Category: High Finance

• The "Teddy Roosevelt" Third Party Sabotage

  This theory claimed that Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 Progressive, or “Bull Moose,” campaign was covertly backed by high finance—especially J.P. Morgan interests—not to elect Roosevelt, but to split the Republican vote and guarantee Woodrow Wilson’s victory. The theory draws on a real electoral effect: the Republican split did enable Wilson to win with a plurality. It also draws on the documented role of wealthy Progressive financiers, especially George W. Perkins, a former Morgan partner, in funding the new party. In conspiracy form, these facts become evidence of deliberate sabotage orchestrated by big business.