Roosevelt, Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

By the start of the twentieth century, the United States had managed to become a powerful world power, perhaps the most powerful. The ones that benefited the most of bieng a powerful nation were the upper class that came from corporations and and large business that operated with hardly any government intervention. In addition, in most places poverty was still a big issue. One goup of people, the middle class, were willing to make a change in American democracy. The period in which these people took some action was called the progressive era.

Presidents also took some actions to adress the problems of their society. Among these were Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. In order to solve the problems during this era, federal policies and legislation were needed. Each president had its own ideas and proposals to confront the problems. However, Roosevelt was the one that stood out the most at reforming society during the progressive era.

When runnig for president, Taft and Roosevelt were enemies due to the fact that Taft did not carry out Roosevelt Plans after Roosvelt had done his term. One of Taft's achievments is the busting of more trust than Rosevelt. However, unlike Roosevelt, Taft was very weak on progressivism, conservation, and social- welfare. Regarding trusts, Wilson passed the Clayton anti-trust act.

Roosvelt was also a conservationist, this can be seen by the Newlands Act, which opted for the preservation of forest. What made Roosevelt tha best in the progressive era was that he succesfuly acoomplishd many reforms in various "fields

", including the workers and consumers, for example: the creation of the Hepburn Act , which solved the problems with the railroad rates. Another was the Anthracite coal strike in which Roosevelt threatened to sent troops to take over the mine, however, frightened that Roosvelt actually seize the mine, the operator came up with an agreement to have an arbitration commitee in order to settle the dispute. After the strike ended, the result were fulfiling, it provided a ten percent wage increase and a shorter workday.

Even Wilson made a better job than Taft in the social sector. This can be seen in Muller v Oregon, which solved issues concerning women workers. Anyhow, Wilson did not do much concerning foreign reforms. Taft passed his Dollar Diplomacy, which allowed private investors ( wealthy class) to give out loans to Central American countries. More exceptional, Roosevelt got the Panama canal and created the Roosevelt corollary; additionally he was also the mediator to the Russo-Japanese war.

Clearly Roosevelt was the better man when it came to reforming. He was the "Square deal Reformer", meaning that he took actions concerning: Trust busting, consumer protection, and conservation. More importantly he also suceede in these. He was the one that had the most impact in the nation. He also got the most support from people due to his concern for the common man. Taft and Wilson cannot be ignored however, since they also took some actions to fight against the parasites of the nation.