There were two general kinds of movements for the reform and modernization of city governments: mechanical reform and social reform. So-called "mechanical reform" was led by businessmen and professionals who resented the corruption and inefficiency of the party machines. This resentment, triggered by disclosures of fraud and by the breakdown of city services during the depression of the 1890s, set off a wave of municipal reform campaigns on behalf of nonpartisan candidates who promised "honest, efficient, and businesslike" government. This type of reformer was typified by William L. Strong, Mayor of New York City from 1895-1897.
Another example of municipal progressivism, social reform, grew out of the urban masses' pressing need for city services and economic relief, and was typified by Detroit Mayor Hazen S. Pingree (1890-1897). Compared to Strong, Pingree gave more attention to welfare services, regulation of utility and trolley companies, and the redistribution of Detroit's tax burden. By 1900, various combinations of the Strong and Pingree approaches were being tried all across the country. Urban progressivism was on the threshold of its most creative phase.
Much of this creative thought and energy went toward eliminating the so-called "mechanical defects in the structure of municipal government." Many reformers believed that the salvation of the cities lay in greatly enlarging the powers of the mayor, heretofore usually a figurehead; electing councilmen from the city at large instead of by wards; reducing state interference in city affairs; and by making administrative appointments only according to civil-service rules.
Actually, the distinction between urban "structural reform" and "social reform" was rather vague. There was no real contradiction between the two types of reform, and in many cases, structural and social reforms went hand in hand and reinforced each other. Structural changes encouraged the popular belief that a city, now that it operated on a "businesslike" basis, could safely undertake new services, while social reforms promoted demands for structural changes to increase efficiency.
While the cities were experiencing reform at the beginning of the 1900s, much less was happening in the states and the nation. In the Middle West, an intense factionalism within the Republican party was just beginning to take on ideological overtones. Governor Robert M. La Folette of Wisconsin (1901-1906), the leader of his state's dissidents, mobilized angry farmers, ethnics, and workers into a powerful coalition that won the direct primary, the regulation of railroads, increased taxation of corporations, and the progressive income tax. Albert M. Cummins used similar issues against the entrenched Republican state machine to win the governorship in Iowa in 1901. La Follette and Cummins were not alone, but they and their counterparts were widely scattered and isolated in 1904. In Washington, Teddy Roosevelt was just beginning to take some initiatives, but his main concern before 1905 was his own reelection. Despite the apparent quietude, a political storm was about to engulf the country.
 Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) |
Unlike any previous president in history, Theodore Roosevelt believed that the chief executive was empowered by the people to actively protect and aggressively further the public's interest. He was a true progressive in that he fully embraced the idea of human improvement by means of collective action and government planning within the limits of private property and regulated capitalism. For Roosevelt, modern society required a modern president—a chief executive able to inspire and lead the people while protecting them from greedy private interests.
It was in the business arena that Roosevelt most aggressively extended the power of the federal government. Until his administration the dominate idea that governed the relationship between government and business was laissez faire. The government passed few business regulations and in general left businesses to do as they saw fit. Roosevelt was the first president that felt it was the proper role of the federal government to make sure that business was responsive to public needs. Because of this he actively sought to regulate business by enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and pushing new regulatory legislation through Congress.
The owners had backed down and granted higher wages and reduced hours for workers in a package that Roosevelt called a "square deal" for all, inferring that everyone fairly gained from the agreement. That term soon became synonymous with Roosevelt's domestic program.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had been passed in 1890, but it had never been used to prosecute a trust - only unions. Meanwhile the changes in the business environment were phenomenal. Whole industries became dominated by a single company or a combination of companies controlled by a trust. Once it had a monopoly a trust could unilaterally control prices and rack up huge profits. The king of trusts was J.P. Morgan, a banker, who was to become the first target of Roosevelt's assault.
Many progressives felt that all trusts were bad and should be abolished. Roosevelt was more moderate. He thought that the era of big business was inevitable, and that it had important economic benefits such as increased productivity and efficiency. In his opinion, there were good trusts and bad trusts good ones were responsive to the needs of the public, and he wanted to leave those alone. He only wanted to go after ones that did not act in the public interest. In order to do this he came up with the radical idea of actually enforcing existing law.
On February 18, 1902 he directed the Justice Department to use the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prosecute the Northern Securities Company run by J.P. Morgan. Morgan had created this trust to control the activities of several powerful railroad companies. He was a rich and powerful adversary, but Roosevelt was victorious in March of 1904 when the Supreme Court ruled against the Northern Securities Company and forced it to break up. This marked an important shift in the scope of government. For the first time the federal government was taking an active, regulatory position in regard to business.
