William Howard Taft’s single term in office as President was one of indescribable complexity. As a moderate conservative, Taft favored enforcing laws regulating businesses, yet his strongest supporters came from the business sector. Taft promoted many reform causes, but the progressives in both parties vigorously opposed his re-election.

Taft’s business policy was guided by the idea that the enforcement of laws should protect competition. During his term, his attorney general initiated over twice the number of anti-trust cases than TR did during his two terms. Among the trusts which were challenged by Taft were Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and U.S. Steel. The case against U.S. Steel enraged Roosevelt, who had approved of the mergers which brought the trust to exist in the first place. Taft also re-organized the Interstate Commerce Commission and boosted its authority to crack down on illegal rate fixing in railroads.

Taft’s environmental policy enlarged upon previous executive activity. He felt that land should be set aside by legislation rather than by executive order, since a future president could rescind the order without a challenge. Taft wanted to create a body to oversee the lands owned by the government; his vision was enacted after he left office when the National Park Service was created in 1916. Taft continued Roosevelt’s programs of setting aside large tracts of land in the western states.

One of the troubles facing the Taft administration in t

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William Howard Taft’s single term in office as President was one of indescribable complexity. As a moderate conservative, Taft favored enforcing laws regulating businesses, yet his strongest supporters came from the business sector. Taft promoted many reform causes, but the progressives in both parties vigorously opposed his re-election.

Taft’s business policy was guided by the idea that the enforcement of laws should protect competition. During his term, his attorney general initiated over twice the number of anti-trust cases than TR did during his two terms. Among the trusts which were challenged by Taft were Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and U.S. Steel. The case against U.S. Steel enraged Roosevelt, who had approved of the mergers which brought the trust to exist in the first place. Taft also re-organized the Interstate Commerce Commission and boosted its authority to crack down on illegal rate fixing in railroads.

Taft’s environmental policy enlarged upon previous executive activity. He felt that land should be set aside by legislation rather than by executive order, since a future president could rescind the order without a challenge. Taft wanted to create a body to oversee the lands owned by the government; his vision was enacted after he left office when the National Park Service was created in 1916. Taft continued Roosevelt’s programs of setting aside large tracts of land in the western states.

One of the troubles facing the Taft administration in the first two years was the unrest in the U.S. House between the Speaker, Joseph G. Cannon IL, and the progressives. The progressives wanted to remove Cannon so they could re-organize House committees and create a more open legislative process. They asked Taft to support them in unseating Cannon. However, President Taft saw their request as a step in a breakdown of the division of powers; he wanted the Congress to handle its organization without executive interference. The progressives felt betrayed by Taft, but Cannon did as well. As a result of the struggle in the House, Taft had less respect for both factions.

An unexpected turn of events in the midterm elections helped President Taft to pass several items of legislation which his first Congress failed to enact. In 1910, the Democrats gained 10 Senate seats and 46 House seats; the Republicans controlled the senate by a 49–42 margin, and the Democrats controlled the House by a 228–162 margin. Progressives in the Senate held the balance of power between the two parties. Taft’s second Congress was more enthusiastic for his proposed iniatiatives. Seven major pieces of legislation which were passed in which Congress: 1) banned the production of the dangerous phosphorus matches; 2) created a Children’s Bureau; 3) passed an Employer’s Liability Act; 4) limited government labor to eight hours per day; 5) passed mining and railroad safety acts; 6) passed a constitutional amendment to provide for a federal income tax; and 7) passed a constitutional amendment providing for the direct election of U.S. Senators.

While these reform measures were generally supported by the progressives in each party, the Progressives in the Republican Party lashed out against Taft endlessly. They formed a National Progressive Republican League in 1911 under the leadership of Robert M. LaFollette WI. Taft regarded the progressives as implacable grumblers; some evidence for his assessment is found in the fact that even TR chose not to join the Progressive League.

