolies as opposed to continuing Roosevelt’s policy of attacking those trusts that hurt consumers. Roosevelt only busted "bad" monopolies. Taft continued Roosevelt’s Conservation policies, yet sided with big timber interests in the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair. Roosevelt felt betrayed.

While Roosevelt had a strong foreign policy, Taft’s made America look weak. Taft attempted to help Latin America with Dollar Diplomacy. Unfortunately, the dollars went to dictators and not the people. When Taft attempted to secure arbitration treaties to avoid war between the major powers, the U.S. refused to ratify after Britain and France had done so. Taft even caused the Canadian government to fall. He negotiated a Free Trade agreement with Canada. The U.S. ratified it, but the Canadian flat earth society rejected it and turned their prime minister out of office. Roosevelt was embarrassed by this “Era of Bungled Diplomacy.” As a result, he split with the president and later formed his own party.

The split between Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican Party. The conservative wing adopted Taft, so the president made a hard right turn. In order to disguise himself from Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson, TR went leftward. Whether President Roosevelt would have governed moderately as before or as a hard left prog is unknown. Either way, the GOP split elected Woodrow Wilson in 1912.

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921): Wilson was never a popular president. His administration is still controversial to this day. His idealism and his policies at home never met. He re-segregated federal facilities. Wilson’s Administration witnessed The Palmer Raids which trampled American liberties in a way never seen before or since. The president even invaded Mexico hunting Pancho Villa. The mission failed and the U.S. Army came home empty handed.

On the other hand, Wilson was an idealist. He felt government could help the people. His administration was the first to back labor over management. Wilson regulated the banks, lowered tariffs, and expanded on his two predecessor’s trust busting. When war broke out, Wilson supported national determination and declared war “to make the world safe for democracy.” After the war, Wilson stood up for ethnic minorities and the Germans. He was rebuffed by the Allies. However, his grand vision for a League of Nations came into being--without the United States which refused to sign on.

In many respects, Woodrow Wilson represented a dry run for George W. Bush. Both men had foreign misadventures. Both men could not corral a wanted terrorist. Both men ushered in controversial reforms. Both men advocated spreading Democracy by the sword. Both men waged wars that would become unpopular. Both men were originally elected with less than 50% of the vote. Both men narrowly won re-election as the vote came down to one state. Both men helped drag their party to defeat after their two terms ended. The one major difference between the men was on race. While Bush openly welcomed African-Americans into his administration, Wilson helped further the Jim Crow System.

After twenty years, and a costly world war, the Progressive Era ended. People were sick and tired of the Progressives. Although open to them at first, the Progs overstepped their bounds. The European War, Mexican excursion, Palmer Raids, and “big government” pushed people to their limits. On top of this, there was a Red Scare, race riots, and a flu pandemic that killed 20 million. The government fanned the flames of the Red Scare, the riots were a product of black soldiers returning home in uniform, and the flu occurred as a result of a confluence of events including the unsanitary conditions from the war. In response, the country made a right turn.