Theodore Roosevelt's Major Accomplishments

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On September 14, 1901, not quite a year into his 2nd term, President McKinley died after being shot and was replaced by his vice-president, Theodore Roosevelt (1). As president, Roosevelt would lead a new era of progressive legislation and would set the tone for the presidencies to come. This paper will consider a few of his accomplishments as well as his bigger than life personality which makes him one of the most fondly remembered presidents of the progressive age. Roosevelt was born and raised in New York City. Throughout his childhood he suffered from asthma which was so severe, doctors were skeptical whether he would live to see adulthood (2). At the prompting of his father, he began to not only strengthen his body but also to strengthen and expand his mind. Everything that he did, he did with a passion, from going to Harvard to becoming a cowboy after the death of his wife. While his seemingly endless personality and energy would occasionally keep him from seeing both sides of an issue, it also kept him from being discouraged by the size of his goals, such as the building of the Panama Canal. He also passed regulations for the railroads, preventing them from giving preferred pricing to high volume shippers, solving a problem that President Cleveland had been unable to (1). During his second term, Roosevelt went further with railroad and business regulations, putting in place the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and The Pure Food and Drug Act of the same year. These acts put in place government inspectors to act as a quality control in two industries that until then had been completely unregulated. Over both of his terms as president, Roosevelt looked towards the future of the U.S. and set aside national parks, refuges, and monuments so that they could be continued to be enjoyed. In all, he preserved over 234 million acres of land

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