The War of 1912

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The Bull Moose Party got off to a thundering start. Within seven weeks, the Progressives had established the party in nearly every state and were back in Chicago for their first national convention. But who were the Progressives? Although Republicans of the day cast the Progressives as radicals, in truth they were teachers and lawyers, farmers and small-town folk, urban reformers of every ilk, crusaders for peace and women's suffrage, champions of the little guy. They were less a movement than a catch basin for civic-minded men and women impatient with politics as usual but a bit frightened of Eugene V. Debs and his Socialist Party. While many Progressives could not see past their pet causes, T.R. managed to bring them together in a big tent held aloft by the idea that the government, which ought to serve the people, had been hijacked by special interests. "To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day," the Progressive platform declared.

A brief for a strong Federal Government, the Progressive platform was so far ahead of its time on many points (Social Security and the minimum wage, for example) that it would take a generation and another Roosevelt, T.R.'s fifth cousin Franklin, to bring them into being. In hopes of protecting the investing public from swindlers, the Progressives called for federal regulation of stock offerings and fuller disclosure of corporate financial transactions, ideas that found their way into the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934.

During his presidency, a time when corporations were growing ever larger, Roosevelt operated on the principle that the Federal Government was the only institution strong enough to combat their Darwinian tendency to crush competitors and maximize profits by keeping wages low and prices high. In 1912 he was even more adamant.

T.R. welcomed African Americans into his new party, but the whites organizing the Progressives of the Deep South insisted that if any black were permitted to hold a party office or serve as a delegate, Southern whites would refuse to join. Left to choose between acquiescence and no presence in the South, Roosevelt acquiesced and was roundly criticized. W.E.B. DuBois and other black leaders saw Roosevelt as a hypocrite and threw their support to the Democratic nominee, Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. They would regret it. Southern Democrats were frankly committed to white supremacy. Wilson's Cabinet, dominated by Southerners, soon resegregated the civil service, erasing most of the gains made during the Roosevelt and Taft presidencies.

As the Progressives at the convention moved toward the moment of anointing Roosevelt as their first presidential candidate, his lieutenants were scrambling to line up a Vice President. T.R. yearned for Hiram Johnson, the Progressive Governor of California, but Johnson yearned not to run. He was sure that the Bull Moose Party would lose and that his career would be over. Johnson did not surrender until the last minute, after Roosevelt's men insisted that if the great T.R. did not shrink from defeat in a noble cause, no one else should either.

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Cover Package: The Making of America - Theodore Roosevelt

• Cover Story: The Making of America — Theodore Roosevelt At home and abroad, he was the locomotive president, the man who drew his flourishing nation into the future
• The War of 1912 T.R. failed in his brash bid to regain the White House, but his Bull Moose Party pushed ideas that would animate the century
• The Police Commish With righteous fury and mixed results, Roosevelt tried to weed out corrupt cops and suppress vice in big, bad New York City in the 1890s
• The Self-Made Man He was a sickly child. But through sheer will, muscular effort--and a lot of time in the great outdoors--he became a powerful, passionate adult
• The River of Doubt Roosevelt nearly died while exploring an uncharted stretch of the Amazon. It was his final adventure
• Charging Into Fame One "crowded hour" on a hillside in Cuba made Roosevelt a national hero. A look behind the legend
• Birth Of A Superpower Roosevelt's expanded Navy vanquished Spain and helped the U.S. project its might around the world
• How To Shrink The World Roosevelt called building the Panama Canal "by far the most important action" he had taken in foreign affairs. Why did he succeed where others had failed? He made his own rules
• The Strenuous Life
• Fighting the Fat Cats To put the brakes on the growth of huge, monopolistic corporations, Teddy took on one of the nation's richest men: J. Pierpont Morgan
• Lessons from a Larger-than-Life President
• An American Princess Irreverent Alice Roosevelt Longworth exasperated her father Teddy and enchanted Washington's elite
• A Step Back For Blacks Despite a promising start, the Progressive-era President failed to provide a square deal for all
• The Roosevelt Legacy Bush Shouldn't Carry On Conservatives unhappy with the President's limitless ambition and world-saving impulses wish he would find a different 20th century Republican hero than Teddy
• Why we should study Theodore Roosevelt Because he was a natural maverick and reformer who did what he thought was right — whether with regard to the environment, immigration, or America's role abroad

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