Unit 7: Lecture 3 (part 2)

Mr. HomburgAPUSH

Roosevelt to Taft

• Roosevelt decided that his heir would be secretary of war William Howard Taft

• 1909 Roosevelt left for Africa on his Safari• Taft never felt comfortable in the White House, he did

not like the backroom politics• His wife had wanted the white house more than he• Taft did not follow Roosevelt’s policies like he was

supposed to. He lowered tariffs and failed in the conservation arena. He had replaced many of Roosevelt’s cabinet members with corporate attorneys

• Roosevelt heard about Taft while he was in Africa. Upon his return he decided to run against Taft for president.

• Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party). “I feel as fit as a Bull Moose”

• Because of the rift between Taft and Roosevelt the presidency was ripe for picking for Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson’s Rise

• Before he became president in 1912 Woodrow Wilson was the President of Princeton University and then the governor of New Jersey

• He was born and raised in the south• Thought that government should promote the

general welfare rather than just the select few• Like Roosevelt he was critical of big business,

organized labor, socialists, and agrarian radicalism

Election of 1912

• Four people were running: Wilson (Democrat), Taft (Republican), Roosevelt (Progressive), and Debs (Socialist).

• The results (popular vote): Wilson: 42%, Roosevelt: 27%, Taft 23%, and Debs 6%. His victory was a minority over a divided opposition (Taft and Roosevelt were both Republicans, they got 50% of the vote combined. So more people actually supported the Republicans than the Democrats)

• The election gave Democrats power for the first time since the Civil War (they held the presidency, the house, and the senate)

• The election also brought the southerners back into national and international affairs for the first time since the civil war

• Five of Wilson’s ten cabinet members were southern• The republican party had been split by the election,

and the party that would emerge in the 1920s would be much more conservative

Wilsonian Reform

• Wilson promised a lower tariff in order to promote competition and break up the monopolies and a new national banking system

• Wilson believed tariffs, which were originally established to protect infant industries from foreign competition, were being used by corporations to suppress foreign competition and keep prices high

• He passed a tariff law in 1913, the Underwood-Simmons tariff. It lowered tariffs from 37% to about 29%

• He also passed two other bills. (This is why conservative Glenn Beck has Wilson as his #1 president you need to hate)

• He passes the 16th amendment which established the income tax

• The highest total tax rate was 7%, on incomes over 500,000. This is very, very, very low! (7% of 500,000 is 35,000)

• Today if you make $500,000 39% of your money goes to the government (39% of 500,000 is 195,000)

• He also created the Federal Reserve Act (I will discuss the Federal Reserve more on Friday before the quiz)

Progressivism for Whites Only

• Wilson showed little interest in the plight of African Americans

• He shared many of the racist attitudes that were prevalent at the time

• Although he denounced the KKK he sympathized with their motives, to restore white power in the south

• Many of those he appointed to his cabinet were racists and had began segregating industries that had been integrated for fifty years

• Wilson said the segregation was intended to eliminate the possibility of friction