Teddy Roosevelt's Reforms During The Late 19th Century

In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream. These two people, although they had different principles in mind, had one goal: to make changes to the nation for the better of the people and the country. Setting out to reach this goal, Roosevelt came to be a president of the common man while

Conservation of national parks and trust-busting as seen with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. While Theodore Roosevelt was president, the role of government changed in world affairs by Roosevelt's desire to establish world power and his powerful peacemaking skills. Roosevelt's

Unlike his predecessor, who was a Conservative Republican, Roosevelt was a Progressive Republican who was determined to fix the broken nation. Though he called for many reforms throughout the country, he was especially fixated on breaking up so called “bad trusts” that were used by the rich to create monopolies (Doc 1). He achieved his goal in 1903 by passing the Expediting Act, which broke up “bad trusts” across different industries and provided an effective successor to ineffective Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890. This act also would lead to the Clayton Antitrust act in 1914 that would outlaw discriminating in price between different buyers that would create monopolies that would lessen competition (Doc 5). Along with reforming the economic climate of America, Roosevelt also sought to reform the political climate of America. He believed that the people should be the ones voting people into office, not the legislature (Doc 4). Roosevelt’s ideas on voter reform would eventually lead to the 1913 ratification of the 17th Amendment that stated that all senators would be elected via direct elections, where the people, not the legislature

Theodore soon gathered and co-lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, they were a group of cowboys, miners, and law enforcement. Roosevelt and his Rough Riders help capture San Juan Hill, Roosevelt had come back to the states known as the Hero of San Juan Hill. He earned a Medal of Honor, making him known and loved by people in the US3. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States, even serving a second term in 1904, in his time as president he implemented several policies and changed the average American citizens’ way of life. Roosevelt was adored and loved by the people letting him already have an advantage to the people’s votes. Theodore fought against corruption in businesses and was for the common people, the Square Deal allowed the balance in the use of Trust and also keeping control of trust and the power of labor. Roosevelt sent out an investigation in Chicago, which had reports of contaminated meat, when these reports were proven true, the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.4 In Columbia, there were negotiations between the Colombian and the US government to build the Panama Canal, which would allow trading by sea much easier, after the negotiations failed, Roosevelt was able to build up a revolution in the country and negotiate with the rebels and improve foreign trading tenfold. Theodore Roosevelt had made tons of economic and foreign policies in his two terms, he is undoubtedly one of the most progressive presidents in US

Teddy Roosevelt became the twenty sixth president of the United States of America from September 14, 1901 until March 4, 1909. His nickname was T. R. He was the youngest president. During his time as president, he brought many accomplishments and contributions to the United States of America. He always thought about the best interest of the people before making any final decisions. His decisions were never based on someone’s opinion; however, it was all about bettering the people’s future and their safety. President Teddy Roosevelt was a rich man prior to becoming the president but the poor was his main concern. He had a wife and six children. The most interesting things about President Teddy Roosevelt was that he changed the operation of businesses and the government, how the coal was generate to the public, Panama Canal, and over saw the big remodel of the White House.

The Lincoln Principle, If you never try, you'll never succeed, applies greatly to Theodore Roosevelt. If he had not tried to change America many things would be different even now. He regulated businesses more so that they didn't become as powerful as they were becoming. He wanted to change things so he did. If he had not pushed to have the Panama Canal finished it probably would have taken much longer and more people may have died in the making of the Canal from going slower and more mosquitos and such insects are able to suck the blood from people. This puts them at a higher risk to get diseases transmitted by the insects.

After journalist Upton Sinclair released his book “The Jungle” which describes the working conditions and their horrors, “There would be meat that would had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust. There would be meat stored in great piles in the rooms, 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 the dried dung of rats” (paragraph from the novel “The Jungle”). This made Roosevelt sick and he invited Sinclair to visit him in the White House. Roosevelt told Sinclair “The specific evils you point out shall, if their existence be proved, and if i have the power, be eradicated”.-Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt really started making changes when big business price fixing started, when they would make other small businesses go out of business by lowering the prices then buying them when they would go bankrupt and then jacking up the prices again. After this went on for a while the workers got sick of it and over 100,000 workers went on strike and demanded 20% increase in wages, 9 hour work days and all workers to be associated with a union. After 5 months of intense strike Roosevelt made them come to an agreement and gave them most of their demands. After this everything was different, from now on whenever a strike happened

