The Political Views Of Theodore Roosevelt And Woodrow Wilson

As the 19th century came to a close, the United States public reacted furiously to the increasing influence and wealth exhibited by large corporations, making clear the need to control these mammoth industries. The liberals of the early 1900s would be the ones to make such a change. At this time in history, liberals were “[n]ationalists who [b]elieved activist government, acting on behalf of the public, [s]hould preserve capitalism [b]y regulating big business and limiting monopoly” (“A Great Reconstruction”). Liberals were divided into two main camps: those, like Theodore Roosevelt, who believed big corporations should remain in society and those, like Woodrow Wilson, that wanted to break them up. The big businesses they wanted to control

Theodore Roosevelt-type liberals thus created a supportive environment for big business. In his 1905 Fifth Annual Message to Congress, Roosevelt emphasized that large corporations were here to stay and claimed that his regulation legislation “frees the corporation that wishes to do well from being driven into doing ill, in order to compete with its rival, which prefers to do ill…[b]usiness success, whether for the individual or for the Nation, is a good thing only so far as it is accompanied by and develops a high standard of conduct—honor, integrity, civic courage” (Roosevelt 1905). Roosevelt understood that big business was here to stay and he did not want to break up monopolies, simply push them in the direction of the public interest. He regulated the destructive cost-cutting habits of the railroads that were destabilizing the economy and helped improve workers rights. He also regulated insurance corporations, the meat packing industry, and the drug industry to protect consumers and improve the practices of producers. Thus, Roosevelt’s policies were more to aid big businesses in returning to their roots in public foundations. Wilson’s form of liberalism, however, was even more

Each president attempted to improve lives for the consumers by regulating the products and services provided by these large companies. Additionally, they each supported the development of graduated income and inheritance taxes in order to fuel their activist governments and prevent the development of a business aristocracy. Finally, Roosevelt and Wilson-type liberals broke over their feelings towards large corporations; Roosevelt understood their benefits and wanted to maintain them while improving their character. Wilson felt that big corporations eliminated the ability for middle class Americans and other businesses to enter the market, which he found wholly undemocratic. Therefore, one can see how throughout the beginning of the 20th century, their were differing levels of hostility and support towards big business, which resulted in the republican revival prior to the Great