The Evolution Of Republican Policies 1901-13
The Personality and Early Career of Roosevelt
On September 14, 1901,
when Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office, the presidency passed
to a new generation and a leader of a new type recalling, if comparisons
must be made, Andrew Jackson rather than any Republican predecessor.
Roosevelt was brusque, hearty, restless, and fond of action--"a young
fellow of infinite dash and originality," as John Hay re
arked of him;
combining the spirit of his old college, Harvard, with the breezy
freedom of the plains; interested in everything--a new species of game,
a new book, a diplomatic riddle, or a novel theory of history or
biology. Though only forty-three years old he was well versed in the art
of practical politics. Coming upon the political scene in the early
eighties, he had associated himself with the reformers in the Republican
party; but he was no Mugwump. From the first he vehemently preached the
doctrine of party loyalty; if beaten in the convention, he voted the
straight ticket in the election. For twenty years he adhered to this
rule and during a considerable portion of that period he held office as
a spokesman of his party. He served in the New York legislature, as head
of the metropolitan police force, as federal civil service commissioner
under President Harrison, as assistant secretary of the navy under
President McKinley, and as governor of the Empire state. Political
managers of the old school spoke of him as "brilliant but erratic"; they
soon found him equal to the shrewdest in negotiation and action.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Panama Canal
The most important foreign question confronting
President Roosevelt on the day of his inauguration, that of the Panama
Canal, was a heritage from his predecessor. The idea of a water route
across the isthmus, long a dream of navigators, had become a living
issue after the historic voyage of the battleship Oregon around South
America during the Spanish War. But before the United States could act
it had to undo the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, made with Great Britain in
1850, providing for the construction of the canal under joint
supervision. This was finally effected by the Hay-Pauncefote treaty of
1901 authorizing the United States to proceed alone, on condition that
there should be no discriminations against other nations in the matter
of rates and charges.
This accomplished, it was necessary to decide just where the canal
should be built. One group in Congress favored the route through
Nicaragua; in fact, two official commissions had already approved that
location. Another group favored cutting the way through Panama after
purchasing the rights of the old French company which, under the
direction of De Lesseps, the hero of the Suez Canal, had made a costly
failure some twenty years before. After a heated argument over the
merits of the two plans, preference was given to the Panama route. As
the isthmus was then a part of Colombia, President Roosevelt proceeded
to negotiate with the government at Bogota a treaty authorizing the
United States to cut a canal through its territory. The treaty was
easily framed, but it was rejected by the Colombian senate, much to the
President's exasperation. "You could no more make an agreement with the
Colombian rulers," he exclaimed, "than you could nail jelly to a wall."
He was spared the necessity by a timely revolution. On November 3, 1903,
Panama renounced its allegiance to Colombia and three days later the
United States recognized its independence.
This amazing incident was followed shortly by the signature of a treaty
between Panama and the United States in which the latter secured the
right to construct the long-discussed canal, in return for a guarantee
of independence and certain cash payments. The rights and property of
the French concern were then bought, and the final details settled. A
lock rather than a sea-level canal was agreed upon. Construction by the
government directly instead of by private contractors was adopted.
Scientific medicine was summoned to stamp out the tropical diseases
that had made Panama a plague spot. Finally, in 1904, as the President
said, "the dirt began to fly." After surmounting formidable
difficulties--engineering, labor, and sanitary--the American forces in
1913 joined the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific. Nearly eight
thousand miles were cut off the sea voyage from New York to San
Francisco. If any were inclined to criticize President Roosevelt for
the way in which he snapped off negotiations with Colombia and
recognized the Panama revolutionists, their attention was drawn to the
magnificent outcome of the affair. Notwithstanding the treaty with Great
Britain, Congress passed a tolls bill discriminating in rates in favor
of American ships. It was only on the urgent insistence of President
Wilson that the measure was later repealed.
The Conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War
The applause which greeted
the President's next diplomatic stroke was unmarred by censure of any
kind. In the winter of 1904 there broke out between Japan and Russia a
terrible conflict over the division of spoils in Manchuria. The fortunes
of war were with the agile forces of Nippon. In this struggle, it seems,
President Roosevelt's sympathies were mainly with the Japanese, although
he observed the proprieties of neutrality. At all events, Secretary Hay
wrote in his diary on New Year's Day, 1905, that the President was
"quite firm in his view that we cannot permit Japan to be robbed a
second time of her victory," referring to the fact that Japan, ten years
before, after defeating China on the field of battle, had been forced by
Russia, Germany, and France to forego the fruits of conquest.
Whatever the President's personal feelings may have been, he was aware
that Japan, despite her triumphs over Russia, was staggering under a
heavy burden of debt. At a suggestion from Tokyo, he invited both
belligerents in the summer of 1905 to join in a peace conference. The
celerity of their reply was aided by the pressure of European bankers,
who had already come to a substantial agreement that the war must stop.
