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How Did Roosevelt Change During The Progressive Era Dbq

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In the early 1900s in the United States, there was a time of reform at the national level. During the Progressive Era, specifically the years 1900 through 1920, the nation was going through many changes, especially with the different presidents: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, and the limitations of labor and citizen life as a whole. Roosevelt was a progressive republican president. He did many great things for the Progressive Era and for overall progress of the country. The first federal action against monopolies was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which Roosevelt used to bust bad trusts. He also tried to save the good ones, and was pretty successful busting most of the bad trusts (Document 1). Roosevelt passed the food and drug act and the meat inspection act to keep food products safe and healthy, after people exposed the meat processing industry and lied about what was in food and medicine. Taft was another president of the Progressive Era. However, he was very limited compared to Roosevelt. Taft busted the good trusts that Roosevelt wanted to keep around. Instead of busting the bad trusts, he busted all of the trusts. Taft also tried to reduce taxes with the Payne Aldrich Tariff, but it scarcely reduced the rates. Overall, Taft was the …show more content…

He started a new freedom in the United States. Wilson passed the 16th Amendment, which gave the right of income taxes, and the 17th Amendment, which established the direct election of senators. Theodore Roosevelt pushed for the direct vote of senators and Wilson worked to make what Roosevelt wanted to happen (Document 4). Wilson also established the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which strengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (Document 5). Wilson strengthened everything that Roosevelt wanted to do. However, he usually could also see both sides to any argument. Therefore, it made the people think he couldn’t make a decision, or in many cases, the right decision. (Document

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