Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was active in politics from a young age. Though he assumed the role as president only after McKinley’s assassination, he prided himself on his broadening of the executive powers, as well as that of the federal government; he passionately took McKinley's place as Chief executive. Roosevelt was a lively and devout nationalist and a strong believer of a powerful central government. Teddy Roosevelt's presidential platform, as well as his domestic program, became known as “The Square Deal”, because he vowed not to favor any group of Americans and to be fair to all. Teddy Roosevelt encouraged the nation to revive an active role in global politics, particularly
…show more content…
Unlike previous presidents, Roosevelt defended laborers right to organize and strike without military intervention. In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt took a hand in the anthracite coal strike after the threat of cutting off heating fuel for homes, schools, and even hospitals. He openly recruited representatives of the company and the workers to meet in the White House for a negotiation of terms as a means of mediating the issue. Roosevelt used his connections as Chief Executive to have Wall Street threaten to withhold credit from the coal companies and he even mentioned calling in the army to run the mines. His strategy paid off when the companies’ arbitrators consented to a modest pay increase as well as a shortened workday for the laborers. This was the first incident in which a president had candidly intervened in a discord between a company and its workers, at least inherently on the side of the laborers. Roosevelt explained his actions as contending toward a “Square Deal” between corporations and their employees; he coined the phrase “Square Deal” as part of his campaign slogan during the election of 1904. He did not share McKinley’s conservative pro-business policies, and instead became known as the “trust-buster” after being the …show more content…
Theodore Roosevelt’s most daring actions arose in the area of reservation of natural resources; his passion for nature was a result of his frail health as a boy. His childhood was plagued by suffering from severe asthma and weak eyesight, which followed him throughout adulthood as well. Roosevelt became an ostensibly passionate and enthusiastic outdoorsman. During the time which he grieved the loss of both his wife and mother, he took a leave from politics to spend two years on a cattle ranch in the badlands of the Dakota Territory; it came to be apparent to Theodore the environmental damage to the West and its wildlife. There, he became an unmistakably concerned advocate for preserving wilderness: a preservationist. Preservationists frequently clashed with companies who saw the wilderness merely in terms of resources for production, or spaces for residential and commercial developments. Though Roosevelt was a passionate preservationist, he understood the necessity of conciliation between the generally split populous. His compromise was a conservation program that provided the regulated use of the nation’s wilderness. In 1905, Congress created the Forest Service, at the president’s advising, to manage the newly established federally owned forest reserves; he appointed fellow preservationist Gifford Pinchot as the head of the new agency.
During this time period, he was able to accomplish major things that lead and helped shape America into what it is today. Roosevelt worked hard to break apart monopolies, which were companies that controlled the entire industry, and it ultimately lead to his plan the “Square Deal.” The Square Deal was Roosevelts idea and plan
During his presidency in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became highly influenced by John Muir’s conservation research and efforts. The first National Park they created was Yosemite. The two influential leaders would go on to use their influence and power to create National Parks in America thereby paving the way for conservation and wilderness protection. John Muir didn’t just conserve land to conserve it. He started conservation because he became politically protective over Yosemite after getting threatened by commercial developments.
To gain broad public support of his progressive conservation policies, and the increases to executive power to accomplish its aims, Theodore launched and unparalleled media campaign. With a constant stream of news conferences and interviews with the media, Theodore Roosevelt was able to go around the staunch opposition he faced in Congress to his policies. The chief architect of the President's plan to foster public favor of forming "a national conservation movement based on federal resource planning" was his conservation advisor and chief of the Bureau of Forestry, Gifford Pinchot (Ponder, 548). Pinchot's vision was to gain public approval for the centralization of natural resource, public land, and water use. The first stage in Pinchot's
Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression and helped restore confidence to the American people. Franklin himself asserted in his inaugural address, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He gave hope to the American people by promoting a domestic New Deal policy in response to a crisis in American history. In his book New Deal Thomas Riggs maintains that “The New Deal began immediately after Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933 and set out to relieve the suffering of the unemployed and impoverished, restore the economy to a healthy level, and reform the financial system in order to prevent future fiscal catastrophes.” His plan sought to control agricultural production, stabilize wages and prices, and create a large public works program for the
Theodore Roosevelt was, in a sense, forced to lead Congress to this, since many members had been bribed and corrupted by offers from the leading corporations. This was a common fear throughout America, as evidenced by the details of Appendix 6. The large trusts controlling Congress was what Roosevelt had to break up for the sake of the economy, since if he did not intervene, the corporations would likely have taken control of the U.S. government and instilled a pure monopoly. A lack of competition would have ended up destroying the economy, so Theodore Roosevelt’s “Jackson-Lincoln” school of presidency, where he expanded the power of the office as much as felt he needed to, was completely necessary, as if he had followed the “Buchanan-Taft” school and done little,
Theodore Roosevelt is one of the American presidents who are remembered for the changes that they brought or made in this nation. He was the 26th president of the United States and he is remembered for his transformations and important quotes which are useful today. Theodore Roosevelt was the most youthful president in the historical background of America amid that opportunity to be in office. He had not yet turned forty three years, the required age, when he got to be a president. He played a major role in transforming the federal government and the transformations made are still in effect today (viewpoint article; Beale).
