Theodore Roosevelt: How The Other Half Lives In 1890

As Theodore Roosevelt was sworn into presidency after President William McKinley was assassinated, he reminisced about the events that had happened in the last decade, from working for the New York Police Department to being Lieutenant Colonel of the Rough Riders (“Inaugural Address”). From 1890 to 1900, Roosevelt was not only introduced to many of the problems that he would deal with during his presidency, but also learned ways to change matters. And while what Roosevelt did during his presidency did help the nation, what he did in New York set the example on how to implement laws in any city. Also, Roosevelt helped to prepare the Navy for the Spanish-American War and lead a group of volunteers to win one of the most important battles in the

Roosevelt also implemented his merit system at the police department. He went out of his way to promote or recommend officers that he believed deserved the recognition (Holmes 20). During his time in the Police Department, Roosevelt also became close to Jacob Riis, a photographer and writer of the the book, How the Other Half Lives. Riis became a police reporter in New York and had an interest in tenement life and the people who lived in them. Riis published How the Other Half Lives in 1890, which profoundly impressed Roosevelt (Roosevelt 172; Moore). This book helped him realize the role of extremely wealthy “Robber Barons” had in the industrial and economic life of the people during that time. Riis’s book also shed light on tenement homes and the workers that lived in them (Roosevelt 174). Referring to Riis, Roosevelt wrote, “In his book he had pointed out how the city government, and especially those connected with the departments of police and health, could aid in remedying some of the wrongs...I felt that with Jacob Riis's guidance I would be able to put a goodly number of his principles into actual effect” (Roosevelt 174). Riis agreed many of the principles that Roosevelt did and helped Roosevelt realize how to implement those principles (Roosevelt 173). Also, the lamentable

The 1st Volunteer Cavalry, or the Rough Riders, fought in Cuba on July 1, 1898. The Rough Riders and two African American regiments marched up San Juan hill and helped General Shafter’s troops, which were outnumbered seven to one (“The Soldier”). The Americans won the war when Shafter and the Rough Riders destroyed the Spanish Atlantic fleet in the Santiago Harbor (“Spanish-American War”). At the end of the war, Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris. Spain ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the U.S., and Cuba established its independence. The U.S. also purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million. The war made way the emergence of the United States as a colonial empire (“World of 1898: Introduction”). When Roosevelt came back from the war, he ran for governor of New York. As governor, he fought for more sanitation, economic regulation, crime control, and relief for the hungry. He had caused enough change in the state of New York that Thomas Platt, leader of New York Republicans, considered him a threat, so he pulled strings to make Roosevelt a candidate for vice-president to get him away from New York (“Theodore (Teddy)