Era Theodore Roosevelt, America\'s 26th

¶ … Era

Theodore Roosevelt, America's 26th President, and Woodrow Wilson, America's 28th, both pursued a progressive political platform within their respective parties. Roosevelt's Republicanism digressed considerably from the party's platform prior to his election to the presidency in 1901. In the election of 1912, Roosevelt ran again with an offshoot of the Republican Party to emphasize his progressive politics. The Bull-Moose Party failed to attract voter attention, however, and Roosevelt's Democratic opponent Woodrow Wilson won the electoral vote. Wilson's stance on progressive issues such as anti-trust legislation did not differ as significantly from mainline Democratic policies or from Roosevelt's progressivism. Both Roosevelt and Wilson did forge new ground in Washington and initiated significant reforms with regard to the regulation of big business, public works, and labor law. Wilson, however, became forced to turn his attention abroad due to the outbreak of World War One, and a large portion of the Wilsonian presidency remained consumed by international affairs. Even with domestic issues on the back-burner, however, Wilson ushered in landmark progressive reform legislation including the establishment of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. Wilson's approach to trust-busting depended less on large-scale litigation than Roosevelt's approach, although both men had been schooled as attorneys.

Theodore Roosevelt earned his nickname as the trust buster due to his aggressive, litigation-heavy attack on big business, corporate conglomerates, and holding companies. The 1901 Northern Securities Case broke apart a huge railroad conglomerate consisting of almost all the major railway systems in the country including the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern Railways. The Northern Securities Case involved a direct lawsuit against several of the most prominent "robber barons" including J.P. Morgan, James J. Hill, J.D. Rockefeller, and E.H. Harriman. Roosevelt earned himself several notable enemies through his heavy-handed trust-busting techniques and at the same time won himself considerable accolades as the 26th President. Roosevelt also become known for his cowboy-like mentality in his approach to international affairs and presided over the construction of the Panama Canal. His foreign policy became known as the "New Imperialism" due to Roosevelt's unabashed belief in American cultural superiority and his desire to spread American values abroad especially throughout territories that had been recently acquired through the Spanish-American War. Moreover, Roosevelt's progressive policies did not include true social equality: the president was famous for his racist sentiments.

Wilson's social policies were more egalitarian than Roosevelt's. While both presidents denounced the deplorable working conditions of big factories and rallied for labor union rights, Wilson championed women's suffrage and even while he was Governor of the State of New Jersey hoped to abolish the elitism he experienced first-hand while serving as President of Princeton University: both issues were emblematic of the general progressive movement.

During the turn of the century, maverick muckraking journalists dug up dirt on unfair labor practices including the use of child labor. Muckrakers also drew attention to unsanitary working conditions and the lack of systematic health regulations in meat and food production. President Roosevelt responded by initiating a series of labor-related legislation including the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. However, Roosevelt at the same time publicly denounced muckrakers and lent them their derogatory name. Roosevelt's passion for environmental conservation reflected his personal interests and beliefs more than it did the results of investigative journalism. Environmental conservation emerged as of the main issues that distinguished the progressivism of Roosevelt and that of Wilson.