During the 1902 Coal Strike, when Americans feared that they would freeze to death over the winter, Roosevelt brought both the miners and the mine owners together. Most strikes, unsurprisingly, failed to get the workers what they wanted, no matter how stubborn they were. However, when Roosevelt met with both parties, he did something shocking: he made both the miners and the owners agree to a compromise. This was unprecedented, because even though the mine owners got the better end of the deal, the laborers got something, a 10% wage increase and a 9 hour work day, which was more than precedent. Roosevelt’s main motive for this decision, though, was to keep the other Americans from freezing to death.
When management refused to negotiate, he hatched a plan to force the two sides to talk: instead of sending federal troops to interrupt the strike and force the miners back to work, Mr. Roosevelt threatened to use troops to take hold of the mines and run them as a federal operation. (Millercenter.org, 2017). Roosevelt named the settlement of the coal strike a "square deal". Those words soon became equal with Roosevelt's domestic
Many economic and social changes transformed American society in the 20th century, including innovations in science and technology, and economic productivity. In turn people believed that the government should create political, social, and moral reforms to regulate big business and the other colonial problems. The progressive movement was caused by a renewed interest in social issues and the revival of the ideals on which America was founded. Big businessmen had created empires of wealth, owning vast majorities of businesses. This only allowed enough space for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, but the Progressive Era brought dramatic changes to the nation’s economic, and political sectors.
The Progressive Era was a reconstruction period which took place between the years of 1890 to 1920. In this time many changes and reforms were enacted for the people of the United States. This era was driven in part by one of the best and most influential presidents of our country, Theodore Roosevelt. In his two terms he shaped how Americans lived in this country for the better by his program called the “Square Deal” that started in the early 1900’s. Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” reforms helped improve the conservation of the nation’s natural resources, protect the health of American consumers, and regulate big businesses.
Teddy was sworn in as the twenty-sixth President of the United States of America. As I said he was the youngest ever to take office. One of his first acts as President was the Square Deal. the Square Deal was the bill that states that "promised to battle large industrial combinations or trusts which threatened to restrain trade"(history.com-staff, 1) Roosevelt also loved wild life and nature and he saved "two hundred million acres of land for wild life refuges, national forest, and reserves. "(history.com-staff, 1) Roosevelt was then running for his second term and won by a landslide.
Teddy Roosevelt led a regiment known as the rough riders during the Spanish- American War and came out of the war hero. He was the Vice President to William McKinley until he died a year into his term of natural causes. As Vice President he was then made the president of the United States. Theodore promised the American people the Square deal. The square deal was a deal to conserve natural resources, control corporations, and consumer protection.
In his first hundred days in office, he passed numerous “significant pieces of legislation that were geared towards creating jobs, shoring up industry and agriculture, and providing relief to individuals through both refinancing options and direct handouts” (U.S. History 785). Not only did he provide jobs and earning opportunities he gave the country hope. After the lack of action by the previous administration American’s were suffering and had lost all confidence in the government. The four-month period between his election and taking office was so painful that the US Constitution was amended to a two-month period. Roosevelt exuded confidence, was proactive and calmed the countries fear with his fireside chats.
John Muir, a Scottish naturalist, who valued nature as its sprit and quality had spent years in preserving resources, became to contradict with Gifford Pinchot. Gifford Pinchot the head of Forest Service hence believed that lands was not necessarily needed to be preserved but to be conserved. From Pinchot’s view, resources were in need of protection for efficiency in management, so that the program could increase the profitability for business interests in the long term. Theodore Roosevelt approached, as a conservationist instead of preservationist, in means of increase and sustains the resources of United States and industries that depend upon them. Therefore, he designated two hundred million acres as hundred and fifty new national forests, mineral reserves, potential waterpower sites, and created five national parks and eighteen national monuments to the list of protected lands in total.
Roosevelt actually faced a large amount of resistance when trying to pass his new deals. During one of his terms, Roosevelt announced a controversial plan to expand the supreme court. He was quickly criticized of trying to "Pack" the courts in order to neutralize hostile opinions towards his new deals ("Roosevelt announces 'court-packing' plan", 2010). Later in his presidency Roosevelt had to manage the daunting task that was World War II. Before America even enter the war, Roosevelt was working to provide