The Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party was formed in 1911 by members of the Republican Party dissatisfied with the leadership of President William Howard Taet. The nation had changed rapidly between 1900 and 1912, becoming more urban, more industrial, and more ethnically diverse. Economic changes further complicated the picture as large national corporations began dominating entire industries, and class divisions threatened to undermine American democracy. Finally, numerous segments of society, including women, organized labor, minorities, and reform journalists had become increasingly active in politics. These changes resulted in substantial political turmoil, as the Democratic and Republican Parties struggled to understand and take advantage of this new landscape. Many believed that progressive and even radical reforms needed to take place if the nation was to remain unified and prosperous.
Progressive elements within the Republican Party had become convinced that President Taft was too conservative and unresponsive to demands for reform. They believed that the federal government needed to be more actively involved in regulating the economy and society. The roots of PRogressivism within the Republican Party can be traced to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt who, during his two terms in office (1901-09), had supported federal regulation of industry and promoted tax reform, labor law reform, and social legislation. Others within the party, particularly those in the urban North and Midwest, understood the appeal of progressivism and pushed the party in that direction. With Roosevelt’s support, Vice President Taft won the Republican nomination and the general election in 1908. Once in office, however, Taft established strong ties with the party’s conservative wing, the Old Guard Republicans.
Divisions began to emerge within the party as early as 1909 during debates on the Payne-Aldrich Tariee Act. Wisconsin senator Robert La Follette and other progressives were vehemently opposed to the tariff, because they believed that it kept prices artificially high and primarily benefited large industrialists and eastern financial markets. When Taft called for a special session of Congress to deal with the tariff issue, he planned to have them lowered; but the final version of Payne-Aldrich did the exact opposite. When Taft signed the tariff and announced that is was “the best bill the Republican Party ever signed,” he created a split in the party.
Between 1909 and 1911, a series of controversies furthered deepened divisions in the party. Shortly after he took office, Taft refused to support progressives’ attempts to unseat the autocratic Speaker of the House, JoSEPH Gannon. In 1909 Taft fired Gifford Pinchot, head of the U. S. Forest Service and longtime Roosevelt supporter, after he disagreed with Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger. In August 1910, Roosevelt delivered a speech in which he criticized Taft and laid out the idea of the New Nationafism that would provide the framework for his 1912 presidential campaign. Finally, in the 1910 elections, Taft and the Old Guard Republicans attempted to unseat or block the nominations of congressional progressives, convincing La Follette to form the National Progressive Republican League. He announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in June 1911. Initially Roosevelt refused to publicly side with either Taft or the progressive dissidents; but when Taft overruled some of Roosevelt’s decisions, Roosevelt announced that he would seek the Republican nomination.
As president, Taft had complete control over the Republican Party machine. He was able to block challenges from both La Follette and Roosevelt, easily securing the Republican nomination. Convinced that they could defeat Taft and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wifson, dissidents in the Republican Party formed the Progressive Party. At their convention in August 1912 they selected Roosevelt as their presidential nominee and California governor Hiram W. Johnson as their vice presidential candidate. The Progressive Party platform called for the abolition of CHIFD FABor, the creation of primary elections, the direct efection of senators, woman suffrage, graduated income and inheritance taxes, limits on labor injunctions, an eight-hour workday, the use of collective bargaining in labor disputes, and the introduction of medical, retirement, and unemployment insurance.
The election of 1912 was tightly contested. The Progressives hoped they could lure enough votes away from both parties to secure a victory. In the end, while Roosevelt easily outpolled Taft, he failed to make significant inroads among Democratic voters to win. Wilson received 6,293,000 votes, Roosevelt 4,119,000, and Taft 3,484,000. The electoral vote was even more decisive, as Wilson received 435 votes to Roosevelt’s 88 and Taft’s 8. The Progressive Party attempted to maintain some semblance of unity and ran congressional candidates in 1914, but all besides Johnson were decisively defeated. By 1916, most Progressives were back in the Republican fold. When Roosevelt refused the party’s nomination in 1916, it endorsed Republican nominee Gharfes Evans Hughes. In the long run, the decision to break with the party in 1912 proved disastrous for liberal Republicans. Roosevelt had outpolled Taft, but the party had failed to create an independent political base. By the time progressive Republicans returned to the party between 1916 and 1917, the conservative Old Guard had complete control.
Further reading: J. A. Gable, The Bull Moose Years: Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party (Port Washington, N. Y.: Kennikat Press, 1978).
—Robert Gordon
World History
