Progressive Era Politics & Policies

Theodore Roosevelt was a leader of the Progressive Era, passing legislation like the Hepburn Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act and expanding the size of the National Parks system. These legislative successes improved life for Americans, and the process by which Roosevelt campaigned stretched the powers of the presidency, re-writing the role of the goverment in everyday life.

During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt worked to restrict the amount of power held by corporate America. Roosevelt took on Industrial Trusts and J.P. Morgan Bank, and was successful in breaking up monopolies.

During William Howard Taft’s presidency, a divide formed between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt as they became the heads of two distinct wings of the Republican Party. Roosevelt led the Progressives, also called the “Bull Moose Party,” and Taft represented conservative Republicans. Progressive Republicans campaigned for ecological conservation, workers’ rights, and restrictions on the employment of women and children. Conservative Republicans supported high tariffs on imported goods, opposed the popular election of judges, and generally favored business leaders over their employees. This split became deep enough that in 1912, Roosevelt launched a third-party campaign against Taft. A precedent for doing so had been established in 1854, when the Republican party split to better represent voter needs.

Theodore Roosevelt asked President Woodrow Wilson for the power to develop and lead a division of volunteers to join the Allies during World War I. Roosevelt had first organized a cavalry of Rough Riders in 1898, to join the Spanish-American War. By 1914, Roosevelt was out of touch with the modern, mechanized war unfolding in Europe. Even so, just after the U.S. WWI, Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise up to four divisions of volunteers, similar to the Rough Riders.