Ch. 17 Section 4 Progressivism Under Taft

Ch. 17 Section 4 Progressivism Under Taft

Overview
Objectives
To summarize the Taft presidency.
To trace the division in the Republican Party.
To describe the election of 1912

Focus & Motivate
Think about a time when you had to give an oral report just after a classmate had given a great one, or when you followed a terrific athlete in a sport in which you don’t excel, or perhaps you have a sibling who was a standout but you were not. How did you feel?
How does the statement, `That’s a tough act to follow,’ apply?

Objective 1 Instruct
Taft Becomes President
Discussing Key Ideas
Refusing a third term, Roosevelt handpicks his successor, William Howard Taft, who beat William Jennings Bryan in 1908.
Taft angers his party’ progressive wing by failing to lower tariffs and by appointing a secretary of the interior who is unsympathetic toward conservation.

Difficult Decisions in History
Controlling Resources
Student responses may include the following:
Factors may include job loss, health concerns, unknown results of upsetting the balance of nature, and the danger of letting potentially useful species become extinct.
Some students will indicate that the wilderness should be preserved at all costs. Others may suggest, that, in 1902, the need to develop the West may have seemed vital—and, at that time, the West may still have seemed too vast to be overexploited.

Objective 2 Instruct
The Republican Party Splits
Starting With the Student
How might different goals break up once-loyal friendships?
Is this likely to happen in political friendships?

Discussing Key Ideas
Taft’s support of Republican Joe Cannon further alienates progressive Republicans.
The party splits, and Roosevelt becomes leader of the Bull Moose Party.

More About . . .
Joseph Cannon
After being elected speaker in 1903, “uncle Joe” began changing House rules to benefit Republicans—a process knows as “cannonizing.” Ousted as head of the Rules Committee by a coalition of Democrats and Republican progressives, he remained in the House until 1913 and then returned to serve in 1917, when he was in his eighties.

Key Player
Taft
Critical Thinking:
Interpreting
What does the nickname, “Big Lub” suggest about Taft?

Objective 3 Instruct
The Election of 1912
A chart will be helpful to understand this key election.

Candidate Party States Won
Wilson
Taft
Roosevelt
Debs

Discussing Key Ideas
Democrat Wilson wins the election of 1912.
The real winner is reform, with 75% of the vote going to reform candidates.

History From Visuals
Election of 1912
Reading the Map
If Roosevelt had not run—and if his votes had gone to Taft—Taft would have won over 50% of the vote in enough states to win the election.

Close
When Taft could not hold together the conservative and progressive wings of the Republican Party, the party split, allowing Democrat Wilson to win the presidency in 1912.