By Teresa and Melody

 Teddy Roosevelt was not supposed to be president  New York political bosses found him hard to control  Wanted to make him vice president so he ‘could do no damage’  Senator Mark Hanna realized that he was so close to being the one in charge  President McKinley was assassinated after six months into his second term

 Teddy even though was suffering from asthma he drove himself to accomplish demanding physical feats.  After serving three terms in New York State assembly he became New York’s police commissioner  Then assistant secretary to the navy  He led the Rough Riders in the war with Spain in 1898  -cont-

 One public acclaim for its role at the battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba  Roosevelt won the election becoming Governor of New York

 1901 youngest president being at 42  Boxed with professionals when president and ended up getting blinded in one eye  When hunting he spared a bear cub which started the production of the Teddy Bear

 Square Deal was used to describe the progressive reforms in Roosevelt Administration  In ,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike  The demanded 20% raise, 9 hour days, and the right to organize a union  5 months into the strike coal reserves ran low causing schools and factories to close down and hospitals to run cold.  Roosevelt stepped in to stop strike and he threatened to take mines but both sides finally agreed an arbitration commissions

 1903 the commission increased work wages and reduced work days  They won 10% pay raise and a 9 hour day but gave up the right to close shop(all workers must belong to union) and their right to strike for 3 years

 Whenever there was a strike he was expected to step in  By 1900s trust controlled 4/5 of the industries in the US  Some trusts had poor reputations  Trusts lowered prices to drive competitors out of market then take advantage of the lack of competition to jack up prices  1890 congress passed Sherman Antitrust Act  The vague language made it hard to enforce  All seats filed were ineffective  Roosevelt did not believe all trust were harmful  Sought to curb trusts when their actions hurt the public interests

 1902 Roosevelt made headlines as a trustbuster  1904 the Supreme courts ordered the dissolution of the Northern Securities Company  Roosevelt sued the meat trust, oil trust, tobacco trust  Roosevelt Administration filed 44 anti trust suits  Government broke up some trusts but could not slow movements  1987 Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act-prohibited pools in which railroad runners divided the business in a certain area and shared the profit  Interstate Commerce Commission created to enforce the new law

 The Elkins Act of 1903 made it illegal for railroad officers and shippers either to give or receive rebates  Also specified that once a railroad had set rates it couldn’t change them without notifying the public  The Hepburn Act of 1906 strictly limited the distribution of free railroad passes a common form of bribery

 The Jungle by Upton Sinclair published in 1906 that portrayed the disgusting conditions prevalent in the meat packing industry  Roosevelt appointed a commission of experts to report of the accuracy of Sinclair’s descriptions  The investigating commission issued a scathing report that backed up Sinclair’s description of “potted ham” as hash whose disgusting ingredients included ground rope and pig skin

 1906 Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act which dictated strict cleanliness requirements for meat packers and created the program of Federal Meat Inspection that was used for decades  Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906 halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling  Before Pure Food and Drug Act manufactures had advertised that their products accomplished everything from curing cancer to growing hair  Popular kids medicine often contained opium, cocaine, or alcohol  Colden’s liquid beef tonic recommended for “treatment of alcohol habit” itself contained a dose of 26.5% alcohol  Pure Food and Drug Act did not ban harmful products out right

 Roosevelt banned Christmas trees in the white house in 1902  He set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves  Also set aside 1.5 million acres of water- power sites and another 80 million acres of land that experts from the U.S. Geological Survey would explore for mineral and water resources  Established more than 50 wildlife sanctuaries and several national parks

 Roosevelt did not support civil rights for African Americans  He did support a few individual African Americans  Roosevelt appointed an African American as head of the Charleston, South Carolina, custom house  In 1906, he angered many African Americans when he dismissed without question an entire regiment of African American soldiers accused of rioting in Brownsville, Texas  In 1909, a number of African Americans joined with prominent white reformers in New York to found the National Advancement of Colored People(NAACP)  The NAACP had about 6,000 members by 1914