Page "Theodore Roosevelt" Paragraph 70

Roosevelt certified William Howard Taft to be a genuine " progressive " in 1908, when Roosevelt pushed through the nomination of his Secretary of War for the Presidency.

Taft easily defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan.

Taft promoted a different progressivism, one that stressed the rule of law and preferred that judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic decisions about fairness.

Taft usually proved a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable.

When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk severe tensions inside the Republican Party — pitting producers ( manufacturers and farmers ) against merchants and consumers — he stopped talking about the issue.

Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high.

The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator Nelson Aldrich and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best tariff ever.

He again had managed to alienate all sides.

While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man.