1912 Dbq

The 1912 election had four candidates running for president: Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Eugene V. Debs. Wilson was a Democrat, Roosevelt was a Progressive, Taft was a Republican, and Debs was a Socialist. They all had different points of view on how they would run the country. The 1912 election was important mostly because the Progressive party was formed. It was also the only U.S election to pit a former president, a current president, and a future president against each other. The fight to win the election was mainly focused on William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. When the Progressive Party was formed it was a big deal in the election. It made the 1912 election more exciting and tense. The split of the Republican

William Taft was more Progressive and Theodore Roosevelt was more conservative. Roosevelt was all about the environment. He was also known as the conservationist. Roosevelt wanted to protect land and the wildlife. He protected about 230 million acres of public land (Theodore Roosevelt and conservation).Roosevelt then formed the Bull Moose Party, another name for the Progressive Party, to challenge Taft. Taft didn’t really care about the environment, it never really occurred to him that it was important. So they both went campaigning around the country, hurling insults at each other and splitting the party in half. Some Republicans sided with Roosevelt, others with Taft. Another reason the Progressive Party was formed is the antitrust law. This contains three laws: Clayton Act, Sherman Act, and Federal Trade Commission Act. These acts basically prevented the formation of monopolies, cartels, and mergers. Controversies over the antitrust laws separated Taft and Roosevelt farther as friends. Taft fired Roosevelt’s Secretary and replaced him with Richard Ballinger. This created tension between the two friends. Gifford Pinchot, who had run for the U.S Forest Service, accused ballinger of trying to stop what Roosevelt did, save the environment. Pinchot literally wrote a 50 page paper on why he thinks Ballinger is guilty. Turns out that Ballinger was not guilty and Pinchot was fired. This lead to the split of

Since the death of President William McKinley, Roosevelt became the 26th and youngest president. Roosevelt ran for president twice and lost both times. Roosevelt was nominated by the Progressive Party for presidency. In return, keeping the progressive items back. He still used the executive office to break up the monopolies, similarly to Woodrow Wilson. The Progressive platform was all for women’s suffrage, reduction of tariffs, and other reforms (Milkis, 2007). Some things Roosevelt wanted as presidency were similar to what Wilson wanted but very different. Another important idea in his platform was the “Square Deal”. His concept of increasing welfare for poor Americans and fair business competition. One event that everyone had their attention to was when Roosevelt was on his way to a campaign speech in Milwaukee and got shot in the chest. Nonetheless, still gave the 90-minute speech and was quickly taken to the hospital. He recovered but still lost in November to Woodrow Wilson. He got 88 electoral votes and 4,119,207 popular