Presidential Biographies | Taft Administration - Changes in the U.S. Government

Changes in the U.S. Government

The United States saw a number of changes in government operations during Taft's presidency. The Mann-Elkins Act (1911) recommended by Taft and passed by Congress gave the Interstate Commerce Commission unprecedented regulatory power over telephone, telegraph, cable, and wireless companies as well as railroad terminals, bridges, and fences.

At the very end of Taft's term the Department of Commerce and Labor was divided into two separate departments. In 1912 Congress passed a bill establishing a federal Children's Bureau, which publicized some of the evils wrought by child labor. When Taft chose Julia C. Lathrop to head the newly established agency, she became the first woman to lead a federal bureau. This bureau, as well as the Bureau of Mines established in 1910, represented some of the federal government's first efforts to protect the safety of workers in the United States.

In Taft's day...