Colin Ruckel
Period 6 3/10/13 The Progressive Era was a time of social activism and political reform in the United States staring from the 1890s to the 1920s. Three men, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, were presidents in these times, each playing an important role. The two presidents that made a major impact on the Progressive Era though were Roosevelt and Wilson. Though both presidents were hard working and intelligent, Roosevelt was the bigger progressive. Three reasons why Roosevelt was the bigger progressive is because of his controls of corporation, hid dedications towards National Parks and his creation of the Progressive Party. One reason why Roosevelt was the bigger progressive was because hi control in corporations. During the time, monopolies were everywhere and spreading fast. Prices they were throwing at people were outrageous and unfair. Roosevelt felt the people’s pain and decided that enough was enough. He showed an example of what he was going to do about this problem by taking on one of the biggest monopolists in the nation, J.P. Morgan, E.H. Harriman and James Hill. Roosevelt said that they were in violation of the Sherman Anti Trust Act for combining their companies into a holding company. This went to the Supreme Court and was decided that Roosevelt was right. Soon later, Congress created the Department of Commerce and Labor to investigate corporations and report their activities. Another reason why Roosevelt was the bigger progressive was because of his dedication towards National Parks. Roosevelt was a very social and outgoing president and especially loved being in the great outdoors. When seeing companies cutting down forests to set industries, he became very upset. He decided to do something about this so he devoted some of his time to conserving
