Theodore Roosevelt (President: 1901-1909)

1. Theodore Roosevelt (President: 1901-1909) • New Yorker in background. • Influenced by A.T. Mahan about the United States being a major international power. • Becomes president after the assassination of William McKinley. • First president to harness the power of media. Took issues to the general public, bypassing resistance in Congress and the courts.

2. The Square Deal…the Problem • “Under modern industrial conditions absence of governmental regulation and control means such swollen development of a few personalities that all other personalities are dwarfed, are stunted and fettered, and their power of initiative, their power of self-help, largely atrophied.”

3. The Square Deal…the Solution • Collective action and individual action, public law and private character, are both necessary. It is only by a slow and patient inward transformation such as these laws ad in brining about that men are really helped upward in their struggle for a higher and fuller life.”

4. TR: Domestic Policy • Mediated coal strike: 1902 • Antiquities Act: 1906 • Food and Drug Act: 1906 • Hepburn Act: 1906. Empowered ICC to set maximum rates for railroads. • Statehood for Oklahoma: 1907 • Created several national monuments and parks

5. TR: Foreign Policy • Encouraged Panamanian independence from Colombia to facilitate construction of Panama Canal. • Formulated “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine: U.S. had a right to intervene in affairs of other countries in the Americas to prevent European powers from getting involved. • Brokered peace between Russia and Japan in 1905 • Sent “Great White Fleet” on a grand tour to show U.S. naval strength.

6. Progressivism vs. the Establishment in the U.S.: William Howard Taft (President: 1909-1913) • Lawyer in background • Moderate trying to balance Progressive and conservative wings of the Republican Party. • T Roosevelt did not think was Progressive enough. TR decided to try to run for a third term, resulting in…..

7. The U.S. Election of 1912 • Taft as Republican candidate • Woodrow Wilson as Democratic candidate • Theodore Roosevelt as Progressive Party candidate once Republicans reject him as candidate for third term. • Eugene Debs as Socialist Party Candidate

8. Woodrow Wilson (President: 1913-1921) • Virginian in background. • Academic in profession (was President of Princeton) • Known for his ideological/academic approach to things. • Was a Progressive with a sympathetic Congress.

9. Woodrow Wilson: Domestic Policy • Federal Reserve Act: 1913. Created a system of 12 reserve banks to provide some oversight over the activities the member banks (required for national banks, optional for state banks). • Income tax (16th Amendment): 1913. • Direct election of senators (17th Amendment): 1913. • Keating Owen: 1914. Restricting child labor. Supreme Court later struck down. • Established Federal Trade Commission: 1914. To regulate business. Have power to prosecute “unfair trade practices.” Had power to investigate corporate behavior. • National Park System created 1916. • National Prohibition (18th Amendment): 1918 • Women’s suffrage (19th Amendment): 1919

10. Meanwhile, in Mexico….. • Growing numbers of strikes such as the copper miners of Sonora. • Meanwhile, a popular movement under Emiliano Zapata emerged against the haciendas in the central part of the country. • A new Liberal party emerged but was crushed in the early 1900s. Leaders, especially Flores Magon, fled to U.S. and argued for the overthrow of Diaz. Included a modest idealist named Francisco Madero.

11. End of the Porfiriato • In 1910, Porfirio Diaz was elected to his eighth consecutive term as President. • Growing outrage at the indifference and corruption of the Porfiriato grew into a support for Madero, who many felt was the legitimate winner of the 1910 election. • Diaz resigns in 1911 and went into exile in France.

12. Huerta and Wilson • Wilson was outraged by Huerta’s power politics. • Huerta tried to get support from Germany. • In 1914, when a group of American Marines tried to stop a German ship with arms from docking in Tampico, Huerta’s govt. had them arrested. • U.S. demanded a response. When Huerta refused to go along, U.S. forces invade and occupy Vera Cruz. • Huerta’s government collapses soon afterward.

13. Power struggle • A power struggle breaks out between Obregon, Carranza, and Villa, among others. Carranza ends up holding Mexico City and U.S. gives nominal support. • In response, in March 1916, Pancho Villa attacks Columbus, N.M. U.S. sends in troops under General Pershing but fail to capture Villa. • In 1917, word emerges of a telegram from German officials to get the Carranza govt. to support Germany in the ongoing Great War. Helps spark U.S. entry into what became known as World War I.