Progressivism Under Taft & Wilson's New Freedom

Read Chapter 17-4 (Progressivism Under Taft) and Chapter 17-5 (Wilson's New Freedom)

1. How did William Howard Taft get selected to run for president?

William Taft was actually handpicked to run by Theodore Roosevelt, who at the time had just announced that he was not going to run for reelection. Taft was Roosevelt's Secretary of War. Taft and the Republican party received an easy victory.
2. How did Teddy Roosevelt come to oppose Taft for the presidency in 1912?

During Taft's presidency, the Republican party split in two. The more traditional Republicans stuck by Taft when it came to the election of 1912, whereas the more progressive Republicans fled to Roosevelt, feeling that Taft was anti-Progressive and anti-conservation.
3. What events helped Woodrow Wilson win the election in 1912?

After the split in the Republican party, the Democrats were finally able to get a foothold in the government system. As the rift between Roosevelt and Taft turned more and more caustic, the public began to look for a stable candidate. As Wilson began to voice his anti-big business policies, he quickly began to gain support from the electoral college, if not from the public.

4. What legislation did Wilson use to attack trusts and monopolies?

Wilson used two main legislations to attack trust and monopolies. There was the Clayton Antitrust Act in

1914, which banned companies from creating trusts that could turn into monopolies. It also protected labor

unions from being affected by antitrust laws, and protected strikers from being persecuted. There was also

the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, which created the FTC - Federal Trade Commission. The FTC

was in charge of enforcing many of the laws of the Clayton Antitrust Act, and checked up on big businesses

to make sure that they were not performing any illegal activity.

5. What was the Nineteenth Amendment?

The Nineteenth Amendment, passed in 1919, granted women the right to vote.
6. How did America's entry into World War I affect the reform movement?

As America entered World War I, so much attention was being paid to the European front that national reform fell to the wayside. There were more pertinent issues to deal with; Wilson, the man who had been keeping the Progressive movement alive, was so occupied with the war in his second term that after World War I, the Progressive movement was nearly forgotten altogether - with no one pushing it, it simply could not survive.