The U.S. and Latin America

The U.S. first became engaged in Cuban affairs through the Spanish-American War. In 1901, the U.S. Congress passed the Platt Amendment, putting severe restrictions on the Cuban government's financial freedom, granting the U.S. a Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, and reserving the right of the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs. Cuba was also pressured to write the provisions of the Platt Amendment into its constitution.

The U.S. had become interested in constructing a canal across Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt supported the independence of Panama from Colombia in order to construct the Panama Canal.

In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt announced his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States would intervene to protect U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.

U.S. interest in Nicaragua arose from its possible use as an alternative Atlantic-Pacific canal route. In 1909, Nicaraguan President Jose Santos Zelaya resigned after the triumph of U.S.-backed rebels. This was followed up by the 1912-1933 U.S. occupation of Nicaragua.

The United States military occupation of Haiti, in 1915, followed the mob execution of Haiti's leader, but was largely justified to the U.S. public as a consolidation of American control in the face of a possible German invasion of the Island. Fears of German takeover were somewhat realistic: Germans controlled 80% of the economy by 1914; the major railroad was controlled by Hamburg bankers; and the Germans were even bankrolling revolutions that kept the country in political turmoil. The conquest and 19-year-long occupation (1915-34) was yet another chapter in the long, sad history of Haiti.

A spillover from the Mexican Revolution occurred in March 1916, as Pancho Villa led 1,500 Mexican raiders in a cross-border attack against Columbus, New Mexico attacked a U.S. Cavalry detachment, seized 100 horses and mules, burned the town, and killed 17 of its residents. President Woodrow Wilson responded by sending 12,000 troops, under Gen. John J. Pershing, into Mexico to pursue Villa. This Pancho Villa Expedition to capture Villa failed in its objectives and was withdrawn in January 1917.

The "progressive" era

The presidential election of 1900 gave the U.S. a chance to pass judgment on the McKinley administration, especially its foreign policy. Meeting at Philadelphia, the Republicans expressed jubilation over the successful outcome of the war with Spain, the restoration of prosperity, and the effort to obtain new markets through the Open Door Policy. McKinley's re-election was a foregone conclusion.

But the president did not live long enough to enjoy his victory. In September 1901, while attending an exposition in Buffalo, New York, McKinley was shot down by an assassin. He was the third president to be assassinated, all since the Civil War. Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's vice president, assumed the presidency.

In domestic as well as international affairs, Roosevelt's accession coincided with a new epoch in American political life. The continent was peopled with non-Natives; the frontier was disappearing. The country's political foundations had endured the vicissitudes of foreign and civil war, the tides of prosperity and depression. Immense strides had been made in agriculture, mining, and industry.

However, the influence of big business was now more firmly entrenched than ever, and local and municipal government often was in the hands of corrupt politicians. A new spirit of the times, known as "Progressivism", arose in the 1890s and continued to the U.S. entry into World War I in 1917.

Many self-styled "progressives" saw their work as a crusade against urban political bosses and corrupt "robber barons". The era saw increased demands for effective regulation of business, a revived commitment to public service, and expanding the scope of government to ensure the welfare and interests of the country as the groups pressing these demands saw fit. Almost all the notable figures of the period, whether in politics, philosophy, scholarship or literature, were connected, at least in part, with the reform movement.

Years before, in 1873, the celebrated author Mark Twain had exposed American society to critical scrutiny in "The Gilded Age". Now, trenchant articles dealing with trusts, high finance, impure foods and abusive railroad practices began to appear in the daily newspapers and in such popular magazines as McClure's and Collier's. Their authors, such as the journalist Ida M. Tarbell, who crusaded against the Standard Oil Trust, became known as "Muckrakers". In his sensational novel, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed unsanitary conditions in the great Chicago meat packing houses and the grip of the beef trust on the nation's meat supply.

The hammering impact of "progressive" era writers bolstered aims of certain sectors of the population, especially a middle class caught between big labor and big capital, to take political action. Many states enacted laws to improve the conditions under which people lived and worked. At the urging of such prominent social critics as Jane Addams, child labor laws, were strengthened and new ones adopted, raising age limits, shortening work hours, restricting night work and requiring school attendance.

The Roosevelt presidency

By the early 20th century, most of the larger cities and more than half the states had established an eight-hour day on public works. Equally important were the Workers' Compensation Laws, which made employers legally responsible for injuries sustained by employees at work. New revenue laws were also enacted, which, by taxing inheritances, laid the groundwork for the contemporary Federal income tax.

Roosevelt called for a "Square Deal," and initiated a policy of increased Federal supervision in the enforcement of antitrust laws. Later, extension of government supervision over the railroads prompted the passage of major regulatory bills. One of the bills made published rates the lawful standard, and shippers equally liable with railroads for rebates.

