by Tom Ontis

Created on: May 16, 2008

The Progressive Era in our country was generally speaking, the years between 1901 and 1920. Three presidents served in that era: Theodore (Don't call me Teddy) Roosevelt, his hand picked successor William Howard Taft, and Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt and Taft came from the Republican side of the ledger, Wilson from the Democratic side.

Roosevelt was one of our 'accidental' presidents. He seceded to the office upon the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. He had been Vice President for for just about six months. (In those days, presidents were inaugurated in early March.) Roosevelt had only reached that post at the insistence of some Republican party power brokers, who felt he was a nuisance in some of his posts: Police Commissioner in New York City, Civil Service Commissioner, when he insisted that the 'spoils system' of obtaining government jobs end. Roosevelt had wanted to someday be president, a job which he felt he had trained.

There are no two ways about it calling Roosevelt the most progressive (small 'p' until that time.) He championed the views of little people, the ordinary Joe. He is perhaps best known for his trust busting activities, in which he broke up the monopolies of many large corporations and his attacks upon the meat packing industry. When we buy a food product today and its lists all of the ingredients, that was a result of Roosevelt's efforts.

He decided soon after he was elected on his own in 1904 that he would not run for president again. He was quoted as saying that was the worst political decision that he ever made. When th election of 1908 came around, he hand chose William Howard Taft to run as his successor. He handily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan by more than one million votes.

In he eyes of Roosevelt, Taft was a disappointment as a progressive. Roosevelt felt that he was siding with the corporations that the progressives were fighting against. Roosevelt decided to run for a third term in 1912. Taft, as a sitting president, could not be denied the nomination of the Republican Party. So he came the standard bearer of the Progressive Party, one of the many parties that had taken, or would take that moniker in presidential contests. The party became known as the 'Bull Moose Party. When Roosevelt was asked about his health (he had been sickly as a child,) he said that he was fit as a bull moose.

The Democrats also nominated a progressive: Governor Thomas Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. An academic who had taught Political

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