management. For example, the governors of California were in effect designated by the heads of a railway company. The states could not deal adequately with these powerful bodies because most of the railways and many of the other corporations operated from state to state, and could not be controlled at either end by anything short of Federal power.
The appeal to Congress for action, first against railways and then against other corporations, had led to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. It was a centralizing process; the more Congress did, the more eager became the desire to push Congress to restrict, and then to make restrictions still closer. The U.S. Supreme Court fell in with this process more readily than could have been expected of a body so conservative and so withdrawn from the arena of dubious business methods. Yet, notwithstanding a few decisions against railways and “trusts,” the powerful corporations prospered and increased. They were bound to live, because they were economically effective; they found means of carrying on immense lines of business in an orderly manner; they supplied the demand. Their profits were large, but they gave employment to multitudes of every degree of skill.
Political organizations were on nearly the same basis as business companies—they also grew bigger and more powerful and gathered into fewer groups. Nominally, parties are simply associations of voters for common ends. Actually, they are armies acting under commanding leaders who in many cases hold no offices. The evils of this “invisible government” were apparent. Many states and cities were badly governed by unscrupulous men who were tools of the leaders, or by too competent men who plundered their fellow citizens. The average voter was honest, but stood by his party. Committees of voters, non-partisan leagues and citizens' parties tried to organize the voters for reform, but no permanent improvement was made. The political philosophy of the Americans was based on the belief that mankind was steadily growing better. Hence a tendency to look to laws and political devices to correct the ills of popular government. Millions of voters believed that if they could only get laws enough, they could break the power of the “bosses” and chain the corporations. They overlooked the fact that the real evil was the party managed by men who made politics a business, who were responsible for “getting out the vote,” and always got out the votes of their friends, who knew from long experience that the weary and listless voter at last would cease to protest. On the other hand, the pressure of the trusts on small corporations and individuals was felt by masses of voters who protested against the corporations that felt strong enough to break the law and defy the voters. There was a glacier-like force of public opinion that could break down all opposition. What was most needed was the leadership of bold and far-seeing men. Roosevelt, a man of the type needed, retired to private life when President Taft was inaugurated, March 4 1909.
Political Reform.—When Roosevelt left the presidency the position of President was at the highest point of authority that it had ever known. Most Presidents are obliged to strive with Congress in behalf of their policies, inasmuch as their only means of officially proposing legislation is through public messages, and their heads of departments work directly only through Congressional committee hearings; American tradition is against the framing of bills by the executive, and the President's initiative is limited. Most Presidents have found their principal legislative influence in the veto, by which they have the weight of one-sixth of both Houses. President Roosevelt followed the McKinley method of emphasizing his wishes by personal discussion with members of Congress. He did more; he revived the Jacksonian method of announcing a legislative plan, and if Congressmen hung back, of appealing over their heads to the country at large.
This policy was adopted by President Taft, who was not afraid of a fight and who saw the advantage of assuming that the President was the natural party leader. William H. Taft had many of the qualities of leadership. He was large, happy, genial, fond of his many friends; a cheerful, balanced man. He was also experienced in the public service. Born in 1857, he graduated at Yale, and became a lawyer and a state judge in Ohio. In 1890 he was made solicitor-general of the United States and thus introduced into the Federal service. He was then selected as a Federal circuit judge and his decisions were valued. In 1891 he was appointed chairman of the Philippine Commission and was the first civil governor of the Islands. From 1904 to 1909 he was Secretary of War in Roosevelt's Cabinet, and proved himself an excellent executive. He made few enemies and had a most powerful friend in the President, who selected him as his successor. Throughout his career, including the presidency, he was an easy and popular speaker, a head of the Government who worked well with his associates and subordinates. Nevertheless, from the beginning of his term he found obstacles in his way. As an avowed successor to Roosevelt's policies he drew upon himself the opposition of Roosevelt's enemies. At the same time it soon became apparent that he was not relying on Roosevelt's friends.
President Taft's Cabinet was as follows: Secretary of State, Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania, a man by experience and temperament, allied with the “stand pat” element of the Republican party; Secretary of the Treasury, Franklin MacVeagh, of Illinois, a business man of large experience; Secretary of War, Jacob M. Dickinson of Tennessee, succeeded in 1911 by Henry L. Stimson of New York; Attorney-General, George W. Wickersham of New York; Postmaster-General, Frank H. Hitchcock of Massachusetts; Secretary of the Navy, George von Lengerke Meyer of Massachusetts; Secretary of the Interior, Richard A. Ballinger of the state of Washington; Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson of Iowa, remaining from the time of McKinley; Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Charles Nagel of Missouri. In the building of the Panama Canal Colonel Goethals continued as chief engineer. Maj.-Gen. Leonard Wood, as chief of the general staff, urged reform in the organization of the army, and the training of additional officers. Ballinger very soon involved himself in a bitter controversy with Pinchot, a warm personal friend of Roosevelt, over alleged irregularities in the disposal of public lands in Alaska. Ballinger was sustained by the President and a committee of Congress; but public pressure was such that he was obliged to resign, March 6 1911, and was succeeded by Walter L. Fisher of Illinois.
Taft's appointments were in the main good, including the elevation of Justice White to the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court, and the appointment as a justice of Charles E. Hughes, previously governor of New York. Nevertheless, a few months after the President's inauguration, his influence on Congress declined and he lost his hold on two powerful elements in his own party. The important business men—capitalists, bankers, managers of corporations, commonly called the “interests”—thought him disposed to interfere with them; while he found himself out of accord with the rising spirit of reform which aimed to give better expression to the will of the voters as a whole as against party leaders and. political organizations.
Here was a critical point in popular government; for in practice it was almost impossible to elect a candidate unless he was on some party ticket. A small group of men, politely called the “organization,” or more harshly the “bosses,” in many states and cities had control of the machinery of the nominating conventions. Where they could not dictate a candidate, they could usually defeat the selection of any man whom they disliked or distrusted. Their power extended to national nominating conventions, particularly in the Republican party, because the Republican delegates from southern states, which almost always voted Democratic, were elected to national conventions by a handful of Federal office-holders and other professional politicians. Complaints were abundant everywhere of “hand-picked conventions,” of delegates who sat silently in their seats until informed by their “organization” for what men they must vote. The solidifying principle was that the bosses' candidate could usually count upon the steady, regular members of the party.
A method of selecting candidates long practised in some parts of the country now spread rapidly through the Union; this was the primary, under which candidates were selected for each party by the ballots of the members of the party. The primary under-
