An Analysis Of Teddy Roosevelt: Giving America A Square Deal

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Teddy Roosevelt: Giving America a Square Deal The teddy bear might be named after Teddy Roosevelt (TR) but don’t let that fool you. Teddy Roosevelt was as strong as a bull moose. On October 14th, 1912 Roosevelt was the victim of an association attempt outside a Milwaukee hotel. The bullet was slowed from the prepared speech in his pocket. Instead of being rushed to the hospital TR insisted on delivering his speech first (Klein, par. 1). TR showed the crowd his bloody shirt and said, “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose” (Klein, par. 4). This act displayed Roosevelt’s true toughness and reminded everyone why they loved him. Throughout his presidency Teddy displayed toughness in doing what was right, standing up for what he believed …show more content…

Mckinley and Roosevelt won the election. On September 6th, 1901 President Mckinley was twice in the chest (History.com Staff, par. 1). “President Mckinley Is Shot” also states that Mckinley would die 8 days later leaving Teddy to take over (History.com Staff, par. 2). When in office Teddy immediately recognized the need for a canal between North and South America. According to Millercenter.org, “during the war with Spain, American ships in the Pacific had to steam around the tip of South America in two-month voyages to join the U.S. fleet off the coast of Cuba” (sec. 6). The United States started negotiations with Britain for a strip of land through Panama, which was owned by Colombia. Columbia backed out of the agreement and America responded by setting up a naval blockade to prevent troops from landing in Panama. Eventually in 1903 TR made a treaty with Panama that gave America control of the land for a large sum of money (Miller Center, sec. 6). Roosevelt’s Secretary of State John M. Hay played a huge part in helping Teddy secure the treaty with Panama to build the canal (“John M. Hay” par. 5). Hay helped Roosevelt’s toughness by helping him come to an agreement with Columbia and how he helped American ships save travel time. The canal would save American ship captain and crews looking to get from one side of America to the other 7,872 miles (Morgan par. …show more content…

Although the Sherman Antitrust Act was already in place to prevent monopolies it was not effective at all. TR filled a law suit against the Northern Securities Company. The Northern Securities Company was a railroad company owned by wealthy entrepreneur J.P. Morgan. In 1904 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against J.P. Morgan and his company was shut down (Miller Center, sec. 5) Millercenter.org states that, “the high court 's action was a major victory for the administration and put the business community on notice that although this was a Republican administration, it would not give business free rein to operate without regard for the public welfare” (sec. 5). While the case was in progress in 1903, Roosevelt passed the Elkins Act that would end railroad companies giving shipping rebates to the companies they chose. Big companies shipped goods for a large sum lower than smaller companies could. This act was not very effective though so Roosevelt passed the Hepburn Act in 1996. The Hepburn Act strengthened the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which allowed the ICC to regulate shipping rates on railroads. TR believed that big business was essential for a maturing economy and saw no need to get rid of it (Miller Center, sec. 5). He wanted to break up the bad trust in American business. He would file forty three suits against major corporations over his tenure. These suits

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