Theodore Roosevelt and a Strengthened Presidency

Theodore Roosevelt and a Strengthened Presidency

Theodore Roosevelt has been recalled as one of our most forceful Presidents. The reason for his reputation of strength rested on his ability to get things done, both domestically and abroad. His policies resulted in a strengthened executive branch.

Roosevelt inherited the Presidency after the unfortunate death of President McKinley in 1901. One of his earliest displays of Federal power came in 1902 with the Pennsylvania coal strike. His efforts at negotiation marked the first time that the Federal government stepped in to resolve a labor dispute with the intention to protect all concerned, as opposed to favoring industry over workers and the public good. Although the coal miners failed to receive acceptance of their union, they did receive better pay, and Roosevelt's role as mediator established that workers were just as important as industry. Roosevelt also had a reputation as a "trustbuster" by taking steps to regulate business practices in favor of public welfare. Previously, the Federal government had rarely been involved in business affairs. Roosevelt had the most success with railroad regulation, passing the Hepburn Act of 1906, which increased the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission to include Federal approval of fixed rates that were "just and reasonable" and requiring railroads to adopt a uniform method of accounting. Before Roosevelt left office, however, he had decided that trusts could be either "good" or "bad", depending not just on size, but also on the effect of the trust on the well-being of the public. In 1911, the Supreme Court validated his point of view by ruling that only unreasonable combinations in restraint of trade should be broken up.

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...ca to construct the canal together, leaving the United States free to act alone. At first, Nicaragua was the preferred site for the canal, but soon the isthmus of Panama emerged as the superior choice. When Colombia failed to ratify a proposed treaty specifying the terms of construction, Roosevelt became outraged, and supported the Panamanian revolution by sending the U.S.S. Nashville, preventing the Colombians from suppressing the rebellion. Roosevelt then recognized Panama as an independent state, and negotiated the treaty for constructing the Panama Canal with the newly independent Panama. The canal opened in 1914.

Theodore Roosevelt expanded the strength of the executive branch by bringing to his office a broad sense of its domestic and foreign power, and by investing the Presidency with something of its modern status as the center of national political life.