Theodore Roosevelt was an energetic and dynamic leader who gave the
nation a square deal. During his presidency to a position of international
leadership.
Roosevelt belonged to an aristocratic New York family. He attended Harvard
Univerity. Theodore Roosevelt fought in the Spanish-American war with the
Rough Riders at the battle of San Juan Hill. He had served as police commissiores
of New York, assistant secretary of the navy, governor of New York, and
vice president of the United States. When president McKinley was assassinated
on September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became, at the time, the youngest
(43 years) president in hist ory.
The president saw himself as a man of the middle who would meditate
the struggle between capital and labor. He said that business must be protected
against itself and he tended to favor regulatory commissions that provided
nonpartisan supervisi on by experts of business practices. As president
he succeeded in getting additional authority over the railroads for the
interstate commerce commission. He was also instrumental in the passage
of the meat inspection act and the pure food and drug act. Ro attitude
toward the poor and towards the labor movement was that of an enlightened
conservative. He supported many labor demands such as shorter hours for
women and children, employers' liability laws and limitations on the use
of injunctions against workers in labor disputes.
In reform, Roosevelt wanted gradual change. He moved in the direction
of the reformers and ended up as the candidate of the progressive party
in the Bull Moose presidential campaingn in 1912. He had broken with the
Repub lican party.
In 1907 immigration reached its all-time high 1,285,000 in one year.
Theodore Roosevelt said, "There can be no divided allegiance here. Any
man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American
at all. We have ro om but for on language here and that is the English
language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as
Americans, of American nationality; we have room for but one soul loyalty,
and that is loyalty to the American people."
Ro l ed the United States into continous armed interventions in the
caribbean. In 1906 an insurrection in Cuba caused the United States to
intervene in its affairs. The American government withdrew its power when
ordr was restored.
In the Philippines c ivil government was put into operation, and a communications
cable was laid across the Pacific.
Roosevelt intervened in the war betwwen Russia and Japan. He invited
the Russian and Japanese governments to send peace commissioners to America
where a peace treaty was sighned in 1905. The following year the president
was awarded the nobel peace prize.
People had wanted a canal connectiong the Atlantic and Pacific for hundreds
of years. A French company, which went bankrupt, had started the pro ject.
The company sold the panamanian rights to build the canal to the United
States government. Colombia, whose territory included Panama, didn't agree
to the terms offered by the Uninted States. Ro did not think much of he
of Latin Americans to begin with. He called he colombians "foolish and
homicidal corruptionits." The Roosevelt administration supported a revolt
by the Panamanians against Colombia. The new country of Panama signed a
canal treaty favorable to the United States in 1903. The Pana ma canal
was completed August 15, 1914.
President Theodore Roosevelt died at Sagamore hill, his home at oyster
bay, New York, on January 6, 1919.
