Huge companies like Standard Oil,
owned by John D. Rockefeller,
and U.S. Steel, owned by Andrew
Carnegie, formed large trusts. A
trust is a giant company that
controls an entire industry. For
example, John D. Rockefeller
owned Standard Oil, a trust the
controlled 95% of the oil in the
United States. Another word for a
company that controls an entire
industry is a monopoly.
Monopolies like Standard Oil
could charge people whatever
President Theodore Roosevelt
they wanted to for their products,
because they had no competition from other companies. Below
is the story of Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United
States.
I am sad
about the
way that I
had to
become
president.
President
McKinley
may have
been a
bad
president,
cartoon showing John D. Rockefeller stealing from the government
but he
didn’t deserve to get murdered. Nobody ever thought that I, the
Vice President, would ever become president, but now that I am
president, I am using my power to change this country for good.
In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, a law that is
intended to break apart monopolies. Until now, no president has
ever enforced the law, and so the large trusts like Standard Oil
have completely ignored the law. But they aren’t ignoring it
anymore. I have used the Sherman Antitrust Act to break apart
some of the country’s largest monopolies like Standard Oil and
U.S. Steel. Sure, Rockefeller and Carnegie were angry, but I didn’t
care; I did the right thing. Already oil prices and steel prices have
dropped because of the competition. I also used the Sherman
Antitrust Act to break apart the railroads. Now farmers in the
Midwest have more than one railroad to choose from. This
competition makes shipping prices lower for the farmers.
I have also made food and medicine safer
for Americans. When I read Upton Sinclair’s
book, The Jungle, I was so disgusted I threw
up. I decided I was going to use the
government to protect the people from the
disgusting practices of the meat packing
industry. I encouraged Congress to pass the
Meat Inspection Act, a law that requires all
meat to be inspected by the government
before it is put up for sale. I also created
the Food and Drug Administration, a group
The Jungle, by Upton
of government employees that will make
Sinclair
sure that all of our food is safe to eat and
that all of our medicine actually will do what it claims it will do. I
did all of this, because I believe it is the government’s duty to
protect the people, and I will continue to use the government to
do just that for as long as I am president!