William Howard Taft Essay

William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843 in Niles, Ohio, a town of about 300 people. He was the 7th child born to William and Nancy Alison McKinley His family moved to Poland, Ohio when he was nine years old so that the children could go to a private school called the Poland Academy. In school William liked to read, debate, and he was the president of the school’s first debate club. When he was 16 he went to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, for a while before he got sick and had to return home .he did not go back to Meadville, because the family had no money. Instead, he worked as a postal clerk for awhile.

William Howard Taft spent the majority of his presidency concerning himself with foreign policy and proving to be even more progressive than Roosevelt in terms of busting trusts. Taft was very interested in involving American politics to areas abroad, a foreign policy critics dubbed "dollar diplomacy". Along with the help of Washington, Taft encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest their superfluous money into foreign areas of strategic concern to the United States, such as the Far East and regions critical to the Panama Canal. Their investments would supposedly "strengthen American defenses and foreign policies, while bringing further prosperity to their homeland- and to themselves" (683). Taft's "dollar diplomacy", although not coinciding with the domestic progressivism norm exemplified by Roosevelt, was progressive nonetheless as it replaced the necessity of the big stick. Not only interested with matters abroad, Taft focused his eyes on the issue that made his predecessor famous, busting the trusts. In all, Taft brought 90 suits against the trusts during his four year term, largely outnumbering Roosevelt's 44 suit total in seven and half years. Taft's most famous and publicized antitrust suit was against the U.S. Steel Corporation. This suit also brought the most criticism, surprisingly by Taft's "creator", Theodore Roosevelt. Under Taft's control, trusts were

The Taft family did not have a lot of money, they lived in a suburb of Mount Auburn in a modest home home. They were a Christian family that attended church every sunday. William’s father, Alphonso was a lawyer and served as a judge and a lawyer. He was a republican that also served under Ulysses S. Grant as a war Secretary and Attorney General. Taft’s mother Luisa, was a strong and independant woman. She believed that women should be given more freedom than they were given back in the day. Taft had 5 siblings, 4 brothers and

President Theodore Roosevelt, a leader of progressivism was highly in favor for a reform at a national level. He believed it was the governments duty to regulated businesses and improve the life's of the people. While the second industrial revolution brought major industrial achievement it also gave corporate bosses excessive amount of power, which they used to bend political parties to their favor and progressives such as president Wilson hoped to rectify this(Document 2). During this progressive movement many Americans focused on reform the country in ways that would creating a limitation on major business, such as Rockefeller Standard Oil, that used a unfair monopoly system to build their empire, which was damaging the economy. Roosevelt being the first to take signification action on trust-busting, such as passing the Hepburn Act which was enacted in 1906 set a precedent for the power of the federal government. The Hepburn Act set a maximum price for the freight rates on the railroads and it extended the reach of the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulation of pipelines, freight companies, sleeping-car companies, bridges and ferries. During this period the federal government passed an incredible amount of legislation that mainly regulated the problems in the society to provide a greater sense of regulation and protection for the people. Problems such as overbearing freight prices, vile food preparation and inconsistent economic status were issues that needed to be amended. Roosevelt also focused of the conservation of natural resources to help further developed the nation land and it's usefulness(Document 6). Anti-trust acts, Federal Reserve Acts were also established to break trusts to help improve market rates and improve the quality of life for the working class through more regulations on businesses by the federal government. Roosevelt trust-busting helped

Thomas Jefferson's ideals and beliefs were derived from a deep regard for life, liberty, and freedom. His concept of individual freedoms strongly disagreed with the notion of a "guided republic" which he believed concentrated a great deal unchecked power among a few people. This could have the potential of tyrannical government that might suppress personal freedoms of any kind especially those of religion, which Jefferson feels very strongly felt should be protected. After fighting hard to rid America of British domination, Jefferson was determined to create a government that was responsible to, and derived its powers from, a free people. As the writer of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for

As Roosevelt’s second term was coming to an end, he picked William Howard Taft as his successor. Taft preached his ideas to the public, criticizing Roosevelt in his speeches.