President Theodore Roosevelt, a leader of progressivism was highly in favor for a reform at a national level. He believed it was the governments duty to regulated businesses and improve the life's of the people. While the second industrial revolution brought major industrial achievement it also gave corporate bosses excessive amount of power, which they used to bend political parties to their favor and progressives such as president Wilson hoped to rectify this(Document 2). During this progressive movement many Americans focused on reform the country in ways that would creating a limitation on major business, such as Rockefeller Standard Oil, that used a unfair monopoly system to build their empire, which was damaging the economy. Roosevelt being the first to take signification action on trust-busting, such as passing the Hepburn Act which was enacted in 1906 set a precedent for the power of the federal government. The Hepburn Act set a maximum price for the freight rates on the railroads and it extended the reach of the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulation of pipelines, freight companies, sleeping-car companies, bridges and ferries. During this period the federal government passed an incredible amount of legislation that mainly regulated the problems in the society to provide a greater sense of regulation and protection for the people. Problems such as overbearing freight prices, vile food preparation and inconsistent economic status were issues that needed to be amended. Roosevelt also focused of the conservation of natural resources to help further developed the nation land and it's usefulness(Document 6). Anti-trust acts, Federal Reserve Acts were also established to break trusts to help improve market rates and improve the quality of life for the working class through more regulations on businesses by the federal government. Roosevelt trust-busting helped

Progressivism originated as the optimistic vision that society was capable of improvement, and that continued growth and advancement were the nation's destiny. This, however, would require direct, purposeful human intervention in social and economic affairs. Progressive reformers wished to limit the disperse authority and wealth by empowering the government to regulate or break up trusts at both state and national levels. They also believed in the importance of social cohesion. Individuals were not autonomous; rather they are each part of a great web of social relationships. Therefore they pushed for reforms to help women, children, industrial workers, immigrants, and even African Americans to

During the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, America saw three new presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. This period of time is known as the Progressive Era due to the political and social changes made to move away from a laissez-faire government to a more active government by the administrations of these presidents. Prior to this period, Americans had to suffer through poor working conditions, low wages, social and class inequality and become victims to large corporations that took advantage of the people. In particular, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson established the key principles and ideas of economic reform and social reform, which would end up returning the power from the manipulative corporations back to the government, establishing a model for a more active role for the federal government, and improve the lives of Americans. However, even though Roosevelt and Wilson had similar intentions of reforming America, they both had different means of achieving it.

Many social movements throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shaped the Progressive Era. Towards the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century the economy was thriving. Industrialization was blooming with new achievements that were being brought to America. However, many problems were also brought. The Progressive Era tackled these problems. The Progressive Era made an immense change on America’s economy and society. This Era was a time of extreme change. Major changes were made in the economic and political levels during the time of this era. Many of the problems were problems of the urbanization and industrialization periods. The Progressive Era had many successes and many failures, however, the successes overshadow the failures. The progressive era was a response to the problems that were caused by the movements after the Civil War, problems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the era was successful in addressing problems such as public education, the Gilded Age, and living conditions.

The Progressive Era was a time period between the years 1900-1920 and it marked a time in American history in which society was bursting with enthusiasm to improve life in the industrial age by making political and social changes through government action that ultimately led to a higher quality of life for American citizens. Progressives were known for their beliefs in limiting the power of big business, strengthening the power of the states, and were advocators against corruption and social injustice. These progressive reformers as well as the Federal Government successfully managed to improve the quality of life and establish a precedent for a move active government, although neither was completely successful in solving significant

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of great social change and economic growth in the United States. The progressive era was a time in which Americans were innovating in social welfare. In the progressive period the government needed to take action in the role of economy, regulating big business, immigration, and urban growth. Once the great depression happened in which America’s economy faltered people started to panic. For Americans the main issues asked were how to make society work more efficiently. The great society era was a time of optimism after the post-world war II occurred. The creations of new federal programs were developed for those who were in need due to poverty, being disabled or old age.

In fact, he was the leader of the progressive movement. He continuously wanted there to be a happy balance between capital and labor so he founded his policy called the Square Deal. He was a liberal and became an advocate for prosecuting monopolies that violated antitrust law, otherwise known as “trust busting”. He kept these monopolies from controlling entire industries across the country. He worked hard to guide the United States into world politics. Roosevelt also aimed for Promotion of Anti-Trust suits. He was also a conversationalist. Some of his policies for conservation were creating the National Conservation Commission to record the nation’s resources and manage their use more efficiently, Delegate two hundred million acres as national forests, mineral reserves, and waterpower plants, as well as an addition of five national parks and eighteen national monuments to the list of protected lands. Roosevelt worked very hard to try and keep the economic issues of his time intact.

Teddy Roosevelt was a very strong influence during the progressive era; He used his power a president to get what he wanted as a progressive. He helped things like the pure food and drug act pass, and used the Sherman Antitrust act to dissolve Carnegie's Monopoly. He was a very strong leader and was not about to be pushed around, so it was very good to have him as president during the Progressive era when some are fighting for the new and some are fighting for the old.