After some delay, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was chosen as the meeting
place for the spokesmen of the two warring powers. Roosevelt presided
over the opening ceremonies with fine urbanity, thoroughly enjoying the
justly earned honor of being for the moment at the center of the world's
interest. He had the satisfaction of seeing the conference end in a
treaty of peace and amity.
The Monroe Doctrine Applied to Germany
Less spectacular than the
Russo-Japanese settlement but not less important was a diplomatic
passage-at-arms with Germany over the Monroe Doctrine. This clash grew
out of the inability or unwillingness of the Venezuelan government to
pay debts due foreign creditors. Having exhausted their patience in
negotiations, England and Germany, in December 1901, sent battleships to
establish what they characterized as "a peaceful blockade" of Venezuelan
ports. Their action was followed by the rupture of diplomatic relations;
there was a possibility that war and the occupation of Venezuelan
territory might result.
While unwilling to stand between a Latin-American country and its
creditors, President Roosevelt was determined that debt collecting
should not be made an excuse for European countries to seize territory.
He therefore urged arbitration of the dispute, winning the assent of
England and Italy. Germany, with a somewhat haughty air, refused to take
the milder course. The President, learning of this refusal, called the
German ambassador to the White House and informed him in very precise
terms that, unless the Imperial German Government consented to
arbitrate, Admiral Dewey would be ordered to the scene with instructions
to prevent Germany from seizing any Venezuelan territory. A week passed
and no answer came from Berlin. Not baffled, the President again took
the matter up with the ambassador, this time with even more firmness; he
stated in language admitting of but one meaning that, unless within
forty-eight hours the Emperor consented to arbitration, American
battleships, already coaled and cleared, would sail for Venezuelan
waters. The hint was sufficient. The Kaiser accepted the proposal and
the President, with the fine irony of diplomacy, complimented him
publicly on "being so stanch an advocate of arbitration." In terms of
the Monroe Doctrine this action meant that the United States, while not
denying the obligations of debtors, would not permit any move on the
part of European powers that might easily lead to the temporary or
permanent occupation of Latin-American territory.
The Santo Domingo Affair
The same issue was involved in a
controversy over Santo Domingo which arose in 1904. The Dominican
republic, like Venezuela, was heavily in debt, and certain European
countries declared that, unless the United States undertook to look
after the finances of the embarrassed debtor, they would resort to armed
coercion. What was the United States to do? The danger of having some
European power strongly intrenched in Santo Domingo was too imminent to
be denied. President Roosevelt acted with characteristic speed, and
notwithstanding strong opposition in the Senate was able, in 1907, to
effect a treaty arrangement which placed Dominican finances under
American supervision.
In the course of the debate over this settlement, a number of
interesting questions arose. It was pertinently asked whether the
American navy should be used to help creditors collect their debts
anywhere in Latin-America. It was suggested also that no sanction should
be given to the practice among European governments of using armed force
to collect private claims. Opponents of President Roosevelt's policy,
and they were neither few nor insignificant, urged that such matters
should be referred to the Hague Court or to special international
commissions for arbitration. To this the answer was made that the United
States could not surrender any question coming under the terms of the
Monroe Doctrine to the decision of an international tribunal. The
position of the administration was very clearly stated by President
Roosevelt himself. "The country," he said, "would certainly decline to
go to war to prevent a foreign government from collecting a just debt;
on the other hand, it is very inadvisable to permit any foreign power to
take possession, even temporarily, of the customs houses of an American
republic in order to enforce the payment of its obligations; for such a
temporary occupation might turn into a permanent occupation. The only
escape from these alternatives may at any time be that we must
ourselves undertake to bring about some arrangement by which so much as
possible of a just obligation shall be paid." The Monroe Doctrine was
negative. It denied to European powers a certain liberty of operation in
this hemisphere. The positive obligations resulting from its application
by the United States were points now emphasized and developed.
The Hague Conference
The controversies over Latin-American relations
and his part in bringing the Russo-Japanese War to a close naturally
made a deep impression upon Roosevelt, turning his mind in the direction
of the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The subject was
moreover in the air. As if conscious of impending calamity, the
statesmen of the Old World, to all outward signs at least, seemed
searching for a way to reduce armaments and avoid the bloody and costly
trial of international causes by the ancient process of battle. It was
the Czar, Nicholas II, fated to die in one of the terrible holocausts
which he helped to bring upon mankind, who summoned the delegates of the
nations in the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899. The conference did
nothing to reduce military burdens or avoid wars but it did recognize
the right of friendly nations to offer the services of mediation to
countries at war and did establish a Court at the Hague for the
arbitration of international disputes.
