Roosevelt’s Square Deal
Roosevelt Rises to the Presidency
 Graduate of Harvard
 Loved wildlife
 Named Assistant Secretary of the Navy
under President McKinley.
 Formed Rough Riders in Spanish
American War. (Calvary Unit)
 Elected Governor of N.Y.
 Progressive beliefs
 Vice President under McKinley and
became President when he was
assassinated
• Teddy Bear named after him.
• Square Deal=keep the wealthy from
taking advantage of the poor and small
business owners.
Square Deal
•TR believed in the “capitalistic
system” but believed that the
system must be regulated by US
Govt.
•TR was a Hamiltonian but for the
betterment of the “common man”
as opposed to benefit the elite.
•TR believed the U.S. Government was running the country and not the
rich and corrupt industrialists….
•U.S. Government involvement with “regulatory agencies”….Similar to
“checks and balances”
Square Deal
•Reforms of the Progressives
start with President
Roosevelt….
•Areas which he wanted to
reform and use the “bully
pulpit” of the Presidency were
the following:
•Bad Trusts vs. Good Trusts
•Take the side of labor
•Railroads
•Limiting corruption in the
workplace
•Conservation
TR, the “Trustbuster”
•Department of Labor
•Bureau of Corporations
•Filed more than 40 anti-trust suits
using the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
•Northern Securities
•Standard Oil
•Swift Beef
The Trustbuster
 Trust- Group of separate companies that
are placed under the control of a single
managing board in order to form a
monopoly.
 Coal miners strike 1902- Threatens to
send in federal troops to end strike.
 Federal government steps in for 1st time
and helped workers in a labor dispute.
 Formed Department of Commerce and
Labor
Railroads
Railroad Reforms to boost
the Interstate Commerce
Commission.
•Elkins Act
•Anti-Rebate Act or AntiKick Back Act
•Regulates common
carriers of people and
freight, UPS, Greyhound,
Amtrak, etc.
•Hepburn Act
•Regulates rates for
passengers and freight
•Air travel cost controls
•Air freight price
controls
Enforces Sherman Anti-Trust Act
 Sherman Anti-Trust Act- banned any
trust that restrained interstate trade or
commerce.
 Broke up many trusts including Northern
Securities Company (r.r. company) and
beef trusts.
 Supported large corporations as long as
they did business fairly.
Regulating Food and Drug Industries
 Upton Sinclair - The Jungle
 Meat Inspection Act- Required federal
agents to inspect meat that went across
state lines and to inspect plants.
 Pure Food and Drug Act- Federal agents
to inspect other foods and medicines and
banned interstate shipment of impure
food and the mislabeling of food and
drugs.
 Today FDA (Food and Drug Adm.)
enforces the law.
•Reading The Jungle, TR brought
about reform in proposing and
signing into law the Meat
Inspection Act, 1906
•All meat sold must inspected
•Must be marked by Federal
inspectors and graded.
•Meat industry cleaned up.
•Fish is regulated.
•Pure Food and Drug
Act, 1906
•Federal inspection to all packaged
foods and drugs.
•Labels with medicine as well as
food.
•Contents of food and drug
packages must be listed
•All additives/chemicals must be
listed on labels.
•FDA today or Food and Drug
Administration
TR’s Conservation Policy
•125,000 acres in reserve
•National Reclamation Act 1902
•25 water projects
•Founding of the National Park
System
National Forests
 Conserved and preserved forests.
 Gifford Pinchot- Led Division of Forestry in
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 Idea that forest be preserved for public use.
John Muir-Created Yosemite National Park in
1890.
At this time they would preserve forests for
logging, it later changed into public parks.
•National Reclamation
Act gave birth to the
Newlands Irrigation
Project.
•Free land to
Homesteaders who
wanted to farm
Lahontan Valley.
•Dairy farming, hay,
beef and sugar beets
•Lake Lahontan and
dam built in operation
by 1914
Roosevelt Changes Water Policy
 Water was fought over in Southwest.
 Private irrigation companies were
taking over riverbeds so farmers
couldn’t reclaim lost land.
 National Reclamation Act 1902- Fed.
Government decides where and how
water could be distributed.
 Build and managed dams.
 Roosevelt and Hoover Dams on
Colorado River.
 Salt Valley Project in Arizona.
Taft
 Taft becomes president in 1908
 Progressive but had some different ideas
from Roosevelt.
 Payne-Aldrich Act 1909- Lowered tariffs but
not as low as Roosevelt had wanted.
 Mann-Elkins Act 1910- Gave gov. control of
telegraph and telephone rates.
 Dropped Roosevelt’s distinctions between
good trusts and bad trusts.
• Busted twice as many trusts as Roosevelt
including Standard Oil Company.
• Fired Gifford Pinchot for criticizing
Richard Ballinger (Sec. of Interior)
▫ Ballinger opposed Roosevelt’s
conservation policies, and sold federal
land rich with coal deposits to Alaska.
▫ Ballinger-Pinchot Affair
Roosevelt Strikes Back
 New Nationalism-Program to restore
government’s trustbusting power.
 Declared himself as strong as a bull-moose.
 Bull-Moose Party- Progressives who were for
Roosevelt for a 3rd term. Included Jane
Addams.
 Republicans- Supported Taft.
New Freedom
Goal:
•
Favored an active role in
economic and social affairs.
•
Favored small businesses and
the free functioning and
unregulated and
unmonopolized markets.
•
Tackle the “triple wall of
privilege”: the tariff, the
banks, and the trusts.
1. Similar to Roosevelt’s New
Nationalism.
New Nationalism
Goal:
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•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Continuation of his Square Deal
which were reforms to help the
common man.
Favored a more active govt role
in economic and social affairs.
Good trusts vs. bad trusts
Direct election of senators
Tariff reduction
Presidential primaries
Regulation of monopolies
End child labor
Initiative and referendum
Women’s suffrage