The Effects of The Progressives on Teddy Roosavelt, Taft and Wilson

Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson can be said to have adapted their political beliefs to please the growing number of Progressives. President Taft seemed to be a man of progressive ideas, primarily because Theodore Roosevelt claimed he was when the picked him as his successor. However, many Progressives and President Roosevelt himself started to realize Taft was far more conservative then progressive. Therefore, the two most progressive presidents during this time would have to be Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Although these two presidents were both very progressive, one had become more progressive than the other. Roosevelt at first seemed to be a bit conservative but he drastically changed and became much more progressive than Wilson.

President Roosevelt at first was not even considered a Progressive by many people. However, President Roosevelt passed many notoriously progressive acts and over time became very progressive. Roosevelt supported NYC tenement laws, which improved living conditions in tenements by exacting increased ventilation and better plumbing. Roosevelt also approved of the maximum hours laws which limited the hours a worker can work. Furthermore, Roosevelt was effective in reducing the power of monopolies, by improving the power of the ICC to destroy the unfair rates of the railroads. Also, by creating the bureau of corporations and passing the Sherman Anti-trust act which tried to limit trusts. Such ways Roosevelt increased the strength of the ICC would be the passing of the Elkins Act, Hepburn Act, and the Mann-Elkins Act. Food regulation was another progressive ideal Roosevelt believed in, he pushed the Meat Inspetion Act in 1906 and then the Pure Food and Drug Act. Both of these acts tried to improve the standards of food, and drugs to help improve the health conditions. Additionally, even after Roosevelt’s presidency, Roosevelt could be considered highly progressive, especially when he created the “Bull Moose Party” or the Progressive Party. Wilson on the other hand was much less progressive because many of his reforms he did not enforce, and he did not believe in some of the biggest progressive beliefs. Wilson believed the government should set up a bunch of rules unlike Roosevelt’s belief which was to think of the government as a “watchdog”. This caused problems because these rules did not always mean that the Americans followed it, and without proper enforcement none of these laws truly had to be followed. For example, Wilson passed the Keating-Owen Child labor act which ineffectively tried to limit hours of children and stop children of a younger age from working. This did not work because many of the parents of these children wanted them to work, and the government did not put the proper funding to enforce this. Moreover, in the court case Hammer v. Dagenhart the Supreme Court ruled that the Keating-Owen Child labor act was unconstitutional, stating the federal government was abusing its power over Interstate Commerce. Furthermore, Wilson was against the idea of Woman’s suffrage, and the Congressional progressives.