Editing Andrew Mellon (section)

===Early involvement in politics===
{{see also|Gilded Age|Progressive Era}}

Like his father, Mellon consistently supported the Republican Party, and he frequently donated to state and local party leaders. Through state party boss [[Matthew Quay]], Mellon influenced legislators to place high tariffs on aluminum products in the [[McKinley Tariff]] of 1890.<ref>Cannadine (2006), pp. 110–111</ref> During the early 20th century, Mellon was dismayed by the rise of [[Progressive Era|progressivism]] and the [[United States antitrust law|antitrust]] actions pursued by the presidential administrations of [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[William Howard Taft]], and [[Woodrow Wilson]]. He especially opposed the Taft administration's investigations into Alcoa, which in 1912 signed a [[consent decree]] rather than going to trial.<ref>Cannadine (2006), pp. 220–222</ref> In the aftermath of World War I, he provided financial support to [[Henry Cabot Lodge]] and other Republicans in their successful campaign to prevent ratification of the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. Mellon attended the [[1920 Republican National Convention]] as a nominal supporter of Pennsylvania Governor [[William Cameron Sproul]] (Mellon hoped Senator [[Philander C. Knox|Philander Knox]] would win the nomination), but the convention chose Senator [[Warren G. Harding]] of Ohio as the party's presidential nominee. Mellon strongly approved of the party's conservative platform, and he served as a key fundraiser for Harding during the presidential campaign.<ref>Cannadine (2006), pp. 266–268</ref>