The

and the "safe and sane" element was in the saddle. The Democrats nominated Alton B. Parker of New York. Their platform was remarkable chiefly for what it did not contain: it was silent upon the money question. The reason for abandoning the freesilver issue was stated as follows, although the statement did not appear in the platform: "The discovery of gold in the last few years and the greatly increased production thereof, adding $2,000,000,000 to the world's supply, of which $700,000,000 falls to the share of the United States, have contributed to the maintenance of a money standard of values no longer open to question, removing that issue from the field of political contention." The Socialist party, which in 1900 had nominated Eugene V. Debs, named him again as their candidate in 1904.

The campaign was unusually listless and uninteresting. No question of great policy came up for discussion. At the close of the campaign, however, there was a little excitement about camCampaign paign contributions. Judge Parker, having directed attention to the fact that George B. Cortelyou had resigned the post of secretary of commerce and labor in order to become the manager of the campaign, intimated that the ex-secretary was using information he had acquired as a member of the cabinet to force large contributions from the corporations, and declared the Republican campaign was being financed by corporations. Roosevelt asserted that Parker's statement was "unqualifiedly and atrociously false." In form Judge Parker's accusation was unfortunate and wide of the mark, yet subsequent revelations showed that it contained a considerable amount of unpleasant truth. As a matter of fact, the total sum contributed to the Cortelyou campaign fund was $1,900,000, and of this $1,400,000 came from corporations. If the actual facts about the campaign funds had been made public before the election the result upon the voting would doubtless have been inappreciable. The people trusted Roosevelt and they wanted him, corporation contributions or no corporation contributions. They elected him by the largest majority that had up to that time ever been given

In after years Roosevelt said that he knew nothing personally about the con tributions.

to a candidate for the Presidency. The popular vote was 7,677,000 for Roosevelt and 6,407,000 for Parker. The electoral vote was 321 for Roosevelt and 162 for Parker.

ROOSEVELT'S SECOND TERM

Rate

Law

After his election in 1904, President Roosevelt, feeling that he was no longer restrained by the pledge made to follow in the footsteps of McKinley (p. 533), and regarding himself now as the chosen spokesman of the people, asserted his leadership with renewed vigor. Early in his second term he directed his attention to the railroad question. In 1903 Congress had passed the Elkins Act forbidding railroads to grant rebates to favored shippers. But to forbid rebates was not enough. The President desired, he said, "the enactment into law of some scheme to secure to the agents of the Government such supervision and regulation of the rates charged by the railroads of the country engaged in interstate traffic as shall summarily and effectively prevent the imposition of unjust or unreasonable rates." So, in accordance with the wishes of the President, Congress after a long and exceptionally able debate, passed The in June, 1906, the Hepburn Act. This gave the Interstate Commerce Commission, upon the complaint of an interested shipper (or passenger), the power to do away with a rate that it regarded as unjust or unreasonable, and to fix a new rate that it regarded as just and reasonable. . . The law broadened the term "common carrier" so as to bring under the power of the commission not only railroads but express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipe-lines carrying oil. It also prohibited railroads from engaging in the business of mining iron or coal, or producing commodities that they were accustomed to carry as freight. This "commodity clause," however, was rendered virtually ineffective (in 1908) by a decision of the Supreme Court. In one respect the Hepburn Act was an important statute: it was the first law to give an express grant of the rate-making power to an agency of the Federal Government. Otherwise the act of 1906 had little or no claim to distinction. Its provisions in their practical

of

1906

application were so faulty that the relief that was sought was not found, and, as we shall presently learn, it soon became necessary to pass another railroad law.

Another regulation of interstate commerce urged by President Roosevelt referred to the sale of foods and drugs. Drug manufacturers and food companies had been supplying the public with adulterated and impure articles to such an extent that the practice had become dangerous to the public health. So Congress (in June, 1906) passed the Pure Food Act, which imposed a penalty for using poisonous or otherwise injurious substances in the adulteration of articles shipped from one State to another and forbade the false labeling and branding of goods. Under this law it is permissible to sell adulterated goods, but the nature of the adulteration must be stated so that the public may know precisely what it is buying. Still another measure passed in 1906 in response to a popular demand and in line with the urgent recommendations of the President was the Meat Inspection Bill. This provided for a system of inspection that would guarantee that meat shipped in interstate commerce should be derived from animals that were healthy at the time of their slaughter, that it should be prepared under sanitary conditions, and that it should be inspected by officers of the Federal Government.