A true idealist, his crusades against these evils were truly heartfelt and in his mind, the best action to take for the nation. Beginning with the Underwood Tariff of 1913, it was the first lowering of taxes since the Civil War and stood against the protectionist lobbying. Next, he introduced the Federal Trade Act, which set up the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and halt unfair and illegal business practices. Also, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act deemed certain businesses illegal (trusts and horizontal mergers), declared unions legal, and also strikes, boycotts, picketing and the collection of strike benefit funds were ruled legal. The, a landmark legislation, the Federal Reserve Act in 12 districts would print and coin money as well as set interest rates. In this way the "Fed," as it was called, could control the money supply and effect the value of currency. The more money in circulation, the lower the value and inflation went up. In effect, the less money in circulation, the greater the value and this would lower inflation. Theodore’s true successor, Wilson finished Roosevelt’s job on the trusts and branched out towards the other deleterious aspects of the nation as well. He gave the surging mainstream progressive movement an innocent morality he naturally possessed.

The Lincoln Principle, If you never try, you'll never succeed, applies greatly to Theodore Roosevelt. If he had not tried to change America many things would be different even now. He regulated businesses more so that they didn't become as powerful as they were becoming. He wanted to change things so he did. If he had not pushed to have the Panama Canal finished it probably would have taken much longer and more people may have died in the making of the Canal from going slower and more mosquitos and such insects are able to suck the blood from people. This puts them at a higher risk to get diseases transmitted by the insects.

Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt were two of America’s great presidents. This is why I feel that both men were equally important in what they did and said they would do. Both in their own ways have added a little of what makes this country what it is today. Both had their own beliefs of how reform, empowerment of the people and foreign policy should be accomplished. As president, the main goal was to do what they felt best for the American people. In doing so, how different could they really be?

Roosevelt felt President Taft was too conservative and pro-business (Robinson, 2003). In reaction to that, he met with Progressive leaders after returning from Africa and began plotting a political comeback (Robinson, 2003).

Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd president of the United States of America. He was born on a small Ohio farm on August 20, 1833, the second of nine children of hard working parents John Harrison and Elizabeth Ramsey Harrison. In many ways Benjamin Harrison was “born to be President” because of his heritage. He was named after his great grandfather who was a member of the House of Burgesses and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the grandchild of 19th President of the United States William Henry Harrison, and the descendent of many other significant political officers and patriots. All of these facts added up to his reputation and led up to his presidency.

i also had twice as many prosecutions, under the ‘Sherman Antitrust Act’, than Roosevelt. To get more into detail, the most famous antitrust case that i ever did was the standard oil case. Coming into office i heard that before Roosevelt left office i had wanted an investigation of Standard Oil’s exclusive controls. This case didn’t reach supreme court until taft came into presidency. In 1911 the court found out that the trust did violate the ‘Sherman Antitrust Act’, by unfairly restricting the oil

Furthermore, economics also played a key role in describing whether liberalism or conservatism triumphed in this era. President William Howard Taft encouraged a policy known as "Dollar Diplomacy" where the United States invested in foreign countries in order to gain power. This dollar diplomacy would make money for as well strengthen the US. Later Taft went on to become more of a trust buster than Roosevelt. His most noteworthy bust was the Standard Oil Company, one of the largest trusts of the time, which was ordered to be broken into smaller companies in 1911. He then went on to attack another one of the largest trusts, The US Steel company which Roosevelt had allowed to survive since he deemed it as a good trust. Roosevelt became furious as Taft when he heard of this. Taft then passed the Payne-Aldrich bill which he unwisely named "the best bill that the Republican Party ever passed" which split the Republican Party into old school/more

Woodrow Wilson was born as Thomas Woodrow Wilson – the son of Janet Woodrow and Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister. Thomas began using the first name of Woodrow in 1881 to honor his mother’s side of the family. Although Wilson would become a talented

Woodrow Wilson’s presidency was by many accounts one of the most successful in American history. Not only did his domestic affairs and reform policies give birth to the modern age of liberalism but his foreign policies would lead the United States to victory in World War I. This would in turn contribute to the United States involvement in world affairs.