His victory in the 1904 election was assured. Emboldened by a sweeping electoral triumph, Roosevelt called for still more drastic railroad regulation, and, in June 1906, Congress passed the Hepburn Act. This gave the Interstate Commerce Commission real authority in regulating rates, extended the jurisdiction of the commission and forced the railroads to surrender their interlocking interests in steamship lines and coal companies.

Meanwhile, Congress had created a new Department of Commerce and Labor, with membership in the president's Cabinet. One bureau of the new department, empowered to investigate the affairs of large business aggregations, discovered in 1907 that the American Sugar Refining Company had defrauded the government of a large sum in import duties. Subsequent legal actions recovered more than $4 million and convicted several company officials.

Conservation of the nation's natural resources was among the other facets of the Roosevelt era. The president had called for a far-reaching and integrated program of conservation, reclamation and irrigation as early as 1901 in his first annual message to Congress. Whereas his predecessors had set aside 188,000 km? of timberland for preservation and parks, Roosevelt increased the area to 592,000 km? and began systematic efforts to prevent forest fires and to retimber denuded tracts.

Taft and Wilson

Roosevelt's popularity was at its peak as the campaign of 1908 neared, but he was unwilling to break the tradition by which no president had held office for more than two terms. Instead, he supported William Howard Taft, who won the election again for the Republicans and who sought to continue his predecessor's programs of reform. Taft, a former judge, first colonial governor of the U.S-held Philippines and administrator of the Panama Canal, made some progress. (For details on U.S. foreign policy under the Taft administration, see Dollar Diplomacy.)

Taft continued the prosecution of trusts, further strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, established a postal savings bank and a parcel post system, expanded the civil service and sponsored the enactment of two amendments to the Constitution. The 16th Amendment authorized a federal income tax, while the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, mandated the direct election of US Senators by the people, replacing the system whereby they were selected by state legislatures.

Yet balanced against these achievements were: Taft's acceptance of a tariff with protective schedules that outraged progressive opinion; his opposition to the entry of the state of Arizona into the Union because of its progressive constitution; and his growing reliance on the conservative wing of his party. By 1910, Taft's Republican party was divided, and an overwhelming vote swept the Democrats back into control of Congress.

Two years later, Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic, progressive governor of the state of New Jersey, campaigned against Taft, the Republican candidate, and against Roosevelt who, rejected as a candidate by the Republican convention, had organized a third party, the Progressives.

Wilson, in a spirited campaign, defeated both rivals. Under his leadership, the new Congress enacted one of the most notable legislative programs in American history. Its first task was tariff revision. "The tariff duties must be altered," Wilson said. "We must abolish everything that bears any semblance of privilege." The Underwood Tariff, (1913) provided substantial rate reductions on imported raw materials and foodstuffs, cotton and woolen goods, iron and steel, and removed the duties from more than a hundred other items. Although the act retained many protective features, it was a genuine attempt to lower the cost of living for American workers.

The second item on the Democratic program was a long overdue, thorough reorganization of the inflexible banking and currency system. "Control," said Wilson, "must be public, not private, must be vested in the government itself, so that the banks may be the instruments, not the masters, of business and of individual enterprise and initiative."

The Federal Reserve Act (1913) was one of Wilson's most enduring legislative accomplishments. It imposed upon the existing banking system a new organization that divided the country into 12 districts, with a Federal Reserve Bank in each, all supervised by a Federal Reserve Board. These banks were to serve as depositories for the cash reserves of those banks that joined the system. Until the Federal Reserve Act, the U.S. government had left control of its money supply largely to unregulated private banks. While the official medium of exchange was gold coins, most loans and payments were carried out with bank notes, backed by the promise of redemption in gold. The trouble with this system was that the banks were tempted to reach beyond their cash reserves, prompting periodic panics during which fearful depositors raced to turn their bank paper into coin. With the passage of the act, greater flexibility in the money supply was assured, and provision was made for issuing federal reserve notes to meet business demands.

The next important task was trust regulation and investigation of corporate abuses. Congress authorized a Federal Trade Commission to issue orders prohibiting "unfair methods of competition" by business concerns in interstate trade.

A second law, the Clayton Antitrust Act, forbade many corporate practices that had thus far escaped specific condemnation--interlocking directorates, price discrimination among purchasers, use of the injunction in labor disputes and ownership by one corporation of stock in similar enterprises.

The Federal Workingman's Compensation Act in 1916 authorized allowances to federal civil service employees for disabilities incurred at work. The Adamson Act of the same year established an eight-hour day for railroad labor. The record of achievement won Wilson a firm place in American history as one of the nation's foremost political reformers. However, his domestic reputation would soon be overshadowed by his record as a wartime president who led his country to victory, but could not hold the support of his people for the peace that followed.