1. Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal
Chapter 16
Section 3
The Progressives
Riddlebarger

2. Roosevelt’s View of the Presidency

3. He becomes New York Governor in 1898
Roosevelt rise politically was seen as trouble by the Republican party machine of New York.
He becomes New York Governor in 1898
They hatch: nominate him as Vice President, a job with little power at the time
Taking Office
President McKinley assassinated in 1901
TR, the reformer, becomes president (age 42)
Previous presidents took a hands-off approach, not TR
Brings momentum to Progressive Causes
Bully Pulpit
A powerful platform to publicize important issues and seek support for his policies.

4. The Coal Strike of 1902
Soon after he takes office, 150,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania go on strike for better wages, hours and union rights.
TR feels compelled to get involved as winter nears
“...to bring to an end a situation which has become literally intolerable.”
TR proposes arbitration but owners refuse (workers agreed).
He threatens to take over the mines & they give in
Arbitrators give workers shorter day & higher pay but owners don’t have to recognize the union
1st government intervention in a strike to protect worker/public interests

5. The Square Deal
Roosevelt pronounced the successful conclusion of the strike a “square deal”.
This term will become the slogan of his 1904 re-election campaign & the framework for his entire presidency.
He promised to “see that each [person] is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.”
Reveals his belief that the needs of workers, business and consumers should all be balanced.
Square Deal: limit power of trusts, promote public health & safety and improve working conditions.

6. “We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.”
1904 election
Roosevelt was easily re-elected:

7. What was Roosevelt’s Square Deal?

8. Regulating Big Business

9. “We are...determined that they [corporations] shall be so handled as to subserve [serve] the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”
Roosevelt focus great attention on regulating large corporations.

10. Trust-busting
In 1901, 3 major railroads merge to eliminate competition & will dominate shipping from Chicago to the Northwest
Northern Securities Company
TR sues them for violating Sherman Antitrust Act
Supreme Court will agree & dissolves the company in 1904
Landmark ruling
TR will go on trust-busting campaign; dozens more lawsuits filed
Not about size of company; Was it good or bad for the American public?
Inferior products; competed unfairly; bribed public officials

11. Regulating the railroads
A way to see that businesses competed fairly was through regulation
Elkins Act (1903)- prohibits railroads from accepting rebates
Rebates favored big business over small farmers and businesses
Now, all customers pay the same rate
Hepburn Act (1906)- gave ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) the power to set maximum railroad rates
Can also regulate other companies that do interstate commerce.

12. Protecting Consumers
Roosevelt also responds to growing concerns about food & drug industries.
Dangerous products being put on the market
Clever tricks used to sell tainted food
Many medicines sold that did not work
Others contained dangerous narcotics

13. The Jungle Upton Sinclair book in 1906
Meatpacking industry revelations in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Leads to heavy criticism of meat industry & calls for reform

14. Investigation
Roosevelt has Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson investigate
His final report leads to reform
Meat Inspection Act
Federal inspeciton of meat shipped across state lines
Pure Food & Drug Act
Forbade sale & manufacture of drugs containing harmful ingredients
Accurate ingredient labels
“ 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 way of gathering dirt, splinters, floor filth, and the expectoration [saliva] of tuberculous and other diseased workers.”

15. What measures did the Roosevelt administration take to regulate business and protect consumers?

16. Environmental Conservation

17. Concerns
Late 1800’s view of America as a land with unending supply of resources
Lumber companies clear large forests
Farmers plow up Great Plains
Overgrazing of prairie lands
Mining companies clogging rivers and leaving refuse
Cities dump sewage into rivers and garbage onto the land

18. “We of an older generation can get along with what we have
“We of an older generation can get along with what we have...but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted.”
Roosevelt has a different view:

19. Conservation
Before Roosevelt, the federal government had left natural resources unregulated.
Business needs take priority over the environment
Roosevelt saw resources as limited and the need for control
Roosevelt saw some lands as needing preservation and others put to productive economic use

20. Roosevelt Environmental Actions:
Newlands Reclamation Act (1902): government created irrigation projects to make dry lands productive
United States Forest Service- established in Roosevelt adds 150 million acres to national forests.
Antiquities Act (1906): creation of 18 national monuments in Roosevelt’s term in office.
*some see conservation as TR’s greatest legacy