Which president busted the most trusts

William Howard Taft entered the White House determined to implement and continue Roosevelt's program. His central ambition regarding reform was to create an orderly framework for administering a reform agenda. His conception of executive leadership was primarily focused on administration rather than legislative agenda-setting. He felt most comfortable in executing the law, regardless of his personal feelings for the particular piece of legislation.

However, during his presidency, Congress produced significant reform legislation. In one of his first acts in office, Taft called for a special session of Congress to reform tariff law through reduced rates.

Among the significant pieces of legislation passed by Congress during Taft's presidency was the Mann-Elkins Act of , empowering the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend railroad rate hikes and to set rates. The act also expanded the ICC's jurisdiction to cover telephones, telegraphs, and radio. Taft also placed 35, postmasters and 20, skilled workers in the Navy under civil service protection.

In addition, the Department of Commerce and Labor was divided into two cabinet departments with Taft's approval. He also vetoed the admissions of Arizona and New Mexico to statehood because of their constitutional provision for the recall of judges. When the recall clauses were removed, Taft supported statehood. And while he pushed the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment income tax , he only reluctantly advocated the Seventeenth Amendment direct election of senators.

Among his most controversial actions, Taft promoted an administrative innovation whereby the President, rather than the disparate agencies of government, would submit a budget to Congress.

Both these statutes proved popular. They also were something of a model for what Roosevelt thought was appropriate for all businesses. He intended the Bureau of Corporations to provide a similar function for regulating all firms doing business across state lines. Skip to main content. Roosevelt and the Trusts. Theodore Roosevelt promoted a public relations image of being a trust buster.

He faced political pressure to act against the trusts. Only when they behaved in unreasonable ways did they cross the line into illegality. The controversy over what to do about monopolies erupted in the presidential election of He remained a trustbuster, sticking by his policy of strictly enforcing the Sherman Act by filing federal lawsuits to challenge monopolization. Roosevelt wanted the Republican Party nomination. Roosevelt accepted monopolies as an inevitable part of a modern economy.

He proposed, however, a federal commission to regulate them by inspecting their accounting books and setting maximum prices on their products.

He also wanted to impose rules for hours, wages, and working conditions. Roosevelt declared that "the enslavement of the people by the great corporations. Rather, Wilson wanted to eliminate monopolies by reviving vigorous competition through such measures as banking reform and tariff reduction. Toward the end of the campaign, however, Wilson embraced the idea of a federal commission to stop monopolistic practices.

The fourth major candidate in was Socialist Eugene V. Debs believed that large enterprises were inevitable. The time is approaching when it will be no longer possible. Instead, as a socialist, he supported worker and public ownership of large entities. After Wilson won the election, he turned to Congress rather than the courts to deal with the monopoly problem. In , Congress passed the Clayton Act, a new antitrust law that defined more clearly illegal business practices such as anti-competitive:.

In other legislation, Congress created the Federal Trade Commission. In , the Supreme Court finally decided the U. Steel case begun in the Taft administration. The court ruled in favor of U. It found that U. Steel was not a monopoly and did not engage in illegal practices. The U. Steel decision confirmed that corporate behavior rather than just bigness determined whether a company violated the Sherman Act. The Supreme Court decided that corporate behavior rather than mere bigness should determine if a monopoly is illegal.

Do you agree? Chace, James. Sklar, Martin J. The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, — Cambridge, U. Imagine that leaders who lived during the era of trustbusting are available to discuss a modern antitrust case. Discuss what its leader would think about what should be done about corporations like Microsoft. Develop reasons and lines of argument. Choose one person to role play your leader in a panel discussion. Make a name tag for the leader. After the debate, the class may want to vote on what they think is the best way to handle monopolies.

Its stock is valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Bill Gates, one of its founders, owns about 15 percent of Microsoft stock, making him the richest person in the world. In the s, the U. One of the practices was requiring computer manufacturers licensed to install Windows to include, or "bundle," its web browser, Internet Explorer, at no extra charge to the consumer.

Sales of market leader Navigator plummeted. Microsoft maintained that its sole purpose in bundling Explorer with Windows was to make it easier, more convenient, and less costly for consumers to use a computer. President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law on October 15, The purpose of a trust is considered illegal when it is aimed at accomplishing objectives contrary to public policy. For example, a trust provision that encourages DIVORCE, prevents a marriage, or violates the rule against perpetuities generally will not be enforced.

The Business Dictionary defines a trust as a "legal entity created by a party the trustor through which a second party the trustee holds the right to manage the trustor's assets or property for the benefit of a third party the beneficiary.

The former friends and allies had become bitter opponents. Roosevelt saw Taft as betraying his promise to advance Roosevelt's agenda. He was especially bitter over Taft's antitrust policy , which had targeted one of Roosevelt's personally sanctioned "Good Trusts," U.

Becoming first lady at age 21, she remains the youngest wife of a sitting president. Progressive reformers believed that trusts were harmful to the nation's economy and to consumers.

Progressives advocated legislation that would break up these trusts, known as "trust busting. The core of U. Which president busted the most trusts?