Munsey's Magazine, January 1909

Munsey's Magazine, January 1909

This issue features "The Passing of the Reactionary in American Politics" by Judson C. Welliver, a political analysis article. Welliver examines Theodore Roosevelt's impact on American governance, arguing that Roosevelt's greatest achievement was awakening public conscience against big business's dominance in politics and government. He credits Roosevelt and other reformers—Bryan, La Follette, Hughes, Cummins, Folk—with reversing the reactionary consolidation of power that occurred under McKinley. Welliver discusses President Taft's upcoming agenda: tariff revision, railroad regulation, trust control, labor protections, and resource conservation. The article analyzes Senate and House structural dysfunction, detailing how elder statesmen control the Senate through seniority and committee assignments, and catalogues recent electoral defeats of reactionary senators (Fulton, Kittredge, Ankeny, others) replaced by progressives including Bristow and others. Illustrated throughout with photographic portraits of prominent political figures discussed.