Here's the story: As many of you know, Theodore Roosevelt handed his scepter to William Howard Taft who "could not fill TR's shoes" in most people's minds. Teddy ran against Taft in 1912 allowing for Woodrow Wilson, the misled idealist, to come to power. If Teddy had been killed by a lion while on safari in Africa then Taft would have widely been elected to a second term. Taft was a Progressive at heart, but he had a strict interpretation of the Consitution. He may very well have allowed the income tax to pass (since it included a provision lowering tariffs, though he prefered a strictly corporate version of the tax), but he would have defeated the attempts to estblish the Federal Reserve as he had done before. Taft continues his second term using harsh rhetoric against bankers and promising a noninterventionist (arbitration only) foreign policy. Though not as popular as Roosevelt, Taft is satisfactory. He continues the policies of his previous term and much of the legislation that Wilson passed is passed through Taft. Taft decides not to intervene in the political civil war in Mexico and also refuses US involvement in the war in Europe. 1916 comes and the candidates are Charles Evans Hughes and Woodrow Wilson. Hughes takes the cake pointing to Taft's record and the attacking the Democrat's ties to the banking and business communities. (Federal Reserve Act and Wilson's campaign funds) He is see as a more true Progressive candidate and also promises to keep us out of war. No US involvement in WWI results in a German victory (their push in 1917 is not answered by American troops) on the continent by 1918, and a peace agreement is drawn up by 1920. Russia remains carved up as it was in the treaty of Brest Litovsk and Germany is empowered to dominate the continent. France is allowed to exist with minor territorial changes (mostly colonial), and Great Britain remains largely unchanged. What impact would this have on history? Remember that no Federal Reserve means no money contraction of the 1920s and a lessening of the effects of the Great Depression.