Teddy Roosevelt’s Square DealTeddy Roosevelt’s Square DealHow does Theodore Roosevelt bring Progressivism to the White House?

Rough Rider become President

• Begins the “Square Deal”, a plan to protect the common man from big business

• McKinley assassinated 6 mos into his second term, Roosevelt becomes president at age 42

• Republican Party convinces outspoken Gov Theodore Roosevelt to run as VP with McKinley

● Railroad Reform: Roosevelt gives ICC more power to regulate RRs by filing lawsuits against monopolistic RRs

● Coal miners in PA strike for fair pay, mine co won’t budge

Square Deal: Trustbusting

• Roosevelt challenges trusts that were created to hold numerous companies, allowing big business to have legal monopolies

• Roosevelt files 44 lawsuits against companies that used trusts, Supreme Court rules trusts must be broken up

Square Deal: Labor Reform

TR the “trustbuster”

• Roosevelt threatens govt takeover of mines if strike doesn’t end

Square Deal: Health & Environmental Reform• 1) After reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Roosevelt pushes for

the passage of the Meat Inspection Act (federal inspections)

● b) Medicines requires labeled truthfully for FDA approval

●3) After camping with conservationist John Muir, Roosevelt creates National Park Sys (protects 100s of thousand of acres)

• 2) Roosevelt pushes for Pure Food & Drug Act: a) inspection of other foods, which stops sale of contaminated foods

Square Deal: Civil Rights• Roosevelt did not fully support new civil rights laws, however was willing to work with black leaders

● Du Bois helps form National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) goal is full equality amongst races

• Appoints some Af-Ams to government positions & invites Booker T. Washington to the White House to discuss civil rights

• However, other black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois criticized Washington for working with Roosevelt

• Du Bois argued in Souls of Black Folks that Af-Ams like Washington slowing down civil rights by working with TR