Theodore Roosevelt: The Most Effective President

In September 1901 Theodore Roosevelt became president when William McKinley was assassinated. He thought that the presidency was basically a “bully pulpit”. Roosevelt was “a steward of the people bound actively and affirmatively to all he could for the people” (Divine 2013, p. 546). Roosevelt tried to bridge the gap between the African Americans and the whites but most southerners believed that what he was trying to do was a crime that was equal to treason. Eventually Roosevelt backed down. In 1903, Roosevelt wanted Congress to create a Department of Commerce and Labor to investigate corporations engaged in interstate commerce. When Congress did not want to do it, he took measures to ensure that they would pass it and they did in the end. Through these things in the reading along with the other things he did we see that Roosevelt while progressive went about it differently than Wilson did. While Roosevelt was able to get

It has been said that “if under Roosevelt social reform took on the excitement of a circus, under Wilson it acquired the dedication of a sunrise service” (Divine 2013, p. 553). Because he worked closely with the Democrats in Congress he was one of the most effective presidents when it came to passing bills that he was in support of. In fact on the very day of his inaugural he called a special session of Congress with the agenda to lower the tariff. By working closely with Congress he was triumphant in getting the Underwood Tariff Act to pass. Wilson agreed with the postmaster general in regards to segregating of all African Americans in the federal service. Wilson went beyond what Roosevelt had done in regards to the labor movement by defending union recognition and collective bargaining. He even signed the Adamson Act of 1916 that imposed an eight hour day on the interstate railways and established a federal commission to study the problems with the railroads (Divine 2013, p.