Domestic and Foreign Policy Attitudes
...is anti-trust act, did not force the trusts to break apart, but rather specified the activities that big businesses could not do. Roosevelt began the dissembling of the trusts and Taft and Wilson completed his task. The concern of tariffs was also addressed by the Progressive leaders. Roosevelt did not reform tariffs during his presidency, however when Taft came into office he put up a fight to reduce them. Taft called a Congress meeting to pass tariff reduction, but his plan backfired and the House only passed some reductions and the Senate added some highly protective tariff increases. The debate of the tariffs led to the Payne-Aldrich Tariff which was a protective measure that angered progressives. When Wilson entered office he made it a nessecarity to carry out Taft’s intended tariff Reduction. Wilson carried out the Progressive goal of tariff reduction with great conviction. Part of Wilson’s “New Freedom” policy, he passed the Underwood Tariff Act, reduced average tariff rates from 40% to 25%, and signed into law a federal income tax to make up for loss of government revenue. Tariffs varied in importance to each leader; however it was always a concern of the Progressive reformers. Unlike the domestic policies of the progressive leaders, the foreign policies under each president differed dramatically. Roosevelt who was a huge advocate of imperialism, acted with great force. He believed that one only needed to impose a threat in order to have compliance, which was known as “big stick diplomacy”. Therefore, Roosevelt deployed military force, allowing him to conduct aggressively. Under the Roosevelt Corollary, he claimed that the U.S. did not want any more territories but rather only wanted to see the countries in economic stability and in order. The U.S. would only intervene if they saw the countries participating in affairs harmful to the interests of the U.S.. Roosevelt’s plan made his presidential power advance, while the people and Congress’ power were weakened. Roosevelt’s selfishness to gaining power outraged many Latin Americans and displeased the Congress. After Roosevelt’s presidency, the foreign affairs consisted of a complex mix of political alliances and world events that called for a new approach to foreign policy. Under Taft’s presidency, foreign policy had a new aim. Taft, who was more passive with his foreign affairs, wanted to maintain an open door to Asia and preserve the stability in Latin America. Taft wanted to “substitute dollars for bullets” meaning that he wanted to maintain order in foreign policy by increasing the American investment in the abroad economies. Taft’s controversial plan became know as the “dollar diplomacy”. Taft’s foreign policies did not involve the threat of military force that Roosevelt’s policies were based upon; in fact his policies denounced the action of any brutality to the developing countries. Taft’s “dollar diplomacy” proved to be unsuccessful and created enemies in Latin America, who had enough of the rise of international power under Roosevelt and Taft. When Wilson resumed office, he felt the need for immediate change with...