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Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal
• Square Deal – a nickname for Pres. Roosevelt’s policies that attempted to balance the interests of businesspeople, laborers, and consumers– 1902 Coal Miners Strike – he threatened
to take over the mines unless managers and strikers agreed to arbitration (first time govt. intervened in a strike and didn’t side with business)
– First president to successfully use the Sherman Anti-trust Act to break up monopolies and trusts
– TR supported laws regulating businesses• 1903 Elkins Act authorized the
Interstate Commerce Commission to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates
• 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act
“The Jungle”• Muckrakers helped build support for
President Roosevelt’s efforts to regulate big business
• Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” published in early 1906 about immigrants working in a meat-packing plant shocked the nation with its description of unhealthy practices there
• Pure Food and Drug Act – law passed by Congress in 1906 that prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of mislabeled or contaminated food and drugs
• Meat Inspection Act – law passed by Congress in 1906 that authorized the Dept. of Agriculture to inspect and condemn any meat product found unfit for human consumption
Roosevelt & Protection of the
Environment
• T.R. was very worried about the loss of natural resources
• 2 schools of thought on protecting the environment– Preservationists like John Muir
believed that nature should remain untouched so people could enjoy its beauty
– Conservationists like Gifford Pinchot of the Forest Service thought resources should be protected so they would be plentiful for future use
• Roosevelt preserved more than 200 million acres of land, created Wildlife refuges, and protected national parks like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon in Arizona were protected
Teddy Roosevelt with John Muir at Yosemite
National Park
John Muir• John Muir – was a Scottish-born
American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness whose activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas (also one time UW student)
• The Sierra Club was founded by Muir and is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the US
• One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile John Muir Trail, was named in his honor as was the Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco
Presidency of William Howard Taft
• Teddy Roosevelt did not run for reelection in 1908
• The Republican candidate Taft won the presidency in 1908, promising continued Progressive reforms (such as business regulation and opposition to socialism)
• As president, Taft upset Progressives by not aggressively pursuing reforms (he felt that TR had claimed too much power as president)
• Taft passed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909 which raised many tariffs– Roosevelt and Progressives
furious with Taft as they saw high tariffs leading to higher prices for consumers
Election of 1912• Both President Taft and Teddy
Roosevelt sought the Republican nomination for president
• Taft won and TR and the progressive Republicans split from Taft and the conservative Republicans
• Progressive Party – name for TR’s new party (nicknamed the Bull Moose Party) which sought to further reform govt. and society
• With the Republican vote split, the Democratic Party candidate, Woodrow Wilson, won the election without a majority of the votes
Presidential Election of 1912
Woodrow Wilson’s Reforms
• In his inaugural address, focused on the social well-being of working-class Americans
• 16th Amendment – allowed federal government to impose direct taxes on citizens’ income
• Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 – lowered tariffs, and introduced first income tax
• Federal Reserve Act – 1913 law that created the national banking system to regulate the economy
• Clayton Antitrust Act – 1914 law that strengthened federal laws against monopolies and trusts
• Federal Trade Commission – created in 1914 and had the power to investigate unfair trade practices
