1. Chapter 8 Section 4
Roosevelt’s Square Deal

2. Today’s Objectives
Discuss Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas on the role of government
Analyze how Roosevelt changed the government’s role in the economy
Explain the impact of Roosevelt’s actions on natural resources
Compare and Contrast Taft’s polices with Roosevelt’s

3. Why It Matters
In the late 1800’s, the U. S. had several weak and ineffective Presidents. The arrival of Theodore Roosevelt, a charismatic figure who embraced Progressive ideas, ushered in a new era. He changed the way Americans view the roles of the President and the Government.

4. Roosevelt Shapes the Modern Presidency
President Roosevelt was only 43 years old when he became president in 1901.
He was a sickly child of wealthy parents, he had used his family’s resources to develop both his strength and his mind.
Many said, “if you met him, you leave the event with bits of his personality ‘stuck to your clothes”.

5. Roosevelt’s Rise to the Presidency
Roosevelt graduated with honors from Harvard University in He spent only a few months studying law at Columbia University before being elected to the New York State Assembly.
When his wife and mother died he moved west, there he developed a love for the wilderness.

6. Roosevelt’s Rise to the Presidency
As President of the NYC Board of Police Commissioners, he gained fame by fighting corruption.
President William McKinley noticed him and named him Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
After the Spanish-American War, he was elected governor of NY where he pushed for progressive reforms.

7. Roosevelt’s Rise to the Presidency
His reform efforts annoyed Republican leaders in the state.
McKinley chose Roosevelt as his running mate to cause him to leave NY.
McKinley was reelected President, but was assassinated, and Roosevelt became President.
Roosevelt soon dominated public attention.

8. The Square Deal Goal
Keep the wealthy and powerful from taking advantage of small business owners and the poor
His idea of fair government did not mean that everyone would get rich or tat the government should take care of the lazy.
He compared his Square Deal to a hand of cards.

9. A Square Deal or a Hand of Cards
“When I say I believe in a square deal, I do not mean to give every man the best hand. If good cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power t play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing.”

10. What did Roosevelt want his Square Deal program to achieve?
He wanted it to create a fair, honest, and just society in which everyone had an equal chance to succeed.

11. Trust-busting and Regulating Industry
Roosevelt often stepped in with the authority and power of the federal government.
When PA coal miners went on strike, the miners wanted a pay raise and a shorter workday. Roosevelt sympathized with the overworked miners, but he knew that a steady supply of coal was needed to keep factories running and homes warm. He wanted the strike to end quickly.
He told the owners that he was going to send in federal troops to take control of their mine, thus resulting in a small raise for the miners. This was the 1st time the federal government had stepped in to help workers in a labor dispute.

12. Roosevelt takes on the Railroad
The cost of shipping freight on railroads had been an issue since the 1870’s.
In 1887, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to oversee rail charges for shipments that passed through ore than one state.
ICC was supposed to ensure that all shippers were charged the same amounts.

13. Roosevelt takes on the Railroad
The Hepburn Act – gave the ICC strong enforcement power to set and limit shipping cost. The act also set maximum prices for ferries, bridge tolls, and oil pipelines.

14. Why did Roosevelt work to establish the Department of Commerce and Labor?
To monitor businesses engaged in interstate commerce and to keep capitalist from abusing their power.

15. Regulating Food & Drug Industries
Descriptions of filthy, unhealthy, conditions in meatpacking plants revolted the public and infuriated the President.
Roosevelt urged Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act
Federal agents were to inspect any meat sold across state lanes and required federal inspection of meat-processing plants.

16. Regulating Food and Drug Industries
Pure Food and Drug Act placed the same controls on other foods and on medicines.
It banned the interstate shipment of impure food and the mislabeling of food and drugs.

17. What Impact did Roosevelt’s actions have on the government’s role in the economy?
Roosevelt’s actions greatly increased the role of the federal government in regulating and monitoring the economy and labor issues.

18. The Government Manages the Environment
John Muir – led congress to create Yosemite National Park in 1890
In 1891, Congress gave the president the power to protect timberlands by setting aside land as federal forest.
Gifford Pinchot – led the Division of Forestry in the US Department of Agriculture. He recommended that forest be preserved for public use.

19. How did Roosevelt’s Policies affect the environment?
Because of Roosevelt’s polices, national wild lands would now be managed for their natural resources, and water reclamation project would irrigate mush desert land in the Southwest. The Roosevelt administration also preserved 100 million acres of national wild lands.

20. Roosevelt Changes Water Policy
National Reclamation Act gave the Federal Government the power to decide where and how water would be distributed

21. Roosevelt and Howard Taft Different
Roosevelt helped Secretary of War, William Howard Taft win the presidency in 1908.
He expect Taft to continue his programs of managing businesses and natural resources.
Taft soon set his own agenda.
He approved the Payne-Aldrich Act (1909), which didn’t lower tariffs as much as Roosevelt wanted.
He pushed Congress to pass the Mann-Elkins Act (1910), gave the government control over telephone and telegraph rates.
He encourage Congress to propose an income tax
He dropped Roosevelt’s distinction between good trust and bad trust.

22. Roosevelt and Howard Taft Different
Taft’s Justice department brought lawsuits against twice as many corporations as Roosevelt’s had done.
Taft infuriated Roosevelt and other Progressives in the Republican party when he fired Gifford Pinchot for publicly criticizing Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger.
Pinchot charged that Ballinger, who opposed Roosevelt’s conservations policies, had worked with business interest to sell federal land rich in coal deposits in Alaska.

23. Roosevelt Strikes Back
Roosevelt began traveling the country speaking about what he called the New Nationalism.
New Nationalism – a program to restore the government’s trust-busting power.
The Taft-Roosevelt battle split the Republican party and set up the Progressive Party.
Reformer Jane Addams nominated Roosevelt as the Progressive Party’s candidate for the 1912 presidential election.
The Republicans nominated Taft and a bitter election loomed.

24. How did William Howard Taft’s polices compare with Theodore Roosevelt’s?
Taft took a stronger stance against trust, supported government control over certain industries, encouraged Congress to propose a federal income tax, and did not lower tariffs as much as Roosevelt wished.