Roosevelt and the Square Deal
Mr. Williams
10th Grade U.S. History
•Who were the
Progressives?
•What did they want to
reform?
The “Bully Pulpit”
• “The absolute vital question”
facing the country was “whether
or not the government has the
power to control the trusts.”
• Goal was to shift center of power
from Wall Street to Washington
Labor
• Anthracite Coal Strike 1902
• More than 150,000 coal
miners in Pennsylvania went
on strike
• Higher wages, shorter hours,
and recognition of UMW
• After mine owners refused to
speak to Union leaders, Roosevelt
threatened to take over mines and
run them with federal troops
• Miners won a wage increase and
reduction of hours, but owners
won in not formally recognizing
Union
• “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.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Square Deal
•1904 Campaign Slogan
which called for limiting
power of trusts, promoting
public health and safety,
and improving working
conditions
Trust Busting
• Remember the Sherman AntiTrust Act of 1890?
• Roosevelt used this to file law
suits against 43 trusts such as
the American Tobacco Company
and Rockefeller’s Standard Oil
•As part of the Square Deal,
Roosevelt started to go
after “bad trusts”
•Sold inferior products,
competed unfairly, or
corrupted public officials
Railroads
• Northern Securities Company
• U.S. attorney general sued
company for violating Sherman
Anti Trust Act
• Supreme Court ordered trust to
disperse
• Elkins Act of 1903: Outlawed
railroad rebates (money returned
to a shipper to guarantee his
business)
• Ensured that all customers paid
the same rates for shipping their
products
• Hepburn Railway Act 1906
• Gave Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) the power to set
maximum railroad rates
• Also gave ICC power to regulate
other companies engaged in
interstate commerce
The Jungle
• Written in 1906 by Upton
Sinclair
• Exposed the wretched and
unsanitary conditions at
meatpacking plants
• “There would be meat stored in great
piles in rooms; and the water from leaky
roofs would drip over it, and thousands
of rats would race around it…A man
could run his hand over these piles of
meat and sweep off handfuls of the
dried dung of rats…The packers would
put poisoned bread out for them; they
would die, and then rats, bread, and
meat would go into the hoppers
together.”
• “We saw meat shoveled from
filthy wooden floors, piled on
tables rarely washed, pushed from
room to room in rotten box
carts…[the meat] was in the way
of gathering dirt, splinters, floor
filth, and the expectoration
[saliva] of tuberculous and other
diseased workers.”
Consumer Protection
• Meat Inspection Act: Required
federal inspection of meat shipped
across state lines
• Pure Food and Drug Act: forbade
the manufacture, sale, or
transportations of food and patent
medicine containing harmful
ingredients
•What reforms were
associated with the Square
Deal?
•Why did these reforms fit
the Progressive Ideology?
Conservation
• Roosevelt believed that each
generation had a duty to
protect and conserve natural
resources for future
generations
• Gifford Pinchot
• Shared Roosevelt’s view
•“The conservation of
natural resources is the key
to the future. It is the key
to the safety and prosperity
of the American people.”
• John Muir
• Wanted entire wilderness to be
preserved in its natural state
•“Unfortunately, God cannot
save trees from fools…Only
the government can do
that.”
National Park System
• Roosevelt supported this
system, frequently visiting
Yosemite with Muir
• Purpose is to conserve natural
wonders in places such as
Yellowstone and Grand
Canyon
• Newlands Reclamation Act 1902
• Allowed federal government to
create irrigation projects to make
dry lands productive
• U.S. Forest Service: Added nearly
150 million acres of national
forests, controlled their use, and
regulated their harvest