Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal
Theodore Roosevelt may be one of the most powerful presidents that attacked Trusts1 and corporations to make them just so that everyone could prosper. Thayer, a friend of Roosevelt wrote, ". . .he took the deepest personal satisfaction in fighting the rich and the soulless corporations. . ." (Thayer). This led into the 1920's a prosperous decade in which people received "new money." Theodore Roosevelt stressed more for people to be responsible than to be autonomous, or, in other words, to help others besides helping yourself. He was able to bring two separate groups together to make a better America. He brought the Trusts that wanted the government to stay away and then the other side that wanted the government to "smash" the Trusts (Howland). There were also companies that realized that they needed the help of the government if they wanted to survive. When Theodore Roosevelt went into office he made it his mission to get everyone what they deserved, a "square deal." The square deal meant that everyone had the same equal opportunities as the next guy. Roosevelt stated, "The labor unions shall have a square deal and the corporations shall have a square deal" (Ferleger).
To accomplish his "square deal" plan he needed to take three steps. First, he would reiterate the laws that were currently in the law books and make sure the Trusts were following them. Second, he went and made new laws to make the work place better for the laborers and easier for new companies to prosper. Lastly, he got the public on his side by making them aware of how Trusts can damage the economy and corrupt free enterprise.
The first thing that Theodore Roosevelt did to...
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...ny or a group of people owning a lot of companies so that
they can control prices in one field. For example a railroad company in the East
buys out a company in the West and then is able to control prices of fares, because
they do not have anyone to compete with.
Work Cited
- Ferleger, Herbert and Albert Hart. Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia. New York City:
America Book-Stratford Press 1941.
- Hauser, S.K. "Theodore Roosevelt, American Politician: An Assessment." Choice
35.4 (1997): 692-693.
- Howland, Harold. Theodore Roosevelt and His Times. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1921.
- Miller, Nathan. Theodore Roosevelt A Life. New York: William Morrow and Company,
Inc., 1992
- Thayer, William R. Theodore Roosevelt An Intimate Biography. Boston and New York:
The Riverside Press, 1919
Rauchway,Eric. Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. 1st ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2003.
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7 Hamilton Fish, FDR: The Other Side of the Coin, (New York: Vantage Press 1976), pp.
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