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Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal. Politics. Roosevelt became governor of NY in 1898 VP in 1900, then President in 1901 Mediated a PA coal miners strike successfully -he called this his “square deal” -believed needs of workers, business, consumers should be balanced

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Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

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  1. Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal

  2. Politics • Roosevelt became governor of NY in 1898 • VP in 1900, then President in 1901 • Mediated a PA coal miners strike successfully -he called this his “square deal” -believed needs of workers, business, consumers should be balanced -wanted to limit power of trusts, promote public health/safety, & improve working conditions -used “square deal” slogan to easily win 1904 election

  3. Regulating Big Business • 1901 – JP Morgan, James Hill, E.H. Harriman joined rr together to eliminate competition -Northern Securities Co. dominated rr shipping • 1902 – Roosevelt ordered US attorney general to sue Northern Sec. for violating Sherman Anti-trust Act • 1904 – Supreme Court ruled that the monopoly did violate the S.A.A. & ordered the company dissolved • Roosevelt went after other monopolies and “bad” trusts (sold poor products, unfair competition, or corrupted public officials)

  4. Regulating the Railroads • Elkins Act- (1903) prohibited rr from accepting rebates; all customers pay same rates • Hepburn Act (1906) – strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission, giving it the power to set maximum rr rates

  5. Protecting Consumers • Some poultry sellers added formaldehyde to old eggs to hide their foul odor • Drug companies sold meds that didn’t work • Some OTC medicines contained narcotics -drug for teething babies contained heroine -drug for fighting pneumonia contained opium • Meatpacking industries depicted in Upton’s Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” • Effects: Meat Inspection Act & Pure Food & Drug Act

  6. Welcome to the Jungle • “There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it . . . A man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of dried dung of rats . . . The packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then the rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.” • “We saw meat shoveled from filthy wooden floors, piled on tables rarely washed, pushed from room to room in rotten box carts. In all of which processes it [the meat] was in the ways of gathering dirt, splinters, floor filth, and the expectoration [saliva] of tuberculosis and other diseased workers.” -James Wilson, Sec. of Agriculture

  7. Environmental Conservation • TR recognized that natural resources were limited • TR felt that public lands needed to be used for both economic advantage and preservation • Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)– “reclaim” dry lands by irrigating them, funding projects by selling off public lands • US Forest Service – created 1905, headed by Gifford Pinchot (“conservation is the wise use of earth & resources for lasting good of men”) -added nearly 150 million acres to natn’l forests, controlled their use, & regulated their harvest

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