Mid-Term Elections: 1906
Theodore Roosevelt has become President unexpectedly on September 14, 1901, following the death of William McKinley. Roosevelt, who had been Governor of New York, was placed on the ticket with McKinley largely at the urging of party bosses who wanted him out of the Governor's mansion because of his progressive reforms. They thought that putting him in the Vice-Presidency would have him in a place where he could do no harm (to their interests). They were mistaken.
Roosevelt proved to be more than a caretaker president and in 1904 he was elected as President in his own right. His re-nomination in 1904 was far from certain in an era when party bosses ran things and candidates were selected in smoke filled rooms. Many had expected Senator Mark Hanna, a close friend and advisor of former President William McKinley, to win the party's 1904 presidential nomination. Hanna had strong support from conservative businessmen who opposed many of Roosevelt's progressive policies. But Hanna faced opposition within his home state by influential Senator Joseph Foraker. Hanna died in February of 1904 and none of the other potential rivals for the 1904 Republican presidential nomination, garnered much support. At the 1904 Republican National Convention, Roosevelt secured his own nomination, but was not powerful enough to select his preferred vice-presidential running mate, Robert R. Hitt.
The Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 1904 was Alton B. Parker, the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Democrats hoped that Parker would be able unify the populist followers of William Jennings Bryan with the conservative supporters of former President Grover Cleveland, but this was too much to ask. Many Democrats supported Roosevelt because of his progressive leanings. Supported by both progressives and centrists, Roosevelt won 56% of the popular vote compared with 38% for Parker and Roosevelt won the electoral vote 336 to 140. Roosevelt's victory made him first president to be elected to a full term of his own after having succeeded to the presidency upon the death of a predecessor. His popular vote margin of 18.8% was the largest margin in U.S. history until the 1920 presidential election. But on election night, Roosevelt did something he would later come to regret. He pledged not to run for a third term.
One of the major issues in the 1906 mid-term elections would be labor relations. Roosevelt was reluctant to involve himself in labor-management disputes, though he believed that presidential intervention (or the use of the presidency as a "bully pulpit") was justified when labor disputes threatened the public interest. Union membership had doubled in the five years preceding Roosevelt's inauguration, and when he became President, Roosevelt saw labor unrest as one of the greatest possible threats facing the country. On the other hand, he was also sympathetic to many laborers for the harsh conditions that they were forced to work under. However he strongly opposed the extensive reforms proposed by labor leaders such as Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
When the United Mine Workers (UMW) organized an anthracite coal strike in May 1902, the demanded an eight-hour work day and pay increases. Mine owners wanted to crush the UMW, and they refused to negotiate. As the strike continued, the price of coal increased from five to fifteen dollars per ton. Roosevelt invited the UMW leaders and mine operators at the White House in October 1902, but the mine owners refused to negotiate. With help from J.P. Morgan, Roosevelt pressured the mine operators to agree to the establishment of a presidential commission to propose a solution to the strike. In March 1903, the commission mandated pay increases and a reduction in the workday from ten hours to nine hours, but UMW was not granted official recognition as the bargaining agent for the miners. It was a solution that left both sides unsatisfied.
Labor unrest continued during Roosevelt's presidency. In Colorado, the Western Federation of Miners led a series of strikes that became known as the Colorado Labor Wars. Roosevelt did not intervene in the dispute and Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody dispatched the Colorado National Guard to crush the strikes. In 1905, union leaders like Mary Harris Jones and Eugene V. Debs established the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
In 1906, when mid-term elections were held, the Republican Party lost seats in Congress. Labor unrest was seen as the reason. The Republican Party still retained a large overall majority, but growing dissatisfaction with working conditions and resentment toward union busting caused many industrial laborers in the Atlantic and Midwest states to turn out to the polls in large numbers in support of the Democratic Party. The Democrats' gains in these regions were not enough to dislodge the Republican majority or the strong support that the party held among the middle class. But Republicans lost 28 seats in the House of Representatives, reducing their majority from 251 to 223 seats. Democrats increased their number from 135 to 167, a gain of 32 seats. Republican losses were strongest in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri.
