Compare the progressive policies of T. Roosevelt and Taft to that of Wilson.

Of the three, Roosevelt was perhaps the most progressive
in policy. While President, he began a program of "trust busting" to break up the
business trusts which had abused American workers and consumers. He could not rely on
Congress to do the job, so he instructed his Attorney General to bring suit against the
big trusts under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.  His administration brought twenty five
lawsuits, including the famous Swift and Company case. After
reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, his administration pushed
through Congress the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act which
prohibited the sale of adulterated, misbranded or harmful foods, drugs or liquors. His
administration also pushed through the Hepburn Act which gave the Interstate Commerce
Commission the power to set maximum freight rates for the
railroads.

William Howard Taft was Roosevelt's handpicked
successor; but severely disappointed his mentor. His only true progressive
accomplishment was to support the passage of a lower tariff. One critic said that Taft
was carrying out Roosevelt's policies--on a stretcher.  Roosevelt was so disappointed in
Taft's performance as President that he tried to wrest the nomination away from him in
1912. When he couldn't do so, Roosevelt bolted the party and formed his own Progressive
or "Bull Moose" party. He took just enough votes away from Taft to give the election to
the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson originally was not
progressive; in fact he opposed a number of progressive programs. He said that child
labor was a state concern so the federal government should not deal with it; he did
nothing for women's suffrage, so much so that Suffragettes sometimes referred to him as
"Kaiser Wilson." He had no interest in helping racial minorities; in fact he and most of
his cabinet were quite racist. He moved in the direction of Progressive Reform in the
1916 election; however he won not because of his Progressive ideas, but because of the
truth of his re-election campaign slogan: "He kept us out of the war." Among the few
progressive reforms he supported were the Federal Farm Loan Act which created the
Federal Land Bank system, and Smith Lever Act which provided for farm agents to work
under the supervision of land grant colleges.