Theodore Roosevelt Research Paper

Theodore Roosevelt, the former governor of New York, became president in 1901 and served until he left office in 1909, but due to a very odd set of circumstances. He was put on the ballot as incumbent President McKinley’s running mate. This was done so he could stay in politics an important member of the Republican party, but it also gave him as little power as possible, so he could be unable to exercise his unorthodox methods. However, President McKinley was shot and killed, so Roosevelt was sworn in. As shown in Appendix 1, President Roosevelt’s foreign policy was based upon regulating two entirely different groups of people; the developed, rich countries, and the undeveloped, poorer countries. This caused him to be seen as the policemen

It included social reform, labor unions, and new rights to people. The several acts that Roosevelt put through Congress included the Elkins Act, the Hepburn Act, Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug Act. These acts were designed to level the playing field, so to speak, and prevent monopolies from controlling every aspect of the economy. The Elkins Act prevented rebates to favored customers, allowing different businesses and producers to have the same access to transportation, creating huge increases in supplied goods. The Hepburn Act did a similar thing: Preventing railroads from charging “unreasonable” prices. This enabled easy transportation of goods around the country. Had Roosevelt not stuck his nose into Congress and helped pass these two acts, the entire macroeconomy would be different, even today. His breaking up of monopolies and trusts allowed capitalism to, in a sense, “work.” Pure capitalism always goes towards monopoly as businesses beat out competitors and use tactics like Horizontal and Vertical Integration. Part of the government’s job is to keep things fair by preventing monopolies. Theodore Roosevelt was, in a sense, forced to lead Congress to this, since many members had been bribed and corrupted by offers from the leading corporations. This was a common fear throughout America, as evidenced by the details of Appendix 6. The large trusts controlling Congress was what Roosevelt had to break up for the sake of the economy, since if he did not intervene, the corporations would likely have taken control of the U.S. government and instilled a pure monopoly. A lack of competition would have ended up destroying the economy, so Theodore Roosevelt’s “Jackson-Lincoln” school of presidency, where he expanded the power of the office as much as felt he needed to, was completely necessary, as if he had followed the “Buchanan-Taft” school and done little,