David Greenberg: Too Big To Fail, the 1912 Version
[David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers and author of three books of political history, has written the "History Lesson" column since 1998.]
In the historic election of 1912, a sitting president faced a former president and a future president. William Howard Taft, the conservative Republican incumbent, enjoyed support from banking and business, which mostly opposed any new federal powers and agencies that might restrict their freedom. The former president was Theodore Roosevelt, who, like many Democrats today, argued for coming to terms with the realities of a new economy dominated by huge corporations and using government to control them firmly. The future president was Woodrow Wilson—the eventual winner—who, insisting T.R. didn't go far enough, assailed bigness itself, somewhat like those on the left who now despair that the package of regulatory fixes heading for President Obama's signature won't solve our financial problems or tame the powerhouses deemed too big to fail....
Ideas, especially those born on the campaign trail, rarely turn out as planned. In the long view of history, Wilson's victory mattered not because his presidency bequeathed a regulatory regime so different from what Roosevelt would have overseen, but because progressivism itself prevailed. From one perspective, the most important fact about the outcome was that Taft, representing the stand-patters, finished third—the only incumbent ever to seek re-election and do so.
Having failed to reverse the metastasis of big business in the Progressive Era, reformers have stood little chance of doing so in the years since. In the wake of the great debate of 1912, liberals have periodically warred among themselves about the best way to repair the injustices of the capitalist system that they otherwise support. Most often, the Rooseveltian view has prevailed, even when Wilsonian solutions were put in place. Today, even those aware of the constraints the Democrats face can sympathize with the judgment that the new controls fall short. The curse of bigness will continue. But just as the progressive moment of 1912 brought forth some good laws that mitigated the worst of industrial capitalism, so the progressive moment of 2008—fleeting though it was—brought to power officials who are prevailing, however imperfectly, over the forces who would stand pat.
Read entire article at Slate
In the historic election of 1912, a sitting president faced a former president and a future president. William Howard Taft, the conservative Republican incumbent, enjoyed support from banking and business, which mostly opposed any new federal powers and agencies that might restrict their freedom. The former president was Theodore Roosevelt, who, like many Democrats today, argued for coming to terms with the realities of a new economy dominated by huge corporations and using government to control them firmly. The future president was Woodrow Wilson—the eventual winner—who, insisting T.R. didn't go far enough, assailed bigness itself, somewhat like those on the left who now despair that the package of regulatory fixes heading for President Obama's signature won't solve our financial problems or tame the powerhouses deemed too big to fail....
Ideas, especially those born on the campaign trail, rarely turn out as planned. In the long view of history, Wilson's victory mattered not because his presidency bequeathed a regulatory regime so different from what Roosevelt would have overseen, but because progressivism itself prevailed. From one perspective, the most important fact about the outcome was that Taft, representing the stand-patters, finished third—the only incumbent ever to seek re-election and do so.
Having failed to reverse the metastasis of big business in the Progressive Era, reformers have stood little chance of doing so in the years since. In the wake of the great debate of 1912, liberals have periodically warred among themselves about the best way to repair the injustices of the capitalist system that they otherwise support. Most often, the Rooseveltian view has prevailed, even when Wilsonian solutions were put in place. Today, even those aware of the constraints the Democrats face can sympathize with the judgment that the new controls fall short. The curse of bigness will continue. But just as the progressive moment of 1912 brought forth some good laws that mitigated the worst of industrial capitalism, so the progressive moment of 2008—fleeting though it was—brought to power officials who are prevailing, however imperfectly, over the forces who would stand pat.