The Square Deal
• Roosevelt’s agenda for the country – “a Square
Deal for all” involved progressive legislation:
control corporations
consumer protection
conservation of natural resources
• In 1902 Roosevelt ordered the break up of the
massive Northern Securities Company and in
1904 he was supported by the Supreme Court
which ordered the company dissolved
• When coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike
in 1902 Roosevelt called both sides to a
conference at the White House
• Roosevelt was not going to let the coal shortage
affect the country
• The mine owners refused to talk to the unions – a
move which only angered the president
• Nothing was decided at the meeting so Roosevelt
threatened to take over the mines and run them
with the army
• It is questionable if Roosevelt had the authority
to use the army, but the threat was more than
enough to break the impasse
• The strike ended later that year
Muckrakers
• Exposing social problems became a common
practice after the turn of the century especially in
magazines like Collier’s and Cosmopolitan
• These writers were dubbed muckrakers
• Despite criticism from the White House the sale
of books and magazines that exposed filth, crime,
and corruption boomed
• In 1902 a reporter, Lincoln Steffens wrote in
McClure’s about the seedy connections between
big business and local government in “The
Shame of the Cities”
• The majority of Progressive were middle-class
people who felt stuck between the rich and the
poor
• They represented all political affiliations and all
regions of the country
• One of their first moves was to take the political
power away from the party bosses
• They demanded voter referendums so legislation
could be passed without input from the oftencorrupt legislatures
• The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) established
direct elections for the Senate to eliminate the
influence of big business
Robert La Follette
• A leading figure in the Progressive movement
was Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
• As governor La Follette had made the state a
‘laboratory of reform”
• He took on the lumber and railroad companies
and created the “Wisconsin Idea”
• His main aim was to create a government of
experts who would then run the state based on
progressive principles
Regulating Industry
• The Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)
had proved inadequate to regulate the railroads
• Equally the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) did
little to stop the power of the major industries
• Roosevelt created the Department of Commerce
in 1903, which was authorized to investigate
businesses which involved interstate commerce
• In 1903 the Elkins Act imposed fines on railroads
that gave and offered rebates and special deals
• The Hepburn Act of 1906 removed the free
passes
Conservation
• In 1881 Congress created the Division of Forestry
as part of the Department of agriculture
• Roosevelt appointed Gifford Pinchot as forestry
chief
• To help protect the environment and maintain
the forests Roosevelt added fifty wildlife refuges
and five national parks
• Roosevelt vehemently opposed industrialists who
wanted to strip the country of natural resources
Upton Sinclair
• In 1906 Upton Sinclair published The Jungle
which exposed the atrocious problems faced by
the workers and the unsanitary conditions in the
plants
• When Roosevelt read the book he was sickened
and appointed a special commission to investigate
the meatpacking plants
• In 1906 he passed the Meat Inspection Act, which
required meat that was shipped over state line to
be inspected before shipping
• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was to
prevent mislabeling of foods and drugs
Panic of 1907
• As Roosevelt called for more legislation against
big business so he became less desirable as a
presidential candidate for the Republicans
• In 1907 an economic crisis hit Wall Street as
banks closed and people defaulted on their loans
• The crisis was blamed on Roosevelt who had
interfered with the workings of Wall Street
• In return Roosevelt blamed wealthy individuals
who, he said, had manipulated the situation
• Thankfully the crisis was short but it did allow
some fiscal reform
• The crisis made everyone aware that money
needed to be available to prevent future panics
• In 1908 Congress passed the Aldrich-Vreeland
Act, which gave the national banks the power to
issue emergency currency
The Election of 1908
• Roosevelt probably would have won in 1908 if he
had chosen to run, but he had promised in 1904
to step aside
• Roosevelt selected William Howard Taft as his
successor, confident in the fact that Taft would
simply continue his agenda
• The Democrats nominated the twice-beaten
William Jennings Bryan
• Both men tried to persuade the public that they
were progressives
• The Socialist picked Eugene V. Debs who came
third but gained nearly half a million votes
Young Teddy
 Childhood
struggles
 Teddy’s
illnesses
Teenager Teddy
Works hard in his
father’s home gym
 Overcomes
illnesses through
the strength of his
will

TR: The Athlete
 Harvard
years
 Sculling and
boxing
Roosevelt at Harvard
 Roosevelt’s
“classroom”
education
Early Adult Years

1881 – Climbing the
Matterhorn

Death of mother and
wife

Retreat to the
Badlands
Life in the Badlands




Learned lessons in the
Badlands
“Took the snob out of
me”
Love of the open land
Shaped future policies
TR’s Life with Edith
Marriage to Edith
 Tales of Teddy
Roosevelt and his
six children (only
five in this picture
because Quentin
is not yet born)

Early Career


President of the NYC
Board of Police
Commissioners
Already a “mover
and a shaker” and a
friend of the common
man
Rough Riders
 Roosevelt
as
part of this
volunteer
regiment
 Victory at San
Juan Hill
 Medal of Honor
McKinley/Roosevelt Ticket
 Roosevelt’s
progressive
campaign style
 Powerful
speeches
Roosevelt Becomes President
 Assassination
McKinley
 A “visible
president”
of
Origin of “Teddy Bear”
 The
famous
bear hunt in
1902
 Berryman’s
political
cartoon
Early Presidential Years


Family picture at
Sagamore Hill in
Oyster Bay on Long
Island, New York
Stories of
Roosevelt’s
enjoyment of his
children
President Roosevelt in the White
House
1903
The Bully Pulpit
 How
things
“ought to be”
 A bully pulpit
speech in
Evanston,
Illinois
Roosevelt as Conservationist
National Parks,
National Forests,
game and bird
preserves, and
other federal
reservations
 230,000,000 acres

President Theodore Roosevelt at
Yosemite in 1903.
Roosevelt and National Parks
"Leave it as it is. You
can not improve on
it. The ages have
been at work on it,
and man can only
mar it."
Panama Canal: Roosevelt’s Most
Famous Foreign Policy Initiative
Here TR inspects the canal construction in Panama in 1906.
The Square Deal
A
fair shake for all
 Pure Food and Drug Act of
1906
 Meat Inspection Act of 1906
Attack on Laissez Faire
 Work
to curb the power of trusts
"within reasonable limits"
 Roosevelt the “Trust Buster”
Big Stick Diplomacy
A
favorite proverb, "Speak softly
and carry a big stick. . . . "
 What do you think this means?
TR Saves Football
 Meeting
of the Big Three
 American Football Rules
Committee was formed
 Rules to make the game less
dangerous
Presidential Firsts




First to invite an African American to a
White House dinner
First to have Secret Service protection
First to win Nobel Peace Prize for his work
towards ending the Russo-Japanese War
First to take trip outside the United States
More Presidential Firsts
 First
to give an open invitation to the
press
 First to be submerged in a
submarine, to own a car, to have a
telephone in his home, and to be
allowed to operate the light switches
in the White House
Roosevelt Hand Picks Taft
 Theodore
Roosevelt with
incoming
President
William Howard
Taft on Taft's
inauguration day
in 1909
Roosevelt Loses to Wilson



The “Progressive Bull
Moose” loses in 1912
Life goes on
Theodore Roosevelt
at the wedding of his
daughter Ethel to
Richard Derby.
An Older Theodore Roosevelt


Agony over the death
of Quentin in World
War I
"Grandfather"
Roosevelt hugs baby
granddaughter Edith
Roosevelt Derby,
1918.
• most of these
cartoons showed
Teddy attacking some
foe with this physical
ability