compelledm anuf acturers of f oo ds andmedicinesto
makeSUTt'thatth eirp rod uctswerepure and harm less
befo resellin gth em.
T heo do re Roo seveltretiredasPr eside ntin1909 .in
19 12 he tr iedtoregainrhcposition. huthe was
defeatedIIIthepresidential electio nbyWo odro w
Wilson ,the candidateoftheDem o crat icPartv.Altho ug hRoosevelt andWilsonbelonged to
differentpoliticalparties.someo f theirideaswere
verysimila r.Wilson,too,supporte d the Pr o g ressive
movement.H e hadpro mi sed thatwhen h e becam e
President hewouldfight"notfo rthem anwhoh as
madegood (ach ie vedsuccessIbut f o rrhcm anwho is
gomg to makegood- th e man who is knocking and
figh tin gatthecloseddoorofoppo rt uni ty, " As
Go ver no rofthestateofNewJ ersey he had fought
successfullytomakesureth atthestarew asrunfo r
the benefitofits people.He had reducedb ribery and
corruption theree,andhe:had introducedreformssuc h
aslawstogiveworkers compe nsa tion forinjuriesat
work.
In March 1913,Wilsonstoodbeforeth e C apito l
build ing in Washmgton,ehchomeo f'rhc United
StatesCongress.Therehe:rook rheoathas Pres ident.
Thenhe made:a br iefspeec haboutth estateofthe
country:" Wt'han 'bu iltu p a g reatsystemo f
go vcrnmcur."he toldthecrowd whi chh adgathered
towatch the:Ct'rt' llHmy," Butevil h as com ewiththe
good...We:han' sq uandere d[w asted]a g reatpart
o f w hat wem ig hthan'used.We have beenproudof
ourind ustr ial achie vements.but w e have not
hithertostoppedth o ughtfullyenou ghto countthe
hum an cost ,. ,"O neofthese"humancosts,"Wilso ll believed, h ad
been the near destruct ionfo r Illan yordi nary
American sofa fairchancetogt't o n in life .Workers,
farmers,owner sofsmall b us incsscs-.people su chas
these had seenth eiro p port unitiesstead ilyshr in kin g
IIIrecent yt'ar so w ing to th e continuing g ro w th of the
powcrof"big busin ess"o verthenation 's economic
life, Despit eTheodore Roo s evelt'sattempt s to bring
thetrustsun de rcontrol. they wereeven more
powerfulill 191 3th anth eyh adh Ct'11inI I)()O.Real
equalityofopportunityseeme din dangerof
d isappearin gintheUnitedStates. Wilson believed
thatonly actio nbythefedera lgovernment could hair
thispro cess. As Pr esid en t.he wasd eterminedtosec
thatsuch actionwastaken.
19 Ib.tOIl."UISA f'llPIlOC.IlESSIVESWilsoncalledhis p olicies"TheN ewFreedom."
T heywe'reputlIltocffccrbya serieso f lawspassed
between19 13and 191 7.OneofWilson 'sfirst steps
wasto red ucecusto msdutiesin o rder toencourage
tradebetween theUnitedStatesandother
countries.Thenhe refo rm edtheban kingsy stem
and in trodu ced a systemoffederal taxes on11Igh
in co m es.O rhcrlawsreduced thepowt'rsofth e
tru sts, gavcm a rcrigh tstolaboruruonsand madeit
easier fo r farmerstobo rr o wm o neyfromrhc federal
govern mentto developtheirlan d .M an yindi vid ual
statesalsop assedPr o gr essivelaw s.They forba de
factoriesto em ploychild ren,in t roducedsecrcr
voting ,impro vedsafetyatwork,andpr ot ectedth eir
n atural reso ur ces.
Bu t no t allWilson'splansofrefo rmwereaccepted.
Forexa m ple,theSenaterefused topassa lawgiving
the fed eral authoritiesmorecontroloverthebu ying
andsellingofbusinessshares.Anot herlaw,sto pp mg
childlaborin fa ctori eseverywhere.wasdeclaredto
beun co nstitu tio nal bytheSupremeCou rt.
T heP ro gres sivemo vem entcha ngedandimpro ved
Americanlife inmanyways.Butm an ypeo ple still
distr ustedtoo muchgovernment"interfe rence"in
the n atio n 'slift'.TheodoreRooseveltand
conservationPerhaps T heod o re: Ro osevelt's mo st rmp c rt an r
servicetohis count rywastope rsu ade Cong ress to
p assa numbero f conservatio nlaws. These were
law stosav eth e cou nt ry 's natu ral reso urcesfrom
b ein gusedu p carelesslyandg reedily.
The UnitedSta tesd esperatelyneededsuch laws in
theearly 1900s.Rooseveltpom rcdoutthatunless
actionw ere takentoslo wdown the destructio n o f
the cou ntry'sforests, mineral resourcesan d soil
fertility, Am t'ricans would so on discover that
muchofthenaturalwealtho f the U ni tedStates
h adbeendestroyedforever.Congresslistenedto Roo sevelt'sadvice.Itp assed
conservation lawsunderwhichmillionso f acreso f
lan d werep rotectedandth eirforestandminer al
wealthpreservedfo r th eUSt 'offuture gen eratio ns.83