William Howard Taft's Domestic Policy

Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy

Taft fired Pinchot for criticizing new department of the interior head, Richard Ballinger, who opened public lands in Alaska for private investment

Midterm elections of 1910

Taft openly supported conservative candidates

Payne-Aldrich Tariff (1909)

Conservative Republicans passed this tariff in 1909, which raised the tariff on most imports

Mann-Elkins Act of 1910

Gave the ICC the power to suspend new railroad rates and oversee telephone, telegraph, and cable companies

Sixteenth Amendment (1913)

Authorized the U.S. government to collect an income tax