Republican Concerns.

The contentious 1906 session of Congress left the Republican Party in some disarray. The division of the party in the debate over tariff reform was compounded by wrangling over the Hepburn Act to strengthen the ICC and other regulatory laws. GOP infighting left the Democrats gleeful about their prospects that fall. Their success hinged to a great extent on William Jennings Bryan's ability to keep the two wings of their party together. He positioned himself to the left of Roosevelt — and for another run at the White House — by asking if Roosevelt had "the courage to be a reformer" and by defining the Democrats as the true defenders of property because they accumulated wealth "honestly." The Democrats hoped to use these themes to make gains in Congress. In 1906, when congressional Republicans spurned organized labor's push for federal laws that benefited and...