America's Greatest 20th Century Presidents (7 page)

Roosevelt's commitment to environmental preservation, corporate oversight and consumer protection eventually earned him the title “Trust Buster.”  Using the powers of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Roosevelt “busted” over 40 monopolistic corporations during his Presidency, reducing their power and ability to exploit consumers.

Adding Bite to Bark

Roosevelt and the United States started using that big stick in the summer of 1906 when a disputed election in Cuba caused a rebellion.  The Cuban government asked the U.S. to intervene in putting down the revolt.  Congress evoked the Platt Amendment, authorizing the U.S. to occupy Cuba.  In response, Roosevelt sent troops to the island where he once fought as a Rough Rider.  The U.S. won easily, and Roosevelt appointed Secretary of War Howard Taft the military governor of Cuba.

Months later, Roosevelt embarked on the first international trip of a sitting President.  He and First Lady Edith headed to Panama, where they saw the developments with the Panama Canal. 

Roosevelt visiting the Panama Canal under construction in 1906

Evoking the Roosevelt Corollary, the President later sent troops to Honduras in 1907 to bolster a pro-U.S. government.  This was the first time the U.S. propped up an international government favorable to its policy.  Under Roosevelt’s direction, the U.S. also built permanent military bases in Honduras, the first ever outside of the country.

The Panic of 1907 and Monetary Policy
 

In 1907, a major panic occurred in the United States as a result of a stock market collapse of more than 50%.  In late October, stocks crashed, companies failed, and a run began on banks nationwide. Coming 20 years before the Great Depression, it was one of the worst economic calamities the nation had ever experienced.

To bring relief to the national economy, Roosevelt needed to compromise on some of his principles, particularly his habit of “trust busting.”  Wall Street executives convinced him that he needed to allow the J.P. Morgan Company to buy the Knickerbocker Trust Company, whose shares had collapsed and brought panic throughout the market.  If he did not approve the deal, J.P. Morgan warned, the economy would worsen.  Allowing Morgan to buy the Trust Company would bring liquidity back to the market and restore confidence.  Despite concerns about an impending monopoly, Roosevelt was pressed for time and needed to decide before stocks opened for trading, so he approved the move.

As a result of the Panic, however, Roosevelt realized the need for a monetary system that could inject liquidity into a panicked market without needing private corporations to do so.  He thus created the National Monetary Council in May of 1908 to look into creating a Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve System was finally created in 1913, four years after Roosevelt left office.

President Taft

Chapter 5: The Bull Moose

Going on Safari

Although Roosevelt had only been elected president once, he had served nearly 8 years and followed precedent by not running for reelection in 1908. Instead, Teddy left the White House for William Howard Taft.  President Taft had won Roosevelt's personal support in 1908, and the former president was happy to vacate the White House to make room for Taft.  This political alliance, however, would break in a big way in 1912.

For the time, though, Roosevelt focused on his first love: nature and hunting.  Instead of simply hunting in the Adirondacks, as he often had, Roosevelt decided to embark on a trip to Africa.  In 1909, immediately after leaving the White House, Roosevelt headed for modern-day Kenya.  His hunting expedition, however, would take him through a great bulk of Africa, as he ventured into the central Congo and up through modern Sudan.  Always the preservationist, Roosevelt collected specimens to bring back to the United States for preservation in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  In the end, this included nearly 12,000 animals and insects, including over 500 big game mammals.  Hunting elephants, rhinos and hippos pleased Roosevelt more than any of the political squabbles he encountered in politics.

Roosevelt hunting elephants on safari

As President, Roosevelt had become a life-long member of the National Rifle Association.  Hunting was truly his passion, and he authored many books on the subjects before and after his Presidency, such as
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
, an account of his zoological trek through Brazil

The Election of 1912

In 1908, Roosevelt toyed with the idea of running for a third term.  He knew he could easily win reelection, but he had pledged not to seek more time as President when he ran in 1904.  He thus opted out and handpicked Howard Taft as his successor, believing him to be a committed progressive.

