Theodore Roosevelt: The First Modern President

Many people who know history very well would openly say that Theodore Roosevelt was truly the first modern president and that he transformed the presidency. This was because he vigorously led congress and American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy. That is quite strange to hear since he was the 26th President of the United States. In 1904 the Roosevelt Corollary was added to the Monroe Doctrine and it said that the US will act as international police powers in the western hempishere. Some of the major ways that Teddy transformed his presidency was passing several acts and creating several concepts that truly helped the country prosper. Some of those ideas are the creation of the Panama Canal, The Meat Inspection Act and the US Forest Conservation. The first way Teddy truly transformed the presidency was how he regulated big business. Up to his presidency, big businesses led the economy in making money. Small, family owned businesses were not able to prosper during that time. So when Teddy came in he strengthened the interstate commerce commission. He was the first to take actions to break up bad trusts and got the nick name as a “trust busting president”. He got this nick name by his aggressive use of
the United States antitrust law. This meant that he brought 40 antitrust suits and broke up huge combinations such as the largest railroad and oil companies. Another way he defined being the first true president was how he protected his everyone from something people had no idea was even a hazard at that time.
President Roosevelt went on to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act which meant the sale of misbranded or harmful food and drugs were to be forbidened. He then went on to pass the Meat Inspection Act. This act required inspection on sold meat and created sanitation standards in processing plants. For example now a days meat is processed and cleaned basically a hundred times before it is put out for sale. That is all because of President Roosevelt. Before this act was passed, meat would be put out for sale basically right after being taken off the animal and people were getting very
ill. The third way he transformed the presidency was his creation of the Panama Canal. The Goal for the United States in this was to cut travel time from the atlantic ocean to the pacific ocean. Panama who was an independent country at the time allowed this to happen and it opened for use on August 15, 1914. Another way that President Roosevelt defined being the first real president was his Support of Conservation. He put land under government protection. At the time people were buying land and misusing it, by building and cutting down trees that were actually needed. So therefore he put 150 million acres under protection. This led to The U.S. Forest Service being created. In my opinion Theodore Roosevelt truly did transform the Presidency. At that time many presidents were not helping the country in any drastic way and if they did they were only known for one thing. Teddy Roosevelt is known for several accomplishments that helped the country and are still used till this day. Therefore, Teddy Roosevelt is known as one of the most influential presidents to this day. He truly defined the saying that he “Transformed the Prsidency” by how he helped the country prosper not once but several times.