Encouraged by this experiment, feeble as it was, President Roosevelt in
1904 proposed a second conference, yielding to the Czar the honor of
issuing the call. At this great international assembly, held at the
Hague in 1907, the representatives of the United States proposed a plan
for the compulsory arbitration of certain matters of international
dispute. This was rejected with contempt by Germany. Reduction of
armaments, likewise proposed in the conference, was again deferred. In
fact, nothing was accomplished beyond agreement upon certain rules for
the conduct of "civilized warfare," casting a somewhat lurid light upon
the "pacific" intentions of most of the powers assembled.
The World Tour of the Fleet
As if to assure the world then that the
United States placed little reliance upon the frail reed of peace
conferences, Roosevelt the following year (1908) made an imposing
display of American naval power by sending a fleet of sixteen
battleships on a tour around the globe. On his own authority, he ordered
the ships to sail out of Hampton Roads and circle the earth by way of
the Straits of Magellan, San Francisco, Australia, the Philippines,
China, Japan, and the Suez Canal. This enterprise was not, as some
critics claimed, a "mere boyish flourish." President Roosevelt knew how
deep was the influence of sea power on the fate of nations. He was aware
that no country could have a wide empire of trade and dominion without
force adequate to sustain it. The voyage around the world therefore
served a double purpose. It interested his own country in the naval
program of the government, and it reminded other powers that the
American giant, though quiet, was not sleeping in the midst of
international rivalries.
COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION
A Constitutional Question Settled
In colonial administration, as in
foreign policy, President Roosevelt advanced with firm step in a path
already marked out. President McKinley had defined the principles that
were to control the development of Porto Rico and the Philippines. The
Republican party had announced a program of pacification, gradual
self-government, and commercial improvement. The only remaining question
of importance, to use the popular phrase,--"Does the Constitution follow
the flag?"--had been answered by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Although it was well known that the Constitution did not contemplate the
government of dependencies, such as the Philippines and Porto Rico, the
Court, by generous and ingenious interpretations, found a way for
Congress to apply any reasonable rules required by the occasion.
Porto Rico
The government of Porto Rico was a relatively simple
matter. It was a single island with a fairly homogeneous population
apart from the Spanish upper class. For a time after military occupation
in 1898, it was administered under military rule. This was succeeded by
the establishment of civil government under the "organic act" passed by
Congress in 1900. The law assured to the Porto Ricans American
protection but withheld American citizenship--a boon finally granted in
1917. It provided for a governor and six executive secretaries appointed
by the President with the approval of the Senate; and for a legislature
of two houses--one elected by popular native vote, and an upper chamber
composed of the executive secretaries and five other persons appointed
in the same manner. Thus the United States turned back to the provincial
system maintained by England in Virginia or New York in old colonial
days. The natives were given a voice in their government and the power
of initiating laws; but the final word both in law-making and
administration was vested in officers appointed in Washington. Such was
the plan under which the affairs of Porto Rico were conducted by
President Roosevelt. It lasted until the new organic act of 1917.
The Philippines
The administration of the Philippines presented far
more difficult questions. The number of islands, the variety of
languages and races, the differences in civilization all combined to
challenge the skill of the government. Moreover, there was raging in
1901 a stubborn revolt against American authority, which had to be
faced. Following the lines laid down by President McKinley, the
evolution of American policy fell into three stages. At first the
islands were governed directly by the President under his supreme
military power. In 1901 a civilian commission, headed by William Howard
Taft, was selected by the President and charged with the government of
the provinces in which order had been restored. Six years later, under
the terms of an organic act, passed by Congress in 1902, the third stage
was reached. The local government passed into the hands of a governor
and commission, appointed by the President and Senate, and a
legislature--one house elected by popular vote and an upper chamber
composed of the commission. This scheme, like that obtaining in Porto
Rico, remained intact until a Democratic Congress under President
Wilson's leadership carried the colonial administration into its fourth
phase by making both houses elective. Thus, by the steady pursuit of a
liberal policy, self-government was extended to the dependencies; but it
encouraged rather than extinguished the vigorous movement among the
Philippine natives for independence.
Cuban Relations
Within the sphere of colonial affairs, Cuba, though
nominally independent, also presented problems to the government at
Washington. In the fine enthusiasm that accompanied the declaration of
war on Spain, Congress, unmindful of practical considerations,
recognized the independence of Cuba and disclaimed "any disposition or
intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said
island except for the pacification thereof." In the settlement that
followed the war, however, it was deemed undesirable to set the young
republic adrift upon the stormy sea of international politics without a
guiding hand. Before withdrawing American troops from the island,
Congress, in March, 1901, enacted, and required Cuba to approve, a
series of restrictions known as the Platt amendment, limiting her power
to incur indebtedness, securing the right of the United States to
intervene whenever necessary to protect life and property, and reserving
to the United States coaling stations at certain points to be agreed
upon. The Cubans made strong protests against what they deemed
"infringements of their sovereignty"; but finally with good grace
accepted their fate. Even when in 1906 President Roosevelt landed
American troops in the island to quell a domestic dissension, they
acquiesced in the action, evidently regarding it as a distinct warning
that they should learn to manage their elections in an orderly manner.