When the election of 1912 drew near, the two parties faced the first election in which a significant number of delegates to the national conventions were to be chosen in primaries. Roosevelt and LaFollette challenged Taft for the GOP nomination; LaFollette won the first two primaries but then faded. The chief Democratic contenders were Gov. Woodrow Wilson NJ, Rep. Champ Clark MO, Gov. Judson Harmon OH, and Rep. Oscar Underwood AL. Many of the primaries were close competitions. In the Ohio primary, all three GOP candidates fought for delegates. The Democrats elected delegates, and Wilson and Harmon also faced each other in a straw poll. All three of the Republicans canvassed Ohio before the primary, drawing large crowds. Roosevelt visited 87 of the 88 counties. On primary day, the voters handed Taft a significant defeat in his home state. Gov. Harmon narrowly won the state in the straw poll but won the vast majority of the contested delegates. In the primaries, the candidates won the following number of delegates: Wilson 178, Clark 155, Harmon 44; Roosevelt 236, LaFollette 41, Taft 34.

The Republican Convention was the most tumultuous in party history. While Roosevelt won a majority of the primary vote and two thirds of the delegates elected in primaries, Taft still had a majority of the delegates. The progressives challenged 72 of the Taft delegates, but the convention granted almost all of the contests to Taft. It was clear that Taft would be nominated, and Roosevelt asked his delegates to abstain from voting. On the first ballot, Taft won by a vote of 556–107 with 348 TR delegates voting “present.”

Three days after the Republican delegates went home, the Democratic convention met in Baltimore. The convention was deeply divided between the more conservative delegates pledged to Underwood, Clark and Harmon, and the more progressive delegates pledged to Wilson. In the voting for a temporary chair, the conservatives chose Alton B. Parker over William J. Bryan by a vote of 579 to 508. The Wilson delegates won their first major victory when the Ohio delegation’s unit rule was overturned by a vote of 565.5 to 491.3. Prior to 1912, the Ohio delegation gave the vote of the whole state to the candidate who received the most delegate votes. That meant that the 10 delegates who were elected at the congressional district level to support Wilson would not be forced to vote for Harmon. However, Gov. Harmon had little impact on the convention voting. His vote peaked on the first ballot at 148; Clark led with 440.5 to Wilson’s 324. New York’s delegates abandoned Harmon on the 10th ballot, and from that point practically all of Harmon’s votes came from Ohio. Clark peaked on the 10th ballot with the 90 delegate votes from New York which had formerly supported Harmon; but his support gradually eroded. Wilson was nominated on the 46th ballot.

Supporters of Roosevelt called a Progressive Party convention which met in Chicago. About 2,000 delegates came to the convention. Roosevelt demanded that no black delegates from the South be seated as delegates, as he felt that they represented areas which were known for corruption. This stand by TR was disappointing to many northern delegates.

As the campaign unfolded, it became clear that the Republicans had little hopes for victory. Taft had little interest in the campaign, and was saddened that his excellent record as President was being ridiculed by Democrats and Progressives alike – the very people whose votes in Congress were responsible for his most important legislative achievements. Roosevelt promoted his New Nationalism program. His campaign was followed closely by the media because he had a quick mind for new phrases and colorful remarks about issues. The two candidates each had a strong record, but it was becoming clear that the divided Republican Party was paving the way for a Democratic victory.

Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic nominee, promoted a platform which he named the New Freedom program. He primarily emphasized four issues: 1) tariff reduction; 2) trust regulation; 3) stronger labor laws; and 4) government ownership of needed monopolies (like public water). Wilson realized that Roosevelt would place second in the popular vote, and he called for the voters to give the Democrats clear control of Congress.

In the election, Wilson was elected President by a runaway margin over the divided Republicans. He carried all but eight states, and the voters gave the Democrats control of both houses of Congress (51–44 in the Senate and 290–127 in the House). It was the largest Democratic victory since 1852.

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