THEODORE ROOSEVELT 26TH PRESIDENT

THE EARLY YEARS  Sickly as a child  Works hard in his father’s home gym  Overcomes illnesses through the strength of his will!

 Attends Harvard University  Athlete – Sculling (rowing), boxing

 Mother (typhoid fever) & 1 st wife (childbirth complications) died on same day  Valentines’ Day!  TR retreats to the Badlands, SD  Learned lessons there in simple, hard living  “Took the snob out of me”  Developed his love of the open land / wilderness  Experience will shape his future policies  “THE COWBOY”

EARLY CAREER  Studied law at Columbia  3 yrs. in NY legislature  6 yrs. On US Civil Service Commission  2 yrs. As NY City Police Commissioner  Already a “mover and a shaker” and a friend of the common man  Assistant Sec. Of Navy under McKinley  1 term as NY Governor  Also, a well-known historian

ROUGH RIDERS  Roosevelt forms and leads this volunteer regiment in SAW  Victory at San Juan Hill  Medal of Honor granted posthumously in 2001 for his service at San Juan Hill  Only P to ever be so honored

ROOSEVELT BECOMES PRESIDENT  Succeeded to the Presidency in 1901 on the assassination of McKinley by an anarchist  Youngest President at age 42 on his succession; then elected in 1904  A magnetic personality; powerful speaker appealing to one’s emotions  A “visible” President  Energetic & aggressive – “advocated the strenuous life”

Clifford Berryman, The Washington Post THE TEDDY BEAR IS NAMED AFTER HIM 1902

Presidential Firsts  To fly in an airplane  To be submerged in a submarine  To own a car; have a telephone in his home  To have full Secret Service protection  To travel outside the US borders while still in office (Panama)  To have an African-American to dinner in the White House  First American and President to win a Nobel Peace Prize  First “trust busting” president  “Saved” football

 5 th Cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt  Portrayed on Mount Rushmore  “Speak Softly & Carry a Big Stick”  PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY:  ‘ It is better to dare mighty things and fail than to live in a gray twilight where there is neither victory nor defeat.”

In this photo, Roosevelt stands next to one of his favorite objects, a huge globe on which he used to put small white markers to show the position of U.S., German and British navies in the Western Hemisphere. President Roosevelt in the White House

 Reference to the White House as a "bully pulpit," meaning a terrific platform from which to persuasively advocate an agenda (“how things “ought to be!”)  Roosevelt often used the word "bully" as an adjective meaning superb/wonderful. THE BULLY PULPIT

THE SQUARE DEAL  Pledged all Americans a “SQUARE DEAL”  Fair shake - fair chance for all  Balance competing interests to create a fair deal for all sides: labor and management, consumer and business, developer and conservationist.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT “The Trustbuster”

THE TRUSTBUSTER  Believed trusts were fact of life; need to get rid of “bad trusts;” other “good trusts” needed strong gov’t regulation, not elimination  Used Sherman Act & carefully chose Northern Securities RR merger as first target case –  J.P. Morgan and John J. Hill  Supreme Court ordered dissolution in 1904  Bureau of Corporations – investigated & worked out deals  More trustbusting cases than all 3 previous Pres. combined but really more of a “trust-tamer”

COAL STRIKE OF 1902  One of longest, largest strikes in history by UMW – began in June, 140,000 miners

COAL STRIKE OF 1902  Management & labor unable to agree  Management refuse to negotiate with UMW reps  Public sympathy is with strikers  TR steps in (Oct.) to solve the strike – WHY???  Calls union leaders & management to White House  Threat: If settlement not reached, federal troops will seize & operate the mines  Threat of gov’t intervention caused owners to talk – miners back to work; Commission appointed by TR to work out terms  Sets a precedent! - 1 st time a President ever stepped in to settle a labor strike

Easily re-elected in 1904

Other Business & Consumer Regulation  Part of the “Square Deal”  Increased power of ICC in RR regulation  Elkins RR Act, 1903 made it illegal to receive a/w/a grant rebates  Hepburn Act, 1906 energizes ICC – allows it to investigate & fix rates & stop RR abuses  Meat Inspection Act of 1906 – why?  Pure Food & Drug Act  Pure Food & Drug Administration

 HIS GREATEST DOMESTIC ACHIEVEMENT! CONSERVATION  Early Conservation Efforts:  Desert Lands Act, 1877 (Hayes)  Desert land cheap if willing to irrigate  Forest Reserve Act, 1891 (Harrison)  Authorized P to set aside land  Carey Act, 1894 (Cleveland)  Federal land to states if states irrigate

 Newlands Act, 1902  Put proceeds from federal western land sales into irrigation projects such as dams  1911 – Roosevelt Dam, AZ  Roosevelt will more than triple the amount of land set aside as national forests  Added over 100 million acres to protected forests  150 national forests; 51 wildlife refuges; 5 national parks  Boy Scouts become popular!

Conservation v. Preservation  Gifford Pinchot  National Forest Service  Call for intelligent use & multiple- resource management  1913 federal gov’t authorizes flooding valley in Yosemite to create a dam for San Francisco  John Muir  Sierra Club  Wilderness areas should be left totally untouched

BIG STICK FOREIGN POLICY  International Police Role – Roosevelt Corollary  Panama Canal greatest foreign achievement  Treaty of Portsmouth  Gentlemen’s Agreement

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907 Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an American :

FAILURES/WEAKNESSES:  Poor relationship with Congress - had to go directly to the people for support of many programs; many enacted by executive order  Didn’t address the tariff issue  Inspired more loyalty to TR rather than his policies  BUT: did restore faith of the American people in the power of the government to serve their interests --- the Square Deal!

Hunting & Safari Expeditions

Only Roosevelt specimen still on display at Smithsonian

October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919