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U.S. History 1877-Present 5: Taft During the Progressive Era 12347 Views
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Description:
Taft may be most famous for bathtubs these days, but he did tons of other important things as well like breaking up Standard Oil, levying income taxes, and establishing that state senators would be elected by popular vote. And okay...yes, he did have a custom bathtub built that could fit four normal sized men inside it. So what?
Transcript
- 00:00
After Teddy decided
- 00:05
not to run for a second full term, [Teddy hands over a baby to Taft]
- 00:07
William Howard Taft became
- 00:09
the next president. These days, Taft
- 00:11
is most famous for being, uh,
Full Transcript
- 00:13
big. And yes, at 5 foot 11 inches,
- 00:15
Taft was a tall guy in the day. [Taft with long legs appears on screen]
- 00:17
But, uh, that's not the kind of "big" we're
- 00:19
talking about. We mean Taft was
- 00:21
a heavy guy who at times weighed about [Taft struggles to enter the door]
- 00:23
340 pounds while he was
- 00:25
in office. But other than that,
- 00:27
Taft doesn't loom large in the annals
- 00:29
of the U.S. presidency. When Taft
- 00:31
won the presidency in 1908, the Republican [Image of William Taft & James Sherman]
- 00:33
party and other leaders were relieved.
- 00:35
After years of getting bullied by Roosevelt [Roosevelt laughs]
- 00:37
from his aptly named "bully pulpit,"
- 00:39
politicians were glad to see someone
- 00:41
come to office who didn't push the executive [Taft walks with a big stick in his hand]
- 00:43
office's powers. But Taft
- 00:45
did manage to do enough stuff to tick
- 00:47
off the progressive members of his party. [Taft sits in front of a board and reads it]
- 00:49
For example, he signed legislation
- 00:51
that didn't lower tariffs
- 00:53
and had the nerve to fire Gifford [Taft fires Gifford Pinchot]
- 00:55
Pinchot, a Roosevelt appointment
- 00:57
to the Bureau of Forestry.
- 00:59
The Progressives were like, uh, [The Progressive pops in]
- 01:01
"Nobody does that to Gifford Pinchot,
- 01:03
man! Nobody!" To which
- 01:05
Taft said, uh, "would somebody get me out [Taft takes a bath in tub]
- 01:07
of this darn bathtub?" Heh, just kidding.
- 01:09
He probably said "whatever" and moved on with
- 01:11
life. Pass me the butter. [Taft stands near a dinning table]
- 01:13
In general, Taft became more conservative
- 01:15
during his term, which continued to make
- 01:17
Progressives hate him more and more.
- 01:19
We're pretty sure that Taft dartboards became [dartboard with Taft's face on it]
- 01:21
popular in progressive hangouts.
- 01:23
Well despite all that, Taft did some awfully [Taft cuddles baby in his arms]
- 01:25
progressive-sounding stuff when he was in office.
- 01:27
For example, he expanded the powers of
- 01:29
the central government when he gave the Interstate
- 01:31
Commerce Commission the power to impose
- 01:33
railroad rates. His administration
- 01:35
also instigated 80 [ A list of lawsuits against Taft]
- 01:37
antitrust lawsuits, including the one
- 01:39
that led successfully to the breakup of
- 01:41
Standard Oil in 1911. And
- 01:43
it was an ugly breakup, to say the least.
- 01:45
Taft also signed the 16th
- 01:47
Amendment, which allowed the U.S. government to let [Article XVI of legislation empowering government to collect taxes appears on screen]
- 01:49
the income taxes, and the 17th Amendment,
- 01:51
which established the election of
- 01:53
senators by popular vote and not by
- 01:55
state legislatures.
- 01:57
Finally, Taft also established the Federal [The lady holds a poster which depicts child welfare program]
- 01:59
Children's Bureau to protect
- 02:01
the welfare of American kids.
- 02:03
A lot of people don't make a big deal out of these [A groups of boys]
- 02:05
accomplishments today, but they did create lasting
- 02:07
protections for consumers and for [Statue bearing label of Children' s Bureau moves in front of the mob of boys]
- 02:09
children. Despite the fact that
- 02:11
Taft ticked off members of the Republican party, they [An elephants moves near Taft]
- 02:13
still nominated him for reelection.
- 02:15
Teddy Roosevelt, though, wasn't [Roosevelt points finger]
- 02:17
feeling the love for Taft. T.R.
- 02:19
was so disappointed with Taft and the Republican [Taft attacks Roosevelt with knife]
- 02:21
Party that he left the Republicans.
- 02:23
In a kind of political hissy fit,
- 02:25
he stomped off to form his own party,
- 02:27
which he called the Bull Moose Party. [The symbol of Bull Moose Party]
- 02:29
Because, uh, why not?
- 02:31
Anyway, his plan to show up Taft
- 02:33
and the Republicans by winning the presidency
- 02:35
backfired, though, since his candidacy [The vote distribution among Republicans and Democrats]
- 02:37
split the Republican vote between he
- 02:39
and Taft. Well, this meant that the
- 02:41
Democratic party candidate, Woodrow
- 02:43
Wilson, who only garnered 42 [The newspaper headings displays the triumph of Wilson in the election]
- 02:45
percent of the vote, won the election.
- 02:47
Taft was actually glad [Taft in the bathtub]
- 02:49
to leave the presidential office, and later was
- 02:51
much happier serving as a Supreme Court
- 02:53
Justice under President Harding. [Image of bench of Supreme Court judges]
- 02:55
Taft later wrote,
- 02:57
"I don't remember that I was ever
- 02:59
President." To which Teddy Roosevelt
- 03:01
probably said, uh, "well, that explains [Taft talks to Roosevelt in his office]
- 03:03
a lot."
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