Transcript Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt’s
Square Deal
Chapter 6 Section 3
What is Teddy
Roosevelt doing in the
cartoon?
 What does the other
person look like?
 What point do you
think the cartoonist
was trying to make?
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A. Teddy Roosevelt
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1. Life Before Politics
– Came from a prominent
family
– Graduated from Harvard
University and entered
politics
– Very involved in sports and
hunting
– Strong personality
– At age 26, his mother and
his wife died
– For two years, he worked
as a cowboy and got a
reputation for hunting elk,
bears, and mountain lions
– People admired him for his
toughness
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2. Roosevelt’s Rise to
Presidency
– Elected governor of NY in
1898
– gained a reputation for
being a strong progressive
– Big businesses and corrupt
leaders feared him
– Political machines plan to
get rid of him
– They nominated him to vice
president, a position with
almost no power at the
time
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3. Taking Office
– President William McKinley
was assassinated in 1901
– Roosevelt became President
4. Roosevelt’s View of the
Presidency
– Previous presidents allowed
business and government to
take care of itself
– Roosevelt viewed the office as
a place to get involved and
make changes
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5. The Coal Strike of
1902
– Soon after he took office,
150,000 coal miners in
Penn. Went on strike
– Winter was drawing near
and without coal, people
would not have heat
– Bosses and workers
refused to negotiate
– Roosevelt then threatened
to take over the mines
with the U.S. military
– The bosses then agreed
to give workers a shorter
workday and better pay
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6. The Square Deal
– In 1904, when Roosevelt
was campaigning for
president, his program was
called the Square Deal
– He promised that each
American would receive a
square deal
– Believed that needs of
workers and businesses
should be balanced
– Because of his popularity,
he won the election easily
B. Regulating Big Business
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1. Trust-Busting
– Roosevelt became known
as “Teddy the Trustbuster”
– In 1901, JP Morgan and
two other RR Tycoons
joined their companies
together to eliminate their
competition
– Their company was called
the Northern Securities
Company
– The next year, TR sued the
company for violating the
Sherman Anti Trust Act and
won
– TR and his administration,
then went on to fight bad
trusts
 -ones that sold inferior
products, competed
unfairly, or corrupted
politicians
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2. Regulating RR’s
– Many RR’s would give
rebates to wealthy
consumers
– This meant that rich people
paid less for using the RR’s
than poor people
– TR got the Elkins Act
passed, which prohibited RR’s
from giving rebates
– The Hepburn Act gave the
Interstate Commerce
Commission power to regulate
other companies besides RR’s
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3. Protecting Consumers
– TR also responded to
public unrest about food
and drug industries
– Upton Sinclair’s book
The Jungle talked about
unsanitary conditions in
meat plants
– The book made people call
for reform
– The Meat Inspection Act
required the federal gov’t
to inspect all meat
– The Pure Food and Drug
Act forbade the sale or
distribution of harmful
ingredients
C. Environmental Conservation
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Many companies were wasting
forests and natural resources
TR came up with the idea of
making unusable land useful
The Newlands Reclamation
Act created irrigation projects
to make dry lands farmable
Gifford Pinchot first used the
word Conservation
He believed that conserving
resources was the key to
ensuring a good future
TR named him the head of
conservation
TR passed the Antiquities
Act which created 18 national
parks and monuments in
America
For many historians,
conservation is TR’s greatest
legacy
D. Progressivism Under Taft
William Howard Taft
became president after
TR
 He passed the 16th
Amendment
 This allowed the gov’t to
tax an individual’s income
(Income Tax)
 Also created the Dept. of
Labor to enforce labor
laws
 Taft increased Federal
National Forests as well
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E. Wilson’s New Freedom
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Woodrow Wilson became
president after Taft
His progressive program was
called the New Freedom
-Called for stronger anti-trust
laws and banking reform
Passed the Federal Reserve
Act
-this created a central fund
from which banks could
borrow money to prevent bank
collapses
Passed the Clayton Antitrust Act
-prevented companies buying
stock in other companies
-also supported workers on
strike
19th Amendment also passed
under Wilson
-women’s suffrage
F. African Americans
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Progressivism did little if nothing for African
Americans
Brownsville Incident
1906, Brownsville, Texas black soldiers were
accused of going on a shooting spree
The members of the 25th Infantry were told that if
no one claimed responsibility, then all would be
dishonorably discharged
TR signed the papers and gave 167 black soldiers a
DD.
Years later, it was discovered that they had been
falsely accused