THE ROOSEVELT DOMESTIC POLICIES
Social Questions to the Front
From the day of his inauguration to
the close of his service in 1909, President Roosevelt, in messages,
speeches, and interviews, kept up a lively and interesting discussion of
trusts, capital, labor, poverty, riches, lawbreaking, good citizenship,
and kindred themes. Many a subject previously touched upon only by
representatives of the minor and dissenting parties, he dignified by a
careful examination. That he did this with any fixed design or policy in
mind does not seem to be the case. He admitted himself that when he
became President he did not have in hand any settled or far-reaching
plan of social betterment. He did have, however, serious convictions on
general principles. "I was bent upon making the government," he wrote,
"the most efficient possible instrument in helping the people of the
United States to better themselves in every way, politically, socially,
and industrially. I believed with all my heart in real and
thorough-going democracy and I wished to make the democracy industrial
as well as political, although I had only partially formulated the
method I believed we should follow." It is thus evident at least that he
had departed a long way from the old idea of the government as nothing
but a great policeman keeping order among the people in a struggle over
the distribution of the nation's wealth and resources.
Roosevelt's View of the Constitution
Equally significant was
Roosevelt's attitude toward the Constitution and the office of
President. He utterly repudiated the narrow construction of our national
charter. He held that the Constitution "should be treated as the
greatest document ever devised by the wit of man to aid a people in
exercising every power necessary for its own betterment, not as a
strait-jacket cunningly fashioned to strangle growth." He viewed the
presidency as he did the Constitution. Strict constructionists of the
Jeffersonian school, of whom there were many on occasion even in the
Republican party, had taken a view that the President could do nothing
that he was not specifically authorized by the Constitution to do.
Roosevelt took exactly the opposite position. It was his opinion that it
was not only the President's right but his duty "to do anything that the
needs of the nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the
Constitution or the laws." He went on to say that he acted "for the
common well-being of all our people whenever and in whatever manner was
necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative
prohibition."
The Trusts and Railways
To the trust question, Roosevelt devoted
especial attention. This was unavoidable. By far the larger part of the
business of the country was done by corporations as distinguished from
partnerships and individual owners. The growth of these gigantic
aggregations of capital had been the leading feature in American
industrial development during the last two decades of the nineteenth
century. In the conquest of business by trusts and "the resulting
private fortunes of great magnitude," the Populists and the Democrats
had seen a grievous danger to the republic. "Plutocracy has taken the
place of democracy; the tariff breeds trusts; let us destroy therefore
the tariff and the trusts"--such was the battle cry which had been taken
up by Bryan and his followers.
President Roosevelt countered vigorously. He rejected the idea that the
trusts were the product of the tariff or of governmental action of any
kind. He insisted that they were the outcome of "natural economic
forces": (1) destructive competition among business men compelling them
to avoid ruin by cooeperation in fixing prices; (2) the growth of markets
on a national scale and even international scale calling for vast
accumulations of capital to carry on such business; (3) the possibility
of immense savings by the union of many plants under one management. In
the corporation he saw a new stage in the development of American
industry. Unregulated competition he regarded as "the source of evils
which all men concede must be remedied if this civilization of ours is
to survive." The notion, therefore, that these immense business concerns
should be or could be broken up by a decree of law, Roosevelt considered
absurd.
At the same time he proposed that "evil trusts" should be prevented from
"wrong-doing of any kind"; that is, punished for plain swindling, for
making agreements to limit output, for refusing to sell to customers who
dealt with rival firms, and for conspiracies with railways to ruin
competitors by charging high freight rates and for similar abuses.
Accordingly, he proposed, not the destruction of the trusts, but their
regulation by the government. This, he contended, would preserve the
advantages of business on a national scale while preventing the evils
that accompanied it. The railway company he declared to be a public
servant. "Its rates should be just to and open to all shippers alike."
So he answered those who thought that trusts and railway combinations
were private concerns to be managed solely by their owners without let
or hindrance and also those who thought trusts and railway combinations
could be abolished by tariff reduction or criminal prosecution.
