21. Roosevelt returned to the United States to run once again for president
In 1910 Roosevelt found himself at odds with many of the policies of his successor, William Howard Taft, and a growing rift within the Republican Party between Progressives and Conservatives. In 1912 Roosevelt first attempted to wrest the Republican nomination for president from Taft; failing in that he announced he would run as a third-party candidate. The Progressive Party was given the nickname of the Bull Moose Party after Roosevelt answered a question about his physical fitness by replying, “I’m as fit as a bull moose”. “To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt government”, was cited by Roosevelt as the goal of his candidacy.
Roosevelt, as he had in 1900 and 1904, campaigned tirelessly. He argued that “every monopoly in the United States opposes the Progressive Party”, implying that the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, supported the monopolies. Roosevelt argued the government was obligated to act against monopolies and trusts, citing by name in speech after speech the Sugar Trust, the Tobacco Trust, the Steel Trust, and the Standard Oil Trust. His campaign was nearly derailed in October, 1912, when a saloonkeeper shot him in the chest as he was preparing to deliver a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