Fearful that his anti-corporate sentiments had soured party bosses, Roosevelt toned down his rhetoric in 1903. Most importantly, he placed his people in key party positions and maneuvered Mark Hanna, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, to endorse his candidacy months prior to the 1904 convention. Then he turned to the public, holding press conferences, launching a national tour of western states that lasted for thirty days, and boldly providing (by Executive Order) pensions for all veterans between the ages of sixty-two and sixty-seven.
With Mark Hanna's untimely death prior to the Republican convention in Chicago, Roosevelt's nomination became a foregone conclusion. He was nominated unanimously on the first ballot. TR picked Senator Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana as his running mate—a conservative Republican with close ties to the railroad industry. When the Democrats met in St. Louis they picked two conservatives, Judge Alton B. Parker, from New York, and eighty-one-year-old Henry G. Davis, the wealthy ex-senator from Virginia and the oldest man to ever run for the vice-presidency.
The Democrats, showcasing themselves as the "sane and safe choice," attacked the Roosevelt administration as "spasmodic, erratic, sensational, spectacular, and arbitrary." They promised to clean up the corruption in the executive branch. Republicans touted Roosevelt's record in foreign policy and promised more of the same—which meant more of the unbeatable Roosevelt. Neither Roosevelt nor Parker actively campaigned. Over the summer of 1904, Roosevelt directed the campaign from his front porch at Oyster Bay, issuing lofty statements to his supporters and instructions on strategy to Republican state parties.
Roosevelt, nervous that he might lose key electoral states, especially New York, personally appealed to wealthy capitalists for campaign funds. Edward H. Harriman (the railroad tycoon), Henry C. Frick (the steel baron), and J. P Morgan (the financial potentate of Wall Street), hurriedly raised $250,000. They then rounded up more from their wealthy friends—over $2 million! These wealthy capitalists supported Roosevelt because they would rather have an "unpredictable head of a predictable party" in power than the "predictable head of an unpredictable party." They might have favored Parker as a person, but the Democrats were simply too populist in their constituency and potentially too radical in their ideas for the conservative business leaders to ever trust.
The election, however, had never been in doubt. TR won 336 electoral votes to Parkers's 140. Roosevelt took every state outside of the South, including Missouri. Immensely popular, Roosevelt's margin of 2,544,238 votes carried him to a second term on a huge wave of public support unlike anything the nation had ever seen. No president who had obtained office upon the death of his predecessor had ever been nominated to succeed himself let alone be elected to the office on his own. TR was the most popular president in American history up to his time. With victory, the cocky Roosevelt vowed not to run for another term in 1908. It was a promise he lived to regret.
Everyone in the nation knew that Taft would be Roosevelt's man in the White House, and Taft himself vowed to continue Roosevelt's progressive policies. Still, up to the last minute before Taft's nomination at the Republican Party convention in Chicago in June, Nellie Taft expected Roosevelt to announce his bid for a second elected term. It almost happened on the second day of the convention when a spontaneous and wild demonstration produced a forty-nine minute stampede for Roosevelt—the longest lasting demonstration that had ever occurred at a national political convention. Only when Roosevelt sent word via Senator Henry Cabot Lodge that he was not available did the convention nominate Taft on the first ballot. The final count gave Taft 702 votes (491 votes were needed to win) in a field of seven nominees. The Democrats once again nominated William Jennings Bryan, the twice-defeated candidate who still personified the populist politics of the Democratic Party and the moral fervor of its "silverite" wing.
At Nellie's urging, Taft announced that he intended to drop thirty pounds off his 300 pound plus weight for the campaign fight ahead. He immediately retreated to the golf course at a resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, where he stayed for much of the next three months. His campaign, once it started, depended heavily upon Roosevelt for speechmaking, advice, and energy. Journalists bombarded the public with jokes about Taft being a substitute for Roosevelt. One columnist explained that T.A.F.T. stood for "Take Advice From Theodore." Nothing could hide Taft's dislike for campaigning and politics. His handlers tried to turn his sluggish style into a positive asset by describing Taft as a new kind of politician—one who refuses to say anything negative about his opponent. For most voters it was enough, however, that Taft had pledged to carry on Roosevelt's policies. His victory was overwhelming. He carried all but three states outside the Democratic Solid South and won 321 electoral votes to Bryan's 162. In the final tally for the popular vote, Taft won 7,675,320 (51.6 percent) to Bryan's 6,412,294 (43.1 percent). Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs won just 2.8 percent of the popular vote, or 420, 793.
Theodore Roosevelt (http://www.ushistory.net/toc/roosevelt.html).
William Howard Taft: The Reluctant President (http://216.132.160.230/KoTrain/Courses/WHT/WHT_Campaigns_and_Elections.htm).