Theodore Roosevelt implemented progressive reforms known as the Square Deal in response to muckraking works like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which exposed poor conditions in the meatpacking industry. As president, Roosevelt used the "bully pulpit" of the presidency to champion antitrust laws and trust-busting suits. His Square Deal aimed to ensure big businesses did not take advantage of workers and the public received fair treatment through reforms regulating railroads and supporting workers' rights.

1. Teddy
Roosevelt’s
Square Deal
Some "bad" trusts had to be
curbed, and "good" ones
encouraged.
- Teddy Roosevelt

2. Upton Sinclair:
• Muckraking journalist that began
research for a novel in 1904
• He focused his research on the
human conditions in the
stockyards of Chicago
• Sinclair wrote the novel The
Jungle, to reveal “the breaking of
human hearts by a system that
exploited the labor of men and
women for profit”
• What most shocked readers in
Sinclair’s book was the sickening
conditions of the meatpacking
industry

3. President Theodore Roosevelt:
• In 1900, the young governor
from New York ran as
McKinley’s vice president
• President McKinley had barely
served six months into his
second term when he was
assassinated
• Theodore Roosevelt assumed
the presidency in 1901 and
became the youngest (42)
president in U.S. history

4. Roosevelt’s Politics
• In politics, Roosevelt acted
boldly, using his personality
and popularity to advance his
programs
• His leadership and publicity
campaigns helped create the
modern presidency, making
him a model by which all
future presidents would be
measured
• Roosevelt saw the presidency
as a “bully pulpit”, from which
he could influence the news
media and shape legislation

5. Square Deal
• If big business could
victimize workers, then
President Roosevelt would
see to it that the common
people received what he
called a Square Deal
(term used to describe the
various progressive
reforms sponsored by the
Roosevelt administration)

6. Using Federal Power:
• By 1900, trusts-legal bodies
created to hold stock in many
companies-controlled about
four-fifths of the industries in
the United States
• Some trusts, like Standard Oil,
had earned poor reputations
with the public by the use of
unfair business practices
• Many trusts lowered their
prices to drive out competition
in the market and then took
advantage of the lack of
competition to raise prices up
even higher

7. Using Federal Power:
• Although Congress had passed
the Sherman Antitrust Act in
1890, the act’s vague language
made enforcement difficult
• In 1902, Roosevelt made
headlines as a trustbuster
when he spearheaded a
movement that would
eventually breakup the
Northern Securities Company
(Monopoly on Railroads in the
Northwest)

8. Using Federal Power:
• Although Roosevelt’s administration filed 44
antitrust suits, winning a number of them and
breaking up some of the trusts, it was unable to
slow the merger movement in business
• President Roosevelt’s actions during the 1902
Coal strike, in which miners stopped production
of coal due to a demand of a 20% pay raise, 9
hour workday, and the right to organize, began a
new era in which the president would solve
disputes in the name of public welfare

9. Using Federal Power:
• Roosevelt continued his
crusade and began placing
limits on the Railroads with
the adoption of:
-Elkins Act in 1903, which made
it illegal for railroad officials to
give, and shipper to receive,
rebates for using particular
railroads
-Hepburn Act of 1906 strictly
limited the distribution of free
railroad passes, a common
form of bribery