Taft favored moderate reduction in the tariff; Wilson favored massive reduction in tariff rates; Roosevelt avoided and evaded the tariff issue. Child labor legislation and Wilson is the big hero on this one. Workers' rights to better conditions, lower hours, more pay, and the right to organize into unions. read more
Taft, Roosevelt’s Secretary of War, was the president’s handpicked successor, so much so that the public joked that Taft stood for “Take Advice From Theodore.” However, once Taft beat William Jennings Bryan and took office, he did a number of things that angered Republican progressives and caused them to splinter off into a third party in 1912. read more