America's Money Machine

PART I / THE ROOTS OF REFORM
proposals were rejected by Congress. Other legislation of the Taft Administration
in the direction ofcentralization ofauthority were the Mann­
Elkins Act, which placed telephone, telegraph, cable, and wireless companies
under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission and
authorized the Commission to suspend rates pending a court decision;
a postal savings bank system which put the Federal government in the
banking business, and a tariff act (the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of April
9, 1909) which lowered duties from an average of 57 percent to around
38 per cent.
Despite these evidences of "progressivism," dissatisfaction with Taft
within his own party became pronounced, and during the debates on the
Payne-Aldrich tariff bill open dissension emerged under the leadership
of Senator Robert M. La FoUette. Opposition to Taft mounted when, in
a speech at Winona, Minnesota, he termed the tariffbill "the best bill that
the Republican Party ever passed."1
Theodore Roosevelt returned from a year of big game hunting in
Africa and a triumphal tour in Europe to find again an opportunity and
a demand for his political talents. Drawn by an appeal to public service,
and perhaps to a considerable degree by ambition,* he·began to angle
for the leadership of the insurgent wing. In a speech at Osawatomie,
Kansas, on August 31, 1910, on "The New Nationalism" he backed the
Supreme Court's attitude toward social legislation and announced the
political doctrine "that every man holds his property subject to the general
right of the community to regulate its use to whatever. degree the
public welfare may require it."
The speech was interpreted as an open break with his protege, Taft.
Opposition to Taft within the Party was further strengthened by the
election losses in the fall ofthat year and in the followingJanuary Senator
La Follette instigated the formation of the National Progressive Republican
League for "the promotion of popular government and progressive
legislation." Among its objects were: direct election of U. S. Senators;
direct primaries for the nomination ofelective officers; direct election of
delegates to the national conventions; amendment of state constitutions
to provide for the initiative, referendum and recall; and a corrupt practices
act. The president of the new organization was Senator Jonathan
Bourne of Oregon, and the obvious objective was to gain control of the
Republican organization, block the renomination of Taft and choose
their own candidate, Senator La FoUette.
*This is vigorously denied by his biographers.