At the turn of the 19th century a new political party rose and that whole era was named the Progressive Era. This party based its decision on what is right for the people and not big businesses in the economic world. Two major leaders and Presidents of the United States, of this time were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Though both men contributed so much while in office, which one had the greater impact? Even though their achievements are equal in most areas, Wilson took the cake with his actions to exempt unions from being prosecuted as trusts.
Roosevelt entered office because the current President, McKinley, got assassinated. His personal idea of what a president should do in office is that he should lead the executive department AND set the legislative agenda for Congress. The thing that people remember Roosevelt most by is his Square Deal. The deal favored neither business nor labor. He applied this rule to a coal strike where the coal miners went on strike in 1902. Since, winter was around the corner Roosevelt was worried for the public’s safety of heat so he called the mines owners and union leaders to the white house. At the meeting the owners would not give into the demands until the President threatened he would take the mines over with federal troops. The owners agreed to the conditions set by the union leader, but still did not recognize unions. Roosevelt’s next big act was his Trust – Busting. He was one of the first Presidents to really enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act. He applied the act to the Railroad monopoly called the Northern Securities Company. Even though federal courts said that the company was fine, they reversed their decisions because of Roosevelt’s actions. The courts broke the monopoly and a lot of other monopolies as well. Another huge enforcement from the President was the Railroad Regulation where he persuaded Republicans to pass two laws in Congress that strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).
The Essay on President Roosevelt’s Goals: Recovery, Relief and Reform
Following the Great Depression, President Roosevelt Franklin was elected in 1932. Upon his election to deliver the New Deal, an unprecedented number of reforms addressing the catastrophic effects of the Great Depression, Roosevelt felt it was the federal government’s duty to help the American people weather these bad times. His first duty as president was to declare a four-day bank Holiday, during ...
First law was the Elkins Act (1903) which gave more authority to stop railroads giving rebates to favored customers. The second law was the Hepburn Act (1906) which let the ICC fix “just and reasonable” rates for railroads. Roosevelt’s second to last big action was helping Consumer Protection. The Jungle, a muckraking book that told horrible stories of Chicago stockyards and meat packing. After reading that book Congress made two regulatory laws in 1906. The first was The Pure Food and Drug Act which forbade the manufacture, sale, and transportation of adulterated or mislead foods and drugs. The second law was The Meat Inspection Act that provided that federal inspectors visit meatpacking plants to ensure that they met minimum standards of sanitation. The last and most important impact Roosevelt left was his actions on conservation. Roosevelt loved the out doors and wanted to protect it.
What he did for nature was the most original and lasting domestic policy, but three actions stood out the most. The first, which he reused a lot, was the Forest Reserve Act (1891) which set aside 150 million acres of federal land as a national reserve that could not be sold to private interests. The second law was the New lands Reclamation Act (1902) which provided money from the sale of public land for irrigation projects in western states. Last thing he did was in 1908 when he held a conference at the White House on conservation. After the conference a National Conservation Commission was established under Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania. Roosevelt did his fair share of work in office and left a path for future Progressive Presidents to take his place.
The Essay on Woodrow Wilson VERSE Franklin Delano Roosevelt
During the first half of the twentieth century, two major global conflicts shattered the country’s notions of peace and stability, prompting the United States to send money, munitions, and troops overseas. For this essay, consider the ways in which Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt approached foreign war. First, what is the background of these two presidents? Who were they ( ...
Woodrow Wilson took the same stand as Roosevelt believing that a President should actively lead Congress and, when necessary, appeal directly to the people to rally their support for his legislative program. Wilson said in his inauguration speech that he wanted to bring back free and fare competition in economy and break the “triple wall of privilege.” The first wall was the Tariff Reduction which he took care his first day in office. Wilson called a special session in Congress to lower the tariff. This was odd because instead of sending a letter to Congress, he told Congress himself. He told them that if the tariff got lowered then so would consumer prices so Congress passed the Underwood Tariff (1913) which lowered tariffs for the first time in 50 years, but income tax rate rose from between 1 to 6 percent. The second wall was the Bank Reform where the problem was the banks did not serve the public interest but rather Wall Street. So Wilson proposed the Federal Reserve Act (1914) which proposed natural banking system with 12 district banks supervised by a Federal Reserve board. This took months for Congress to pass but it was finally done.
The final wall was Business Regulation which had two pieces of legislation completed the New Freedom Program. The first was the Clayton Antitrust Act which strengthened provisions in Sherman Antitrust act, exempting unions from being prosecuted as trusts. The second was the Federal Trade Commission that was a regulatory agency that could investigate and take action on any unfair trade practice in all industry except banking and transportation. Another reform of Wilson was the Federal Farm Load Act (1916) which was twelve regional federal farm loan banks were established to provide farm loans at low interest rates. Wilson’s last major reform was the Child Labor Act (1916) that was favored by settlement house workers and labor unions. It prohibited the shipment in interstate commerce of products manufactured by children under 14 years old. But the Supreme Court found this unconstitutional in the case of Hammer v Dagenhart.
When Woodrow Wilson gave more power to worker’s unions, he changed the way the job scene works today. It raised the standard for the lower class jobs. If the lower class was making more money then they could live better which tightened the gap between the lower and upper class. This also led workers away from strikes and other violent types of protest against their reformers because they could go through their union to discuss issues with the employers. The most important act Roosevelt had was his conservation acts, which are greatly appreciated but are no where near the same importance as making unions practically fully legal.
The Essay on Woodrow Wilson And The Presidency
... Wilson attempted to lower the tariff. Wilson shattered the precedent set by Jeffery-son to send a messenger to address Congress when Wilson himself formally addressed Congress. ... 'triple wall of privilege.' With the full support of the public, Wilson pressed ahead with further reforms. The Federal Farm Loan Act of ...
