Compare Taft And Taft

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Sometimes politics can turn the greatest of friends into bitter enemies. This was the fate for two of the four presidential candidates of 1912. Those two candidates were Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. Roosevelt and Taft were the 26th and 27th presidents of the United States. Both presidents were republicans and both were very close friends at one time. In fact, William Taft was a handpicked successor of Roosevelt. Soon after though, there was a rift between the two with both calling each other names and belittling each other in the public eye. Despite the fact that they both followed the same Republican policies, there were differences between them. Why did these two presidents who were once very close friends turn on each other? …show more content…

He was also known as Theodore Roosevelts handpicked successor. Taft supported Theodore Roosevelts “Square Deal” policy which attempted to strike a balance between employers and employees as well as Conservatives and Progressives. It soon proved impossible to please everyone as Taft did not have Roosevelt’s charisma. Eventually he wound up satisfying Conservatives more than Progressives. Taft’s administration however, had pursued more antitrust suits than Roosevelt had. During his speech at Elkton, Maryland in 1912, President Taft stated that what he attempted to do during his presidency was to carry out Roosevelt’s policies. Taft also states that one of those policies was thought to be the prosecution of the trusts under the anti-trust law. Taft includes that because of this he gave orders to his attorney general to prosecute any and every trust that violated that law. During his speech Taft states “the only difference between me and Mr. Roosevelt is that I prosecuted the Steel Trust and the Harvester Trust, and he did not”. Unlike Roosevelt who was known for his fiery personality, President Taft was calm and quiet. He preferred to work behind closed doors in private. President Taft, being a former judge, would refuse to make hasty decisions while depending on facts to make decisions and not emotions. President Taft, unlike Roosevelt, believed that the presidency was a job and an administrative post as opposed to a “bully pulpit”. Taft however, finished the job that Roosevelt had started in dealing with big businesses and prosecuted twice as many as Roosevelt had. Despite Roosevelt’s reputation as being a reformer and trust buster, Taft had actually reformed more business practices in the United States by initiating more lawsuits to bring the trusts down than Roosevelt. Taft believed in many of the same things as Roosevelt but he wanted those same goals through legal means.

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