Teddy Roosevelt

Essay by Ashley EverettA+, October 1995

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Theodore Roosdevelt

26th President of the United States (1901-1909)

Theodore Roosevelt was an energetic and dynamic leader who gave the nation a

square deal. During his presidency to a position of internatio nal leadership.

Roosevelt belonged to an aristocratic New York family. He attended Harvard

Univerity. Theodore Roosevelt fought in the Spanish-American war with the

Rough Riders at the battle of San Juan Hill. He had served as police

commissiores of New York, assistant secretary of the navy, governor of New

York, and vice president of the United States. When president McKinley was

assassinated on September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became, at the time, the

youngest (43 years) president in hist ory.

The president saw himself as a man of the middle who would meditate the

struggle between capital and labor. He said that business must be protected

against itself and he tended to favor regulatory commissions that provided

nonpartisan supervisi on by experts of business practices.

As president he

succeeded in getting additional authority over the railroads for the interstate

commerce commission. He was also instrumental in the passage of the meat

inspection act and the pure food and drug act. Ro attitude toward the poor and

towards the labor movement was that of an enlightened conservative. He

supported many labor demands such as shorter hours for women and children,

employers' liability laws and limitations on the use of injunctions against

workers in labor disputes.

In reform, Roosevelt wanted gradual change. He moved in the direction of the

reformers and ended up as the candidate of the progressive party in the Bull

Moose presidential campaingn in 1912. He had broken with the Repub lican

party.

In 1907 immigration reached its all-time high 1,285,000 in one year.

Theodore Roosevelt said, 'There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who...