The Labor Question
On the labor question, then pressing to the front
in public interest, President Roosevelt took advanced ground for his
time. He declared that the working-man, single-handed and empty-handed,
threatened with starvation if unemployed, was no match for the employer
who was able to bargain and wait. This led him, accordingly, to accept
the principle of the trade union; namely, that only by collective
bargaining can labor be put on a footing to measure its strength equally
with capital. While he severely arraigned labor leaders who advocated
violence and destructive doctrines, he held that "the organization of
labor into trade unions and federations is necessary, is beneficent, and
is one of the greatest possible agencies in the attainment of a true
industrial, as well as a true political, democracy in the United
States." The last resort of trade unions in labor disputes, the strike,
he approved in case negotiations failed to secure "a fair deal."
He thought, however, that labor organizations, even if wisely managed,
could not solve all the pressing social questions of the time. The aid
of the government at many points he believed to be necessary to
eliminate undeserved poverty, industrial diseases, unemployment, and the
unfortunate consequences of industrial accidents. In his first message
of 1901, for instance, he urged that workers injured in industry should
have certain and ample compensation. From time to time he advocated
other legislation to obtain what he called "a larger measure of social
and industrial justice."
Great Riches and Taxation
Even the challenge of the radicals, such
as the Populists, who alleged that "the toil of millions is boldly
stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few"--challenges which his
predecessors did not consider worthy of notice--President Roosevelt
refused to let pass without an answer. In his first message he denied
the truth of the common saying that the rich were growing richer and the
poor were growing poorer. He asserted that, on the contrary, the average
man, wage worker, farmer, and small business man, was better off than
ever before in the history of our country. That there had been abuses in
the accumulation of wealth he did not pretend to ignore, but he believed
that even immense fortunes, on the whole, represented positive benefits
conferred upon the country. Nevertheless he felt that grave dangers to
the safety and the happiness of the people lurked in great inequalities
of wealth. In 1906 he wrote that he wished it were in his power to
prevent the heaping up of enormous fortunes. The next year, to the
astonishment of many leaders in his own party, he boldly announced in a
message to Congress that he approved both income and inheritance taxes,
then generally viewed as Populist or Democratic measures. He even took
the stand that such taxes should be laid in order to bring about a more
equitable distribution of wealth and greater equality of opportunity
among citizens.
LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE ACTIVITIES
Economic Legislation
When President Roosevelt turned from the field
of opinion he found himself in a different sphere. Many of his views
were too advanced for the members of his party in Congress, and where
results depended upon the making of new laws, his progress was slow.
Nevertheless, in his administrations several measures were enacted that
bore the stamp of his theories, though it could hardly be said that he
dominated Congress to the same degree as did some other Presidents. The
Hepburn Railway Act of 1906 enlarged the interstate commerce commission;
it extended the commission's power over oil pipe lines, express
companies, and other interstate carriers; it gave the commission the
right to reduce rates found to be unreasonable and discriminatory; it
forbade "midnight tariffs," that is, sudden changes in rates favoring
certain shippers; and it prohibited common carriers from transporting
goods owned by themselves, especially coal, except for their own proper
use. Two important pure food and drug laws, enacted during the same
year, were designed to protect the public against diseased meats and
deleterious foods and drugs. A significant piece of labor legislation
was an act of the same Congress making interstate railways liable to
damages for injuries sustained by their employees. When this measure was
declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court it was reenacted with the
objectionable clauses removed. A second installment of labor legislation
was offered in the law of 1908 limiting the hours of railway employees
engaged as trainmen or telegraph operators.
Reclamation and Conservation
The open country--the deserts, the
forests, waterways, and the public lands--interested President Roosevelt
no less than railway and industrial questions. Indeed, in his first
message to Congress he placed the conservation of natural resources
among "the most vital internal problems" of the age, and forcibly
emphasized an issue that had been discussed in a casual way since
Cleveland's first administration. The suggestion evoked an immediate
response in Congress. Under the leadership of Senator Newlands, of
Nevada, the Reclamation Act of 1902 was passed, providing for the
redemption of the desert areas of the West. The proceeds from the sale
of public lands were dedicated to the construction of storage dams and
sluiceways to hold water and divert it as needed to the thirsty sands.
Furthermore it was stipulated that the rents paid by water users should
go into a reclamation fund to continue the good work forever.
Construction was started immediately under the terms of the law. Within
seventeen years about 1,600,000 acres had been reclaimed and more than a
million were actually irrigated. In the single year 1918, the crops of
the irrigated districts were valued at approximately $100,000,000.
In his first message, also, President Roosevelt urged the transfer of
all control over national forests to trained men in the Bureau of
Forestry--a recommendation carried out in 1907 when the Forestry Service
was created. In every direction noteworthy advances were made in the
administration of the national domain. The science of forestry was
improved and knowledge of the subject spread among the people. Lands in
the national forest available for agriculture were opened to settlers.
