Chapter 17

The Progressive Era

Section 3: Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal

McKinley’s Assassination

McKinley’s Assassination • Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New

York , 1901

• President McKinley stood inside the Temple of Music building at the Exposition, ready to begin shaking the hands of the public as they streamed into the building.

• When 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz reached the president, he shot him with a gun hidden by a handkerchief.

• McKinley survived several days following an operation that unsuccessfully attempted to locate the bullet, but later succumbed to infection.

• Czolgosz was brought to trial on September 23, 1901. He was quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. On October 29, 1901, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted.

Roosevelt’s Rise

• Background: – Harvard educated

– NY :

– VP under McKinley

• Taking Office: – McKinley’s

assassination made him :

Rough Riders

• Advocated for war vs.

Spain in 1898

– Called for U.S. to aid

Cubans in their struggle for

independence

• Led volunteer cavalry the

“Rough Riders” :

• Heroics :

– Elected governor of

NY and later chosen

as VP

San Juan Hill

The Bully Pulpit

• A New Kind of Leader – Used force :

– Believed federal govt. = responsible for:

– Used office as a “bully pulpit” to :

The Teddy Bear • In 1902 the governor of Mississippi invited TR to go

bear hunting.

• After three days of hunting TR had not succeeded in

finding or shooting a bear

• Concerned the hunt would be a failure, guides tracked

down a bear which they then tied to a tree for the

president to shoot.

• TR refused to shoot the bear stating it would be

“unsportsmanlike”

• Word of this hit newspapers across the country, and

political cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up on the

story, drawing a cartoon that first appeared in the

Washington Post showing how President Roosevelt

refused to shoot the bear while hunting in Mississippi

• In February of 1903, toy store owner Morris Michtom

put two stuffed bears in his store window advertising

them as “Teddy Bears”.

Roosevelt’s Square Deal

• Trustbusting

– 1900→ ~:

– Sherman Anti-Trust Act

of 1890 proved ineffective

– Roosevelt targets:

• Ordered Justice Dept. to

sue Northern Securities

• Broke up some, but didn’t

slow pace of mergers

• Railroad Regulation

– Elkins Act – 1903

• Outlawed :

• Public notification:

– Hepburn Act – 1906

• Limited railroad

passes

• Empowered :

Muckraking • The muckrakers provided detailed,

accurate journalistic accounts of

the political and economic

corruption and social hardships

caused by the power of big

business in a rapidly industrializing

United States

• Phrase was first used by TR in an

April 1906 speech in which he

quoted John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s

Progress, which referred to “the

Man with the Muckrake . . . who

could look no way but downward.

• Muckrakers succeeded in

stimulating public interest in

corruption and calls for reform.

Roosevelt’s Square Deal

• Labor – 1902 Coal Strike

• Mine shutdown in:

– Roosevelt intervenes • Threat of govt. takeover

forces arbitration

• Miners win concessions, but give up “closed shop” and right to strike for 3 years

• Sets precedent for:

Roosevelt’s Square Deal

• Public Health

– The Jungle :

– Meat Inspection Act – 1906

• Standards & Inspections

• Loopholes – expiration dates

– Pure Food and Drug Act –

1906

• Halted sale of :

• Truth in:

Roosevelt’s Square Deal

• The Environment – 19th century destruction of

resources largely unchecked

– Set aside :

– Est. wildlife :

– National Reclamation Act – 1902

• $$$ from sale of public lands in West fund irrigation projects

• Put :

Progressive Failure in Civil Rights

• Booker T.

Washington

– Tuskegee Institute

– Emphasized :

– Accused of:

Progressive Failure in Civil Rights

• W.E.B. Du Bois – Demanded:

Souls of Black Folk

– Niagara Conference – 1905

– NAACP – founded in 1909

• African Americans and white reformers calls for equality: