Theodore Roosevelt was the vice-president under William McKinley. After the assasination of McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt became president himself. Even though he was McKinley's vice-president he didn't share McKinley's conservative beliefs. He prefered aggresive political reform and unlike the vast majority of Republicans he sought government regulation. All these beliefs were what helped him form the square deal. A major accomplishment of this square deal was that monopolies were shot down. Roosevelt created corporations and helped them grow and challenge the powerhouse businesses which had been running monopolies for so long. Another thing Roosevelt did was considered an accomplishment was helping businesses grow by regulating them and therefore creating jobs for many. Theodore Roosevelt sucessfully enforced the Sherman Antitrust act. I think that he did not share the pro-business, conservative policy with the rest of the Republicans. Still I still think that only a few of his beliefs contridicted with the Republican system.
President Roosevelt became president after Mckinley's assassination. Event though Roosevelt was Mckinley's vice president, they did not share the same opinion when it came to "conservation beliefs". So when Roosevelt became president, he decided to treat all Americans equal, and not favor one group specifically. He was committed to fixing the problems of labor. Like one thing he did was try to "restrict the power of big business by breaking up a monopoly". He was all about helping the "common man". "He offered the American people a Square Deal to improve their standard of living and exert more control over large domineering corporations or trusts." That quote basically explains the whole reason that Roosevelt made the square deal, to help the small business owners against the big ones.
There were many accomplishments to Roosevelt’s square deal. As he promised, smaller businesses were given a fairer chance to succeed by getting rid of trusts, such as the Standard Oil Trust and the Tobacco Trust. Furthermore, railroads were a big target for the president. Through the Sherman Antitrust Act, Theodore Roosevelt demolished railroad trusts, and by 1901 the railroads across the country were owned by only a few railroad companies. However, the railroads were still prosperous and continued to grow despite the fact that the major railroad trust was gone. Another accomplishment of the Square Deal was the accretion of a living wage in Americans. This meant that more Americans could make enough money to at least provide for themselves and their families while before they could hardly do that. This was possible because the Square Deal not only helped create equality for businesses, but for workers as well. Likewise, a third accomplishment was the creation of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act that helped consumers from unsafe products. All these accomplishments were the cause of President Roosevelt’s Square Deal. Overall, I think that the numerous accomplishments of the Square Deal prove what an advantageous idea it was.
One specific accomplishment of the Square Deal is the Elkins Act of 1903. The Elkins Act had to do with railroads, and who can use them and who can't, and what the conditions for using them were. The Act forbade rebates, or basically sales, kind of, offered by the railroads to corporations. They did that because it was treating local farmers very unfairly when they offered rebates to the corporations. It didn't "allow them equal access to the services of the railroad".
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Molly Buring
3/2/2010 09:46:30 am
my source was wikipedia. (I know ms. Geer doesn't like but I only got that one act from it!)
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