Water power sites on the public domain were leased for a term of years
to private companies instead of being sold outright. The area of the
national forests was enlarged from 43 million acres to 194 million acres
by presidential proclamation--more than 43 million acres being added in
one year, 1907. The men who turned sheep and cattle to graze on the
public lands were compelled to pay a fair rental, much to their
dissatisfaction. Fire prevention work was undertaken in the forests on a
large scale, reducing the appalling, annual destruction of timber.
Millions of acres of coal land, such as the government had been
carelessly selling to mining companies at low figures, were withdrawn
from sale and held until Congress was prepared to enact laws for the
disposition of them in the public interest. Prosecutions were
instituted against men who had obtained public lands by fraud and vast
tracts were recovered for the national domain. An agitation was begun
which bore fruit under the administrations of Taft and Wilson in laws
reserving to the federal government the ownership of coal, water power,
phosphates, and other natural resources while authorizing corporations
to develop them under leases for a period of years.
The Prosecution of the Trusts
As an executive, President Roosevelt
was also a distinct "personality." His discrimination between "good" and
"bad" trusts led him to prosecute some of them with vigor. On his
initiative, the Northern Securities Company, formed to obtain control of
certain great western railways, was dissolved by order of the Supreme
Court. Proceedings were instituted against the American Tobacco Company
and the Standard Oil Company as monopolies in violation of the Sherman
Anti-Trust law. The Sugar Trust was found guilty of cheating the New
York customs house and some of the minor officers were sent to prison.
Frauds in the Post-office Department were uncovered and the offenders
brought to book. In fact hardly a week passed without stirring news of
"wrong doers" and "malefactors" haled into federal courts.
The Great Coal Strike
The Roosevelt theory that the President could
do anything for public welfare not forbidden by the Constitution and the
laws was put to a severe test in 1902. A strike of the anthracite coal
miners, which started in the summer, ran late into the autumn.
Industries were paralyzed for the want of coal; cities were threatened
with the appalling menace of a winter without heat. Governors and mayors
were powerless and appealed for aid. The mine owners rejected the
demands of the men and refused to permit the arbitration of the points
in dispute, although John Mitchell, the leader of the miners, repeatedly
urged it. After observing closely the course affairs, President
Roosevelt made up his mind that the situation was intolerable. He
arranged to have the federal troops, if necessary, take possession of
the mines and operate them until the strike could be settled. He then
invited the contestants to the White House and by dint of hard labor
induced them to accept, as a substitute or compromise, arbitration by a
commission which he appointed. Thus, by stepping outside the
Constitution and acting as the first citizen of the land, President
Roosevelt averted a crisis of great magnitude.
The Election of 1904
The views and measures which he advocated with
such vigor aroused deep hostility within as well as without his party.
There were rumors of a Republican movement to defeat his nomination in
1904 and it was said that the "financial and corporation interests" were
in arms against him. A prominent Republican paper in New York City
accused him of having "stolen Mr. Bryan's thunder," by harrying the
trusts and favoring labor unions. When the Republican convention
assembled in Chicago, however, the opposition disappeared and Roosevelt
was nominated by acclamation.
This was the signal for a change on the part of Democratic leaders. They
denounced the President as erratic, dangerous, and radical and decided
to assume the moderate role themselves. They put aside Mr. Bryan and
selected as their candidate, Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, a man
who repudiated free silver and made a direct appeal for the conservative
vote. The outcome of the reversal was astounding. Judge Parker's vote
fell more than a million below that cast for Bryan in 1900; of the 476
electoral votes he received only 140. Roosevelt, in addition to sweeping
the Republican sections, even invaded Democratic territory, carrying the
state of Missouri. Thus vindicated at the polls, he became more
outspoken than ever. His leadership in the party was so widely
recognized that he virtually selected his own successor.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT
The Campaign of 1908
Long before the end of his elective term,
President Roosevelt let it be known that he favored as his successor,
William Howard Taft, of Ohio, his Secretary of War. To attain this end
he used every shred of his powerful influence. When the Republican
convention assembled, Mr. Taft easily won the nomination. Though the
party platform was conservative in tone, he gave it a progressive tinge
by expressing his personal belief in the popular election of United
States Senators, an income tax, and other liberal measures. President
Roosevelt announced his faith in the Republican candidate and appealed
to the country for his election.
The turn in Republican affairs now convinced Mr. Bryan that the signs
were propitious for a third attempt to win the presidency. The disaster
to Judge Parker had taught the party that victory did not lie in a
conservative policy. With little difficulty, therefore, the veteran
leader from Nebraska once more rallied the Democrats around his
standard, won the nomination, and wrote a platform vigorously attacking
the tariff, trusts, and monopolies. Supported by a loyal following, he
entered the lists, only to meet another defeat. Though he polled almost
a million and a half more votes than did Judge Parker in 1904, the palm
went to Mr. Taft.