Republicans gained three seats in the Senate, but these were in non-industrial states where Roosevelt was very popular: Colorado, Idaho and Montana. These victories gave Republicans 60 seats in the Senate, while the Democrats lost 5 seats overall. As these elections were prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, and occurred at a time when Senators were chosen by state legislatures.
It is unclear what part, if any, the results of these mid-term elections had on Roosevelt's decision to shift to the left politically, but that is what he did. In 1907, Roosevelt himself with the left side of the Republican Party. He said:
Again and again in my public career I have had to make head against mob spirit, against the tendency of poor, ignorant and turbulent people who feel a rancorous jealousy and hatred of those who are better off. But during the last few years it has been the wealthy corruptionists of enormous fortune, and of enormous influence through their agents of the press, pulpit, colleges and public life, with whom I've had to wage bitter war."
His decision was undoubtedly affected by growing popular outrage over corporate greed and scandals, fueled by the reporting of muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. Much like the Democrats had experienced in 1896, now it was the Republicans turn to experience a split between conservatives and progressives. Roosevelt did not fully embrace what those like Robert LaFollette were selling, but he adopted many of their positions. In his last two years in office, he called on Congress to enact a series of radical new laws in the workplace and called for a larger regulatory role for the federal government. He believed that many 20th-century capitalists had made their fortunes unjustly, and expressed the fear that the country would turn to radicalism or worse, to revolution.
In January 1908, Roosevelt sent a special message to Congress, calling a number of progressive proposals, including a federal income tax and inheritance tax (targeted at the rich), limits on the use of injunctions against labor unions during strikes, an eight-hour work day for federal employees, and legislation barring corporations from contributing to political campaigns. Even populist Democrats like William Jennings Bryan expressed support for Roosevelt's message, while conservatives rebuked him. One Southern newspaper called for Roosevelt to run as a Democrat in 1908, with Bryan as his running mate. But conservative Republicans such as Senator Nelson Aldrich and Speaker Joseph Cannon remained in control of Congress and blocked Roosevelt's progressive agenda. One of Roosevelt's biggest opponents would be a man who had once been his closest supporter, his successor, William Howard Taft.
Roosevelt proved to be more than a caretaker president and in 1904 he was elected as President in his own right. His re-nomination in 1904 was far from certain in an era when party bosses ran things and candidates were selected in smoke filled rooms. Many had expected Senator Mark Hanna, a close friend and advisor of former President William McKinley, to win the party's 1904 presidential nomination. Hanna had strong support from conservative businessmen who opposed many of Roosevelt's progressive policies. But Hanna faced opposition within his home state by influential Senator Joseph Foraker. Hanna died in February of 1904 and none of the other potential rivals for the 1904 Republican presidential nomination, garnered much support. At the 1904 Republican National Convention, Roosevelt secured his own nomination, but was not powerful enough to select his preferred vice-presidential running mate, Robert R. Hitt.
The Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 1904 was Alton B. Parker, the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Democrats hoped that Parker would be able unify the populist followers of William Jennings Bryan with the conservative supporters of former President Grover Cleveland, but this was too much to ask. Many Democrats supported Roosevelt because of his progressive leanings. Supported by both progressives and centrists, Roosevelt won 56% of the popular vote compared with 38% for Parker and Roosevelt won the electoral vote 336 to 140. Roosevelt's victory made him first president to be elected to a full term of his own after having succeeded to the presidency upon the death of a predecessor. His popular vote margin of 18.8% was the largest margin in U.S. history until the 1920 presidential election. But on election night, Roosevelt did something he would later come to regret. He pledged not to run for a third term.