After his safari adventure, however, Roosevelt toured Europe, where he learned more about happenings in American politics since his departure.  Many progressives contacted him expressing their concerns about the Taft Presidency.  Roosevelt thus opted to return to the United States to figure things out for himself.

By late 1910, Roosevelt revised his opinion on Taft.  He wrote Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, saying “I finally had to admit that he [Taft] had gone wrong on certain points; and I then also had to admit to myself that deep down underneath I had all along known he was wrong.”  Thus, Roosevelt decided to unseat Taft and seek the Presidency himself.  Understanding the gravity of his decision, Roosevelt titled this chapter of his autobiography “Armageddon and Afterward.”

Roosevelt initially hesitated, however.  He opted into the Republican nominating process late in 1911.  Regardless, Roosevelt was able to win nine of the thirteen Presidential Primaries, and it was one of the first elections to use the process to nominate a candidate.  The remaining states, however, continued to allow Republican politicians to decide the fate of their delegates.  As such, Taft now controlled the party's power brokers and was able to narrowly secure the nomination over Roosevelt at the national convention.  Befriending politicians had never been Roosevelt's strong suit.

Roosevelt thus encountered a problem, one that had always plagued his political life: he was broadly popular with the public but was disdained by his fellow politicians, a dilemma that had brought him to the Vice Presidency in the first place. But the former president didn't give up then.  Roosevelt took his supporters out of the Republican National Convention in protest and formed his own Progressive Party.  When Teddy  proclaimed he was “as fit as a bull moose,” the party became known as the “Bull Moose Party.” 

Roosevelt's proposals throughout the nomination fight and the general election were some of his most radical.  He railed against the “unholy” alliance of government and corporate interests and accused them of holding a “sinister influence or control of special interests” over national government.  As president he was certainly a populist, but as a presidential candidate in 1912 he transformed into the populist's populist. 

The former president was now labelled a radical.  To this he wrote, “The criticism had been made of me that I am a radical.  So I am.  I couldn't be anything else, feeling as I do.  But I am a radical who most earnestly desires to see the radical programme carried out by conservatives.”  In his attacks, Roosevelt did not hold back.  He openly railed against specific corporations and conglomerates, including Standard Oil and U.S. Steel. 

On October 14
^th
, 1912, however, Roosevelt's campaign was brought to an unhappy end, albeit one that solidified the Roosevelt legend. Roosevelt was in Milwaukee to deliver a campaign speech when a local barkeep named John Schrank caught wind of Roosevelt’s location and shot him as he was leaving a hotel to deliver the speech at the Milwaukee Auditorium. Thankfully, the bullet passed through a folded up copy of Roosevelt’s 50 page speech and his eyeglass case before lodging in his ribcage short of his lungs or heart. An adept hunter and something of a scientist, Roosevelt noticed he was not coughing blood and concluded that the bullet must not have penetrated a vital organ.  In his typical cowboy-like fashion, Roosevelt refused to go to the hospital and delivered the speech with blood seeping through his shirt.  He announced to the audience that he had been shot, saying “it takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose.”

John Schrank

Roosevelt went to the hospital shortly after the assassination attempt and remained there for nearly a week.  Taft and challenger Woodrow Wilson halted their campaigns in honor of the former president, only resuming them when Roosevelt resumed his.

The assassination attempt, however, did not rally the American people around Roosevelt.  On Election Day, he came in second behind Wilson, with 27% of the vote, the most a third party candidate had ever won.  Incumbent President Taft came in third, making him the first president seeking reelection to lose by coming in third rather than second. However, the split in the Republican Party had handed the presidency to a Democrat. President Wilson was the first two-term Democratic President since before the Civil War.  

The defeat proved to be Roosevelt's last foray in politics, but Roosevelt continued to rail against Wilson throughout the remainder of his life.  He opposed the President's timidity on war in Europe and encouraged rapid US intervention there.  When the U.S. finally did enter the war, Roosevelt offered to create a volunteer regiment and serve on the front, but Wilson rejected his request, rightly believing the former President to be too old and weak. Several of Teddy’s sons did fight in World War I, and his youngest son Quentin was killed in 1918 while flying a mission over France.