The Tariff Revision and Party Dissensions
At the very beginning of
his term, President Taft had to face the tariff issue. He had met it in
the campaign. Moved by the Democratic demand for a drastic reduction, he
had expressed opinions which were thought to imply a "downward
revision." The Democrats made much of the implication and the
Republicans from the Middle West rejoiced in it. Pressure was coming
from all sides. More than ten years had elapsed since the enactment of
the Dingley bill and the position of many industries had been altered
with the course of time. Evidently the day for revision--at best a
thankless task--had arrived. Taft accepted the inevitable and called
Congress in a special session. Until the midsummer of 1909, Republican
Senators and Representatives wrangled over tariff schedules, the
President making little effort to influence their decisions. When on
August 5 the Payne-Aldrich bill became a law, a breach had been made in
Republican ranks. Powerful Senators from the Middle West had spoken
angrily against many of the high rates imposed by the bill. They had
even broken with their party colleagues to vote against the entire
scheme of tariff revision.
The Income Tax Amendment
The rift in party harmony was widened by
another serious difference of opinion. During the debate on the tariff
bill, there was a concerted movement to include in it an income tax
provision--this in spite of the decision of the Supreme Court in 1895
declaring it unconstitutional. Conservative men were alarmed by the
evident willingness of some members to flout a solemn decree of that
eminent tribunal. At the same time they saw a powerful combination of
Republicans and Democrats determined upon shifting some of the burden of
taxation to large incomes. In the press of circumstances, a compromise
was reached. The income tax bill was dropped for the present; but
Congress passed the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, authorizing
taxes upon incomes from whatever source they might be derived, without
reference to any apportionment among the states on the basis of
population. The states ratified the amendment and early in 1913 it was
proclaimed.
President Taft's Policies
After the enactment of the tariff bill,
Taft continued to push forward with his legislative program. He
recommended, and Congress created, a special court of commerce with
jurisdiction, among other things, over appeals from the interstate
commerce commission, thus facilitating judicial review of the railway
rates fixed and the orders issued by that body. This measure was quickly
followed by an act establishing a system of postal savings banks in
connection with the post office--a scheme which had long been opposed by
private banks. Two years later, Congress defied the lobby of the express
companies and supplemented the savings banks with a parcels post system,
thus enabling the American postal service to catch up with that of other
progressive nations. With a view to improving the business
administration of the federal government, the President obtained from
Congress a large appropriation for an economy and efficiency commission
charged with the duty of inquiring into wasteful and obsolete methods
and recommending improved devices and practices. The chief result of
this investigation was a vigorous report in favor of a national budget
system, which soon found public backing.
President Taft negotiated with England and France general treaties
providing for the arbitration of disputes which were "justiciable" in
character even though they might involve questions of "vital interest
and national honor." They were coldly received in the Senate and so
amended that Taft abandoned them altogether. A tariff reciprocity
agreement with Canada, however, he forced through Congress in the face
of strong opposition from his own party. After making a serious breach
in Republican ranks, he was chagrined to see the whole scheme come to
naught by the overthrow of the Liberals in the Canadian elections of
1911.
Prosecution of the Trusts
The party schism was even enlarged by what
appeared to be the successful prosecution of several great combinations.
In two important cases, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the
Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company on the ground that
they violated the Sherman Anti-Trust law. In taking this step Chief
Justice White was at some pains to state that the law did not apply to
combinations which did not "unduly" restrain trade. His remark,
construed to mean that the Court would not interfere with corporations
as such, became the subject of a popular outcry against the President
and the judges.
PROGRESSIVE INSURGENCY AND THE ELECTION OF 1912
Growing Dissensions
All in all, Taft's administration from the first
day had been disturbed by party discord. High words had passed over the
tariff bill and disgruntled members of Congress could not forget them.
To differences over issues were added quarrels between youth and old
age. In the House of Representatives there developed a group of young
"insurgent" Republicans who resented the dominance of the Speaker,
Joseph G. Cannon, and other members of the "old guard," as they named
the men of long service and conservative minds. In 1910, the insurgents
went so far as to join with the Democrats in a movement to break the
Speaker's sway by ousting him from the rules committee and depriving him
of the power to appoint its members. The storm was brewing. In the
autumn of that year the Democrats won a clear majority in the House of
Representatives and began an open battle with President Taft by
demanding an immediate downward revision of the tariff.
The Rise of the Progressive Republicans
Preparatory to the campaign
of 1912, the dissenters within the Republican party added the prefix
"Progressive" to their old title and began to organize a movement to
prevent the renomination of Mr. Taft. As early as January 21, 1911, they
formed a Progressive Republican League at the home of Senator La
Follette of Wisconsin and launched an attack on the Taft measures and
policies. In October they indorsed Mr. La Follette as "the logical
Republican candidate" and appealed to the party for support. The
controversy over the tariff had grown into a formidable revolt against
the occupant of the White House.
