https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik By Colin Tubbs en-us 2021-06-01 12:50:41 UTC 2025-10-30 15:15:54 UTC hello@padlet.com ctubbs231 https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik/wish/1576101491 There were 3 presidents who presided over the progressive era, them being Teddy Roosevelt, Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Of the three of them, I believe Teddy Roosevelt to be the most progressive of them. Teddy Roosevelt was the first of the progressive presidents, and laid the groundwork for the progressive presidents to come after him. While Taft and Wilson may have passed more progressive reforms in total than Roosevelt, Roosevelt still had to be the first, and without Roosevelt, the other progressive presidents likely wouldn't have been elected at all.]]> 2021-06-01 12:51:45 UTC https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik/wish/1576101491 ctubbs231 https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik/wish/1576106629 During the Gilded Age, there were very little regulations ever put onto businesses. these businesses would often take full advantage of the lack of regulations, providing abhorrent working conditions and falsely advertising their products. However, in 1906, these terrible practices were exposed in the meatpacking industry in the book "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. It described how workers would often lose fingers to machinery, or fall into the vats of meat and die, and how they wouldn't even fish the fingers or people out, just selling the people as meat still labeling it as the same. This disgusted the American public, Roosevelt being the populist leader he was, passed the pure food and drug act, and the meat inspection act both in 1906. The pure food and drug act stated that all food and drug products must label what ingredients are in the product, helping to eliminate any malpractice of false advertising in the industry, and the meat inspection act made it so that inspectors could inspect the meat of any company to make sure it was up to code and so that it was safe enough for the American public to consume. This was not the only thing Roosevelt did during his presidency however, nicknamed the 'Great Regulator', Teddy was the first to ever go after the trusts in America through the courts and regulation. To try to regulate what he called the good trusts, he established the Department of Commerce and Labor to oversee the trusts and make sure they were obeying labor laws and that the workers he served were being treated properly. He also passed the Elkins act, which empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to place fines on railroads that offered rebates, and the Hepburn act, which, empowered the Interstate Commerce commission to set max rates for railroad use and extended their jurisdiction. When confronting bad trusts, he did not go for regulation, rather he took them to court and tried to break them up using the Sherman Anti-Trust act, often landing in the supreme court. one of the most impactful court cases was the 1904 Northern Securities Supreme Court case, which dissolved the Northern Securities monopoly. Teddy was the first president to use the Sherman Anti-Trust act to try to break up monopolies, and was often successful. These breaking up of trusts and regulations were very progressive for the time, and even more impactful considering he was the first president to ever enact these kinds of policies. Though future presidents such as may be able to lay claim to a greater volume of policies, none could match the populist sentiment and true conviction in the cause that Teddy showed.]]> 2021-06-01 12:53:34 UTC https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik/wish/1576106629 ctubbs231 https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik/wish/1582379860 While Taft and Wilson continued some of Roosevelt's progressive policies, neither of them were as progressive as he was. While Taft was Roosevelt's handpicked successor, and went after and broke up many more monopolies than Roosevelt did during his presidency, he was much more legalist in nature in contrast to the progressiveness that Roosevelt held. One of the affairs where Roosevelt and taft differed was in the Ballinger-Pinchot affair, where taft demonstrated how he believed that issues should be solved through legislation rather than executive order, which was how Roosevelt would enact his policies. This more conservative view on the presidency is one of the reasons Taft is a less progressive president than Roosevelt, who would use his presidency to directly enact his populist legislation. Because of this, Roosevelt ran against Taft in 1912, splitting the republicans and leading to the victory of Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson, while still progressive in policy, was still not as progressive as Teddy. The main reason that Wilson was not as progressive as Teddy was because of his segregationist sentiment. Before Wilson became president, most federal buildings were racially integrated, and segregation, while it did exist, was only on state and local levels. After he was elected, he appointed numerous southern democrat cabinet members who helped to segregate the federal government, separating whites and blacks once again. It would take decades for the federal government to fully de segregate, waiting until the 60's for full federal de-segregation. Because of these more conservative views that Taft and Wilson held, they simply cannot be considered the most progressive presidents of the progressive era, rather that title of most progressive president should fall unto Teddy Rosevelt because of his populist sentiment and his sweeping progressive legislation.]]> 2021-06-03 13:03:30 UTC https://padlet.com/ctubbs231/2ssvnckwn2erfyik/wish/1582379860