Theodore Roosevelt

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Theodore Roosevelt
10/27/1858-1/6/1919 From New York
1901-1909 Republican Vice president Charles
W. Fairbanks PP Square Deal
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PROGRESSIVISM
T. Roosevelt
DOMESTIC POLICIES
THE SQUARE DEAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
SOCIAL
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(2) THE SQUARE DEAL

• TR was inspired by the progressive movement
• Called for a Square Deal (like a square meal in
  the military- just the basics) for capital,
  labor, and the public
• Program embraced the three Cs
• i. Control of Corporations
• ii. Consumer Protection
• iii. Conservation of Natural Resources

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Political/Social Components of the Square
Deal
(6) Coal Strike of 1902 i. Strike in the coal
mines of Pennsylvania ii. Workers demanded
improvements in pay and reduction in working
hours iii. Mine owners refused to negotiate
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• iv. Coal supplies dwindled forced factories,
• hospitals, and schools to shut down
• v. TR brought representatives
• of each group to the White
• House
• vi. TR threatened to seize the mines and
• operate them by federal troops if they could
  
• not come to an agreement
• viii. Owners consented to
• ARBITRATION (a disagreement between two or
  more parties is resolved by impartial
  individuals)

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(10) Trust-Busting

• 2. Department of Commerce Labor
• i. Created in 1903
• ii. Organization which was authorized to look
  into business operations started the path to
  trust-busting

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• Trust-busting under Teddy R.
• Roosevelts philosophy concerning trusts
  (monopolies) TR thought there were good trusts
  and bad trusts
• Good trusts looked out for the public while bad
  trusts were greedy for power
• Over 40 legal proceedings were
• brought to the US Supreme court against
  monopolies under TR
• TRs real purpose behind trust-busting? To prove
  that the government, NOT BIG BUSINESS, ruled the
  country.

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Roosevelt struggles with the railroad trusts
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• Northern Securities Company a railroad company
  organized under J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill
• Roosevelt sued them- TR brought a lawsuit against
  the company on the charges that it held a
  monopoly of the RRs in the Northwest
• In 1904 the Supreme Court upheld the antitrust
  suit- agreeing with Roosevelt
• Railroad Regulation Begins

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(7) Elkins Act

• It strengthened the Interstate Commerce Act of
  1887 by imposing heavy fines on railroads
  offering rebates and on the shippers accepting
  them. The law was
• sponsored by Roosevelt as a part of his
• "Square Deal", and greatly boosted his
• popularity. This law also caused nearly all
• railroads to become defunct for a
• short period of time.

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• (15) . Hepburn Act of 1906
• a. strengthened the Interstate Commerce
  Commission by allowing the ICC to truly regulate
  existing rates of railroads (The ICC received
  much more power to punish
• violators!)

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(4) J.P Morgan/ US Steel (1901)

• Morgan began talks with Charles M.
• Schwab, president of Carnegie Co., and
• businessman Andrew Carnegie in 1900
• with the intention of buying Carnegie's
• business and several other steel and
• iron businesses to consolidate them to
• create the United States Steel
• Corporation. Carnegie agreed to sell
• the business to Morgan for
• 480 million. The deal was closed
• without lawyers and without a written
• contract. News of the industrial
• consolidation arrived to newspapers in
• mid-January 1901. U.S. Steel
• was founded later that
• year and was the first
• billion-dollar company in
• the world worth 1.4 billion.

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(8) Henry Ford Ford Motor Company

• After two unsuccessful attempts to establish a
  company to manufacture automobiles, the Ford
  Motor Company was incorporated in 1903 with Henry
  Ford as vice-president and chief engineer. The
  infant company produced only a few cars a day at
  the Ford factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit.
  Groups of two or three men worked on each car
  from components made to order by other companies.

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Conservation Components of the Square Deal
(5) 1902 Newlands Reclamation Act Washington
was authorized to collect money from the sale of
public lands in the West and use the funds for
the development of irrigation projects to
improve other land
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• ii. This legislation allowed for dozens of dams
  to be built across the West
• iii. TR inspired many Americans to focus on the
  nations natural resources in 1902 he banned
  Christmas trees from the White House
• iv. Literature which focused on nature such as
  Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903) became
  very popular in the cities

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(21) National Conservation Commission

• It compiled an inventory of U.S. natural
  resources and presents Gifford Pinchot's concepts
  of resource management as a comprehensive policy
  recommendation in a three-volume report submitted
  to Congress at the beginning of 1909. Roosevelt
  and Pinchot wanted the Commission to continue,
  but Congress refused further funding.

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(12) San Francisco Earthquake

• The California earthquake
• of April 18, 1906 ranks as
• one of the most significant
• earthquakes of all time.
• Today, its importance
• comes more from the
• wealth of scientific
• knowledge derived
• from it than from its sheer size.

The maelstrom destroyed 490 city blocks, a total
of 25,000 buildings, made over 250,000 homeless
and killed between 450 and 700. Damage estimates
topped 350,000,000.
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(17) Oklahoma

• Oklahoma Territory was an organized territory of
  the United States from May 2, 1890 until November
  16, 1907, when Oklahoma became the 46th state. It
  consisted of the western area of what is now the
  State of Oklahoma. The eastern area consisted of
  the last remnant of Indian Territory.