Roosevelt in the Field
After looking on for a while, ex-President
Roosevelt took a hand in the fray. Soon after his return in 1910 from a
hunting trip in Africa and a tour in Europe, he made a series of
addresses in which he formulated a progressive program. In a speech in
Kansas, he favored regulation of the trusts, a graduated income tax
bearing heavily on great fortunes, tariff revision schedule by schedule,
conservation of natural resources, labor legislation, the direct
primary, and the recall of elective officials. In an address before the
Ohio state constitutional convention in February, 1912, he indorsed the
initiative and referendum and announced a doctrine known as the "recall
of judicial decisions." This was a new and radical note in American
politics. An ex-President of the United States proposed that the people
at the polls should have the right to reverse the decision of a judge
who set aside any act of a state legislature passed in the interests of
social welfare. The Progressive Republicans, impressed by these
addresses, turned from La Follette to Roosevelt and on February 24,
induced him to come out openly as a candidate against Taft for the
Republican nomination.
The Split in the Republican Party
The country then witnessed the
strange spectacle of two men who had once been close companions engaged
in a bitter rivalry to secure a majority of the delegates to the
Republican convention to be held at Chicago. When the convention
assembled, about one-fourth of the seats were contested, the delegates
for both candidates loudly proclaiming the regularity of their election.
In deciding between the contestants the national committee, after the
usual hearings, settled the disputes in such a way that Taft received a
safe majority. After a week of negotiation, Roosevelt and his followers
left the Republican party. Most of his supporters withdrew from the
convention and the few who remained behind refused to answer the roll
call. Undisturbed by this formidable bolt, the regular Republicans went
on with their work. They renominated Mr. Taft and put forth a platform
roundly condemning such Progressive doctrines as the recall of judges.
The Formation of the Progressive Party
The action of the Republicans
in seating the Taft delegates was vigorously denounced by Roosevelt. He
declared that the convention had no claim to represent the voters of the
Republican party; that any candidate named by it would be "the
beneficiary of a successful fraud"; and that it would be deeply
discreditable to any man to accept the convention's approval under such
circumstances. The bitterness of his followers was extreme. On July 8, a
call went forth for a "Progressive" convention to be held in Chicago on
August 5. The assembly which duly met on that day was a unique political
conference. Prominence was given to women delegates, and "politicians"
were notably absent. Roosevelt himself, who was cheered as a conquering
hero, made an impassioned speech setting forth his "confession of
faith." He was nominated by acclamation; Governor Hiram Johnson of
California was selected as his companion candidate for Vice President.
The platform endorsed such political reforms as woman suffrage, direct
primaries, the initiative, referendum, and recall, popular election of
United States Senators, and the short ballot. It favored a program of
social legislation, including the prohibition of child labor and minimum
wages for women. It approved the regulation, rather than the
dissolution, of the trusts. Like apostles in a new and lofty cause, the
Progressives entered a vigorous campaign for the election of their
distinguished leader.
Woodrow Wilson and the Election of 1912
With the Republicans
divided, victory loomed up before the Democrats. Naturally, a terrific
contest over the nomination occurred at their convention in Baltimore.
Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Governor
Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, were the chief contestants. After tossing
to and fro for seven long, hot days, and taking forty-six ballots, the
delegates, powerfully influenced by Mr. Bryan, finally decided in favor
of the governor. As a professor, a writer on historical and political
subjects, and the president of Princeton University, Mr. Wilson had
become widely known in public life. As the governor of New Jersey he had
attracted the support of the progressives in both parties. With grim
determination he had "waged war on the bosses," and pushed through the
legislature measures establishing direct primaries, regulating public
utilities, and creating a system of workmen's compensation in
industries. During the presidential campaign that followed Governor
Wilson toured the country and aroused great enthusiasm by a series of
addresses later published under the title of The New Freedom. He
declared that "the government of the United States is at present the
foster child of the special interests." He proposed to free the country
by breaking the dominance of "the big bankers, the big manufacturers,
the big masters of commerce, the heads of railroad corporations and of
steamship corporations."
In the election Governor Wilson easily secured a majority of the
electoral votes, and his party, while retaining possession of the House
of Representatives, captured the Senate as well. The popular verdict,
however, indicated a state of confusion in the country. The combined
Progressive and Republican vote exceeded that of the Democrats by
1,300,000. The Socialists, with Eugene V. Debs as their candidate again,
polled about 900,000 votes, more than double the number received four
years before. Thus, as the result of an extraordinary upheaval the
Republicans, after holding the office of President for sixteen years,
passed out of power, and the government of the country was intrusted to
the Democrats under the leadership of a man destined to be one of the
outstanding figures of the modern age, Woodrow Wilson.