february 28, 2008 how did roosevelt use his presidency for reform? –what makes a good president?...

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February 28, 2008 How did Roosevelt use his presidency for reform? What makes a good President? His Life and Career (Video) Trusts, Coal, and Railroads Homework: Finish Section 3 Notes

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February 28, 2008•How did Roosevelt use his

presidency for reform?–What makes a good President?–His Life and Career (Video)–Trusts, Coal, and Railroads

•Homework: Finish Section 3 Notes

Terms for Section 3

•Square Deal•Trustbusting•Meat Inspection Act•“The Jungle”•Conservation•NAACP

How Roosevelt Gets Elected

• Political Machines made him VP to get him out of the way

Problem: McKinley was assassinated

• LEON CZOLGOSZ killed McKinley to bring attention to his anarchist group

Roosevelt Is President• Believed the government was

responsible for the the national welfare, incapable of dealing with problems

•“Square Deal” describes the various progressive ideals of Roosevelt.

Using Federal Power

•Trustbusting•1902 Coal Strike•Railroad Regulation

Trust-Busting

• Trusts – legal bodies created to hold stock in many companies

• controlled 4/5’s of industries

Trusts and Bad Reputations:

•unfair business practices•lowered their prices to drive

competitors out and took advantage of the lack of competition to jack up prices even higher

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Roosevelt filed suits under the Act

Roosevelt Known as a Trustbuster•he ordered the Justice

Department to sue Northern Securities Company, which had monopoly over northwestern railroads

•Supreme Court dissolved the company

1902 Coal Strike

•Pennsylvania went on strike for 20% raise, 9 hour day, and right to organize a union

•Five months on strike, coal reserves ran low

Roosevelt the Mediator:

• Roosevelt called both sides to White House to settle the strike

• Angered by the bad temper of the miners

• He threatened to take over the mines, the mine operators finally agreed to negotiate

1903 – Coal Miners’ Agreement

•10% pay raise & 9 hour workday

•they gave up their demand for a closed shop (all workers must belong to a union and must give up right to strike for 3 years)

Railroad Regulation

•1887 – Congress passed Interstate Commerce Act–prohibited wealthy railroad owners setting high prices by dividing the business in a given area

•The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was set up to enforce the new law but had little power

Elkins Act 1903•No more rebates for

companies using certain railroads

•No more changing rates without notifying the public

The Hepburn Act 1906•Limit the number of free

passes (being used as bribery)

•ICC can set maximum rates

Protecting Citizens and the Environment

• Protecting Health• Pure Food and Drug Act• Conservation and Natural

Resources• Gifford Pinchot

Protecting Health•After

reading “The Jungle,” Roosevelt inspects the meatpacking industry.

Meat Inspection Act 1906

•Meatpackers must be clean•Meat would now be

inspected regularly

Problems:•government paying for the

inspections •did not require companies to

label their canned goods with date of processing information

•Granted meat packers the right to appeal negative decisions in court

Pure Food and Drug Act

• Companies can claim anything about their product

• Popular children’s medicines often contained opium, cocaine, or alcohol

Dr. HarveyWashington Wiley• Criticized the

harmful products used in production

1906 Pure Food & Drug Act•halted sale of contaminated

foods & medicines •called for truth in labeling•required for truthful labels

Lack of Conservation before Roosevelt (Examples: DO NOT COPY)

• Pioneer farmers leveled the forest and plowed up the prairies

• Ranchers allowed cattle to overgraze the plains

• Coal companies cluttered the land with refuse from mines

Conservation Measures• Roosevelt condemned view

that America’s resources were endless and conservation primary concern

John Muir•1903-

persuaded president to set aside millions of acres for forest reserves

Roosevelt also:

•set aside 1.5 million acres of water-power sites

•80 million acres for US Geological Survey to explore for mineral and water resources

•Established more than 50 wildlife sanctuaries & several national parks

Gifford Pinchot as Head of US Forest Service (1905)

•Advised Roosevelt to conserve forest & grazing lands

Roosevelt’s Idea of Conservation:•Conservation meant that

some wilderness areas would be preserved while others would be developed for the common good

•Federal water projects turned dry wilderness areas into farm areas

National Reclamation Act 1902

•established precedent that federal government would manage the precious water resources of the West

Roosevelt and Civil Rights

•Roosevelt failed to support civil rights for African Americans (like most progressives)

•He did support individual African Americans

Examples of his support: (DO NOT COPY)

• Roosevelt appointed an AA as head of the Charleston, South Carolina customhouse

• When some whites in MI refused to accept the black postmistress he had appointed, he chose to close the station rather than give in

Example: DO NOT COPY

• Roosevelt angered the African Americans when he dismissed an entire regiment of AA soldiers accused of conspiracy in protecting others charged with murder in Brownsville Texas

• As symbolic gesture, Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at White House

Booker T. Washington

•head of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, an all black training skill

•most respected African Americans by powerful whites

•faced opposition from other African Americans

W.E.B. Dubois

• Du Bois renewed his demands for immediate social and economic equality for African Americans.

• He wrote of his opposition to Washington’s position

• Du Bois and others upset by the progressive indifference to racial injustice

Niagara Falls and the Formation of the NAACP

• 1905 - civil rights conference• 1909 - a number of African

Americans joined with prominent white reformers to found the NAACP

• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had aimed for nothing less than equality