American History Chapter 16-3 Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. Bully pulpit: T.R. used the presidency as a platform for change.
Roosevelt’s Presidency 1902 - Roosevelt broke up a major coal strike by threatening to take control of the mines. 1904 campaign slogan: The Square Deal. Promised all Americans fair treatment. Used the Sherman Antitrust Act to bust up bad trusts. Elkins Act: Protected RR customers from unfair rates. Hepburn Act: Gave the ICC the power to regulate interstate trade.
Consumer Protection Under T.R. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle: Exposed the meat packing industry & their unsanitary practices. Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act: Required federal inspection of meat passing over state lines. Pure Food & Drug Act: Forbade the making & sale of food & medicines that contained harmful ingredients. Also required ingredient labels. Sinclair
Environmental Protection John Muir: Naturalist who encouraged the gov’t. to preserve nature. “God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” John Muir Gifford Pinchot: First to use the word conservation in terms of protecting natural environment.
Roosevelt’s Greatest Legacy President Roosevelt believed that natural resources were limited & and their use needed to be controlled. Newlands Reclamation Act: Provided federal irrigation projects to make arid land more useful. U.S. Forest Service: Est. 1905 – Added 150 million acres of controlled & regulated national forests. Antiquities Act: 1906 law that led to 18 new national monuments during Roosevelt’s presidency.
Gila National Forest 1907
Devil’s Tower 1908
Grand Canyon 1908
Muir Woods 1908