Wilson And Roosevelt's Three Progressives

The term “progressive” in politics is used to describe someone who brought about political, social, and economic changes and reforms while in power. The period around the early 1900s has been named the “Progressive Era” because of the work of these three former Presidents of the United States: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson. At times, these presidents, especially Taft, would go against the progressive ideals that they are associated with today, but these three presidents were deemed progressive because of Roosevelt’s Square Deal policy, Taft’s dissolving of trusts, and Wilson’s reforms involving taxes and tariffs.
As a progressive president, Theodore Roosevelt fought to better the lives of Americans as individuals. He utilized a “Square Deal” …show more content…
Teddy made the decision when he was elected that he would not run for another term, but he handpicked Taft to be the next Republican nominee. Taft won the presidency and was thought to be a mild progressive that was aware of the needs of the nation. He turned out to be too mild of a progressive, especially in relation to Roosevelt, according to many other Progressives of the day. Surprisingly, Taft broke up more trusts than Teddy Roosevelt, but that is where the progressivism begins to decline. In a move that was initially intended to lower excessive tariffs, Taft urged the House of Representatives to pass a bill to slightly lower some tariffs, but the Senate made major revisions to the statute, which in turn, caused tariffs to go up on many products. Progressives obviously were outraged by this decision, and Taft began to lose support from that group. This deviation from the progressivism of old caused a split in the Republican Party, which allowed Democrats to have the majority in the House of Representatives. Roosevelt came back to attempt to become the Republican candidate for the 1912 election. After failing at that attempt, he formed his own “Bull-Moose” Party and became a third-party candidate. It was this split in the Republican Party that allowed a Democrat to win the …show more content…
The regulation of trusts compelled owners to consider the public opinion in making their own decisions. Consumers became more protected in the economy and in health and safety aspects. Lowering of certain tariffs enabled greater revenues for America, which were used in other projects to improve the country. However, not all Progressives were the same. Some had more radical ideas than others as seen by the work of Theodore Roosevelt as opposed to William Howard Taft. Overall, the main goal toward progress was reached as America made its way into the 20th