One of the major issues in the 1906 mid-term elections would be labor relations. Roosevelt was reluctant to involve himself in labor-management disputes, though he believed that presidential intervention (or the use of the presidency as a "bully pulpit") was justified when labor disputes threatened the public interest. Union membership had doubled in the five years preceding Roosevelt's inauguration, and when he became President, Roosevelt saw labor unrest as one of the greatest possible threats facing the country. On the other hand, he was also sympathetic to many laborers for the harsh conditions that they were forced to work under. However he strongly opposed the extensive reforms proposed by labor leaders such as Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
When the United Mine Workers (UMW) organized an anthracite coal strike in May 1902, the demanded an eight-hour work day and pay increases. Mine owners wanted to crush the UMW, and they refused to negotiate. As the strike continued, the price of coal increased from five to fifteen dollars per ton. Roosevelt invited the UMW leaders and mine operators at the White House in October 1902, but the mine owners refused to negotiate. With help from J.P. Morgan, Roosevelt pressured the mine operators to agree to the establishment of a presidential commission to propose a solution to the strike. In March 1903, the commission mandated pay increases and a reduction in the workday from ten hours to nine hours, but UMW was not granted official recognition as the bargaining agent for the miners. It was a solution that left both sides unsatisfied.
Labor unrest continued during Roosevelt's presidency. In Colorado, the Western Federation of Miners led a series of strikes that became known as the Colorado Labor Wars. Roosevelt did not intervene in the dispute and Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody dispatched the Colorado National Guard to crush the strikes. In 1905, union leaders like Mary Harris Jones and Eugene V. Debs established the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
In 1906, when mid-term elections were held, the Republican Party lost seats in Congress. Labor unrest was seen as the reason. The Republican Party still retained a large overall majority, but growing dissatisfaction with working conditions and resentment toward union busting caused many industrial laborers in the Atlantic and Midwest states to turn out to the polls in large numbers in support of the Democratic Party. The Democrats' gains in these regions were not enough to dislodge the Republican majority or the strong support that the party held among the middle class. But Republicans lost 28 seats in the House of Representatives, reducing their majority from 251 to 223 seats. Democrats increased their number from 135 to 167, a gain of 32 seats. Republican losses were strongest in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri.
Republicans gained three seats in the Senate, but these were in non-industrial states where Roosevelt was very popular: Colorado, Idaho and Montana. These victories gave Republicans 60 seats in the Senate, while the Democrats lost 5 seats overall. As these elections were prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, and occurred at a time when Senators were chosen by state legislatures.
It is unclear what part, if any, the results of these mid-term elections had on Roosevelt's decision to shift to the left politically, but that is what he did. In 1907, Roosevelt himself with the left side of the Republican Party. He said:
Again and again in my public career I have had to make head against mob spirit, against the tendency of poor, ignorant and turbulent people who feel a rancorous jealousy and hatred of those who are better off. But during the last few years it has been the wealthy corruptionists of enormous fortune, and of enormous influence through their agents of the press, pulpit, colleges and public life, with whom I've had to wage bitter war."
His decision was undoubtedly affected by growing popular outrage over corporate greed and scandals, fueled by the reporting of muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. Much like the Democrats had experienced in 1896, now it was the Republicans turn to experience a split between conservatives and progressives. Roosevelt did not fully embrace what those like Robert LaFollette were selling, but he adopted many of their positions. In his last two years in office, he called on Congress to enact a series of radical new laws in the workplace and called for a larger regulatory role for the federal government. He believed that many 20th-century capitalists had made their fortunes unjustly, and expressed the fear that the country would turn to radicalism or worse, to revolution.
In January 1908, Roosevelt sent a special message to Congress, calling a number of progressive proposals, including a federal income tax and inheritance tax (targeted at the rich), limits on the use of injunctions against labor unions during strikes, an eight-hour work day for federal employees, and legislation barring corporations from contributing to political campaigns. Even populist Democrats like William Jennings Bryan expressed support for Roosevelt's message, while conservatives rebuked him. One Southern newspaper called for Roosevelt to run as a Democrat in 1908, with Bryan as his running mate. But conservative Republicans such as Senator Nelson Aldrich and Speaker Joseph Cannon remained in control of Congress and blocked Roosevelt's progressive agenda. One of Roosevelt's biggest opponents would be a man who had once been his closest supporter, his successor, William Howard Taft.