Theodore Roosevelt's Influence

Over its three centuries of existence, America has had 45 presidents sitting in the White House OK. One of my personal favorites was President Theodore Roosevelt, who led America from 1901 to 1909 OK. During his time as president, Roosevelt possessed many qualities that made him an exceptional head of state, including his anti-trust views, his conservationism, and his distaste for how terrible the workers’ treatment is.

Theodore Roosevelt became president during a period of great contrast between the rich and the poor. Unlike his predecessor William McKinley, who wealthy industrialists elected, Roosevelt actively opposed them and their exploitation of the poor (“The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century”). This action showed
Many environmental concerns today started with Roosevelt in the White House: “ We have become great because of the… use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests… coal, … iron,… oil and the gas are exhausted when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation”. Roosevelt even created the United States Forest Service and enabled the American Antiquities Act of 1906 (“Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation”). Numerous of these conservation efforts were successful in part of or entirely because Roosevelt supported them. Thus, in a way, he was partly responsible for shaping the conservation movement in the United States. He also helped create 23 sites managed by the National Park Service, which allowed the NPS to grow substantially (“Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation”). Because of his conservationism, we have more national parks and national monuments, which allowed America to grow
Roosevelt made many efforts throughout his presidency to show how much he cared for the people. For example, upon finding out about the lies and unsanitary working conditions of the meatpacking industry, he helped get the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act passed, which emphasized truth in labeling and sanitary conditions for meatpacking (“The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century”). This act of passing this law proved to the people how highly he viewed and respected them. He also intervened in the Coal Strike of 1902, threatening the mine operators and workers that if the dispute between them isn’t settled he’ll take over the mines. Another way Roosevelt indicated the amount he thought about the general population was the way by which before he was president, he took a voyage through a cigarette production line as promised by Samuel Gompers, president of the of American Federation of Labor, in 1883 to help decide the legitimacy of a bill designed to set up new labor and health standards in the cigar industry. There he saw two families working and living in two spaces for $1 a day, much to his shock. He even went as far as to say, “Forgive me for being so naive, Sam, but I had no idea such conditions existed in New York today!” (“The Life of Theodore Roosevelt”). After his visit, Roosevelt guaranteed his dynamic help for the proposed bill and for the work