President Roosevelt was especially zealous in his efforts to conserve our natural resources. It had been the habit of past administrations to deal with the mines and forests and with the water-power sites of the national domain in a lavish and wasteful manner. President Roosevelt made heroic efforts to change the policy of wastefulness to one of careful conservation. He set on foot plans for reclaiming by irrigation vast areas of arid lands; he checked deforestation by adding many millions of acres to the forest reserves; he prosecuted and brought to punishment men who were unlawfully seizing the public lands. In 1908 he called a conference of governors and of other prominent public men to discuss the subject of conservation, and as an outcome of this conference popular

and official interest in the movement for conservation was stimulated in a remarkable degree.

When President Roosevelt received the news of his success in the election of 1904 he gave out a written statement saying: "On the fourth of March next I shall have served three and one half years, and this three and one half years constitutes my first term. The wise custom which limits the President to two terms regards the substance and not the form. Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination." Nevertheless, in 1908 great pressure was brought to bear upon Roosevelt to stand for reëlection. He refused, however, to be a candidate. He lent his support to the candidacy of William Howard Taft of Ohio, who received the Republican nomination. The Democrats for the third time nominated William Jennings Bryan, who had regained his leadership and who was easily the master of the nominating convention. The Socialists for the third time nominated Eugene V. Debs. The Republican platform declared for a revision of the tariff but did not indicate whether the revision was to raise or lower the rates. The Democratic platform declared that the question, "Shall the people rule?" was the overshadowing issue of the campaign. The platform of the Socialists declared for the collective ownership of the means of transportation and also of those industries which were organized on a national scale and in which competition no longer existed.

The Nominees and the Platforms in 1908

The campaign of 1908 failed to awaken the enthusiasm of The Campaign the people. In some of its aspects it was not a creditable of 1908 incident in the history of party politics. There were underhanded methods of campaigning, the discussions were evasive and lacking in frankness, and there was an undue obtrusion of personalities. Mr. Bryan tried to force the trust issue. His remedies for trust evils were: first, a law preventing a duplication of directors among competing corporations; second, a license system that would make it necessary for a manufacturing or trading corporation engaged in interstate

commerce to take out a federal license before it should be permitted to control as much as twenty-five per cent of the product in which it dealt, as well as a license to protect the public from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such a corporation of more than fifty per cent of the total amount of any product consumed in the United States; and, third, a law compelling such licensed corporations to sell to all purchasers in all parts of the country on the same terms after making due allowance for cost of transportation. Here was something entirely new in the history of the trust problem. Never before had a responsible leader of any party come forward with a program sufficiently specific for statutory enactment. Yet Bryan failed to force the trust issue. mind of the average voter the trusts had got the industrial situation where it was beyond remedy; the "egg had been scrambled," and there was no use in trying to unscramble it. At any rate, the proposals of Bryan were not very well received. He toured the country, but his speeches did not seem to strike home. In the East he found himself opposed by the capitalistic forces; in the West he had to face the great popularity of President Roosevelt, who entered into the campaign personally and fought with all his might for Mr. Taft. The result of the election was an overwhelming victory for Taft, who received 321 electoral votes against 162 for Bryan.

EXERCISES AND REFERENCES

To the

I. Theodore Roosevelt: Lingley, 448-472; Van Metre, 501-518. 2. Roosevelt's second term: Haworth, 317-340.

3. Building the Panama Canal: Latané, 204-223.

4. The beginning of a new century: Haworth, 424-447.

5. Election of 1908: Ogg, National Progress, 1-18.

6. Industrial conditions: Van Metre, 501-518.

7. Dates for the chronological table: 1903, 1906.

8. Prepare a summary of this chapter.

9. Hints for special reading: Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography; C. R. Van Hise, The Conservation of Natural Resources.

The trust question was never fought out at the polls. The bank question (p. 276), the slavery question (p. 357), the tariff question (p. 490), the currency question (p. 517), and the question of imperialism (p. 532) each assumed a form that made it possible for it to become a clear-cut issue at a national election, but the trust question was never brought squarely before the people to be voted upon.