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To what extent were the goals of the Populists and industrial workers of the 1890 met by the Progressive presidents with respect to monopolies/trusts, legislation to protect and empower people, and aid to farmers and industrial workers in the first two decades of the 20th century? The Progressive presidents met, to some extent, the populist goals by passing acts that regarded monopolies and trusts, legislation to protect and empower people, and to aid farmers and industrial workers so that the Populists would not rebel.
The monopolies and trusts in the United States were a major threat to the small American businesses and the progressive presidents attempted to aid the small American businesses by minimizing the monopolies. The Populist Party wanted the government control of the big businesses because they too saw the corruption in them and they did not like how such businesses destroyed other small businesses. Theodore Roosevelt's platform was called the Square Deal. He wanted to stop the big businesses from taking advantage of the small businesses owners and the poor. As a result, he created numerous acts to regulate the monopolies. Roosevelt created the Elkins Act in 1903, which imposed fines on railroads that gave special rates to favored shippers. He also formulated another act in 1906, called in the Hepburn Act which allowed the government to set a limit shipping costs of goods. In 1902, Theodore sued the Northern Securities Company because they had attempted to reduce their competition, the company dissolved. In the span of Roosevelt's presidency 43, other suits were successfully filed and he became the "trust buster". Even though he created many reforms, the one thing that President Roosevelt did not do is place control of monopolies in the hands of the government. The next Populist President was William H. Taft. One of the first things that he did as president was pass the Mann-Elkins Act in 1910, which gave government control of the telephone and telegraph rates. Taft also supported the "rule of reason", which allowed monopolies as long as they did not unreasonably run smaller companies out of business. He also sued to force the U.S. Steel to sell a coal company that it had bought because of the total domination that the company would have in the industry. Although Taft did much for minimizing monopolies, he too did not put the government in control of the big business. Finally, Woodrow Wilson, who called his platform New Freedom, like Roosevelt's Platform, places strict controls on big business. Wilson created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a group of 5 people serving 7-year terms, who police big companies and track them to ensure that they conduct their business within the law. He also created the Clayton-Anti Trust Act in 1914, which prohibited the price fixing and prohibited a person from being on multiple boards of directors. Just like the other two Presidents, Wilson did not place the controls of big business under the government. All of the Progressive Presidents did their best to reduce the impact of monopolies on small American business owners and the poor, and all of them did not reach the goals of the populists, but not placing monopolies under government control.
The populists wanted a legislation to protect and empower the people and the Progressive Presidents worked to get the populists what they wanted because they had the same beliefs. The right that the populists wanted was the direct election of senators. Theodore Roosevelt did several things on this platform. Roosevelt created the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, which placed controls on foods and medicines and banned the interstate shipment of impure foods and the mislabeling of food and drugs. Although Theodore did not give the Populist Party the direct election of senators, he did, however, empower many Americans with health. William H. Taft mad one very major contribution to the legislation of and empowerment of