Payne+-+Aldrich+Tariff

= Payne - Aldrich Tariff (1909) =

__Introduction__
During William H. Taft's presidential campaign in 1908, the Republicans, including Taft himself, had promised the public to lower the hated tariff on U.S. imports. Industries and big businesses favored and supported a high tariff because it protected them and enabled them to compete in the world market. The tariff on imports was, however, opposed by many farmers, laborers, small scale manufacturers, and other poor and lower-middle class citizens. This was because the United States had applied a tariff on imports from other countries, which forced the other countries to pay extra money to export their products to the U.S. This angered many countries, and in response, they slapped a tariff of their own on their imports from the United States. This decreased the exports of the lower class farmers, laborers, and manufacturers. Since fewer products were being imported into the U.S. from other countries, the prices for imported products increased in the U.S. Thus, as the Republicans promised to lower the tariff and make life easier for the lower class citizens, William H. Taft's popularity and expectations grew to the point that he was elected president of the United States. Well, let's just say that Taft and the Republicans did not live up to their promises and expectations.



__**The Payne - Aldrich Tariff Signed**__
To fulfill what he had promised, William Taft called Congress into session in 1909 with plans to discuss the lowering of the tariff. The first outcome of the meeting was a bill, proposed by Sereno E. Payne, which lowered the tariff on some products. But not long after, Congress accepted another bill, proposed by Nelson W. Aldrich, that lowered the tariff only on a few products, but increased it on many other products. After facing opposition from the conservative, or Old Guard, Republicans in the Senate against the second bill, Congress came up with a whole new bill called the [|Payne - Aldrich Tariff]. The bill lowered tariff on some products, but also raised it on others. Specifically, the bill lowered 650 tariffs, raised 220 tariffs, and left 1,150 tariffs untouched. The Payne - Aldrich Tariff was happily signed by President Taft in 1909. The logic proposed by Congress for the repealing of the first approach, the Payne bill, was that it was unconstitutional to interfere with the powers given to the legislative and it would abuse the separation of powers.

** __Effects__ **
The signing of the Payne - Aldrich Tariff angered many Democrats, Progressives, and progressive Republicans. In reality, the new act only did very little to the current status of tariffs. However, the very fact that the tariff issue was not solved also angered many citizens. To make matters worse, President Taft tried to support the act by stating things in its defense. He disappointed and angered many people by stating that the new act was "the best tariff bill the Republican Party had ever passed." This was certainly not what was going through the president's mind. In fact, he knew that the tariff was mainly useless and could not accomplish much. On top of this event, Taft was later involved in some other unpopular and highly criticized events. Not soon after, Taft angered many people again by firing the head of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, in favor of his own cabinet member, Richard A. Ballinger, in what became known as the Pinchot- Ballinger Controversy. Anyway, Taft did what he did, and his actions drained his popularity and support in a matter of days. In addition to these problems, Theodore Roosevelt had returned to presidential politics and had decided to run in the up coming election. All these events led to many things:
 * Split of the Republican Party into two factions; the conservative Republicans under William Taft and the progressive Republicans under Theodore Roosevelt (The Bull Moose Party).
 * Greatly increased popularity of the Democrats (who supported lower tariffs).
 * Split of the Republican votes in the [|Election of 1912.]
 * The election of Woodrow Wilson as president in the Election of 1912.



** __Sources__ **

 * A Survey- American History (Alan Brinkley)
 * United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination (John J. Newman, John M. Schmalbach)
 * The Princeton Review: Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam (2010 Edition)
 * Website (Info Please)- []
 * Website (Tariff of 1909)- []
 * Picture (Three Politicians)- []
 * Picture (Donkey and Elephant)- []
 * Picture (TR, Wilson, and Taft)- []

__External Links__

 * Absolute Astronomy: Payne - Aldrich Tariff - []
 * Questia: Payne - Aldrich Tariff - []
 * Essortment: The Election of 1912 - []