Payne-Aldrich Tariff Betrays Progressive Promises: Taft Praises "Best Tariff Bill," Splits Republican Party
President William Howard Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act and infamously praised it as “the best tariff bill the Republican party ever passed,” betraying his 1908 campaign promises for meaningful tariff reform and triggering a permanent split within the Republican Party. Taft had …
President William Howard Taft
Nelson Aldrich
Progressive Republicans
Old Guard Republicans
progressive-era
tariff-policy
republican-party
corporate-power
political-realignment
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