Why was Theodore Roosevelt was essential to the progressive movement?How far do you agree?
Why was Theodore Roosevelt was essential to the progressive movement?
Progressivism was the movement in the late 19th century, which was thought to improve the quality of living, equality and the ability to control the economy. This showed us that America was slowly becoming more industrialized therefore resulting a massive divide between the rich and the poor. We can then imply that this led to no rules on working practices, meaning there were no minimum wage and no limit on working ours.
Roosevelt believed that ‘combination and concentration should not be prohibited but suspended and within reasonable limits controlled’. Theodore invited William Howard Taft; Roosevelt made him the secretary of war, and then later on won the 1908 presidential election. William Taft preferred Law to Politics as he was appointed a federal court judge at 34, but his wife did not like the idea of this therefore forced him into politics. We can understand that Taft increased the number of anti trust suits against companies in fact doubling them in comparison to Roosevelt. In addition he brought new laws to protect mine workers and had more government control, but people believed that he didn’t work hard enough. This resulted in the 1913 where William Taft lost to Woodrow Wilson.
