Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt on Trusts

Born 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was, in one word, a brute.  He was a killer whale, half man half beast, and arguably the fiercest political figure ever to be denoted in American government.  Nicknamed “Teddy” (a handle he despised due to its unpleasant reminiscence of his deceased wife, Alice), Roosevelt, despite chronic illness, empowered himself in the ideas that he held to be “self-evident”.  His political policies were impenetrable strongholds that were only subject to the change he himself instituted, and absent the influence of outside forces. Upon hearing the professional advice of a doctor advising him to settle down in a relatively slow paced, front-desk type of job, Roosevelt decided to combat his ailments by increasing the physically strenuous activities in his life—amongst them were boxing and skinny-dipping in the middle of winter.  As a result of Roosevelt’s abnormal personality that scorned adversity, the general public loved him.  Roosevelt’s political career flourished after his involvement in the Spanish-American War that distinguished him through numerous accolades, even to the extent that he was considered for the Medal of Honor.  (Indeed, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by Bill Clinton in 2001).  With this new publicity, he ran for governor of New York.  His election to New York’s governorship was Roosevelt’s biggest step yet into the national political landscape and was his most significant step towards establishing himself as a progressive politician.  Within a couple years, Roosevelt won election to the Vice Presidency as McKinley’s running mate, and after McKinley’s assassination, sworn in as President.  During his two terms in the Presidency, Roosevelt would initiate numerous reforms of the federal government and continue to act according to his vision of how America should operate.  Amongst these reform movements, and in association with Roosevelt’s top priorities, was the ushering of business regulations and government overseers within industrial centers as well as the ordinance for conservation and the efficient use of American resources.     

Initially as President, Roosevelt seemed tentative, but perhaps he was simply calculating.  Soon, Roosevelt began to take a firm grip of his Presidential sword, wielding it at big businesses and trusts that, to his mind, were the propagators of tyranny.  In fact, “of all the forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar” is, according to Roosevelt, “the tyranny of mere wealth”—and vertically integrated firms were extremely wealthy.  Monopolies, the government notwithstanding, were to be challenged and antagonized through regulation, ample taxes, and by whatever means necessary, according to Roosevelt’s political theory.  And the means of “trust busting” were already in place with the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890.  However, contrary to popular belief, Roosevelt was not anti-business, nor was he anti-trust.  What Roosevelt despised was the usurpations of public liberties by businesses, small or large.  He recognized the natural evolution of monopolies, or vertically integrated firms, in the American entrepreneurial and laissez-faire environment.  His opposition was ambiguous in that it did not definitively promote or challenge the genesis and operation of large trusts.  Still, Roosevelt tried to find a definitive line between what constituted malevolent business and what could be considered naturally occurring business whose powers were not abused.  Evidence of Roosevelt’s strives as such are borne out after the Trans-Missouri decision of 1897 which rejected the due process of assessment that Roosevelt promoted.  Henceforth, Roosevelt used his Presidential powers (the “Bully Pulpit”) to undermine the careless actions of the Judiciary Branch of government and reestablish the order of fair assessment according to individualized investigation.  By no means was Roosevelt lenient towards harmful businesses, however.  If he, upon due assessment, came to the conclusion that a trust or large-firm needed dissolvent or heavy regulation to ensure the welfare of Americans, there was no stopping him.  And there were many firms that fit the bill.  Roosevelt’s first steps included the creation of a Bureau of Corporations that was given authorization to investigate businesses, their operations, and influences, thereby increasing the rate by which antitrust lawsuits were filed.  Due to the lack of consideration by the courts, Roosevelt would, as afore stated, initiate the prosecutions against businesses himself.  In 1904, with the United States Steel Corporations, Roosevelt’s discretionary rule and strive for cooperation is represented through his deal with the corporations chairman Elbert H. Gary which granted the firm the security of confidentiality and teamwork in rectifying any problems in exchange for the firm’s complete honesty with regards to its business records.  In addition to widening the investigative powers of government, Roosevelt combated abusive businesses through regulative legislation.  With the Elkins Act of 1903 railroads were prohibited from gradating their rates so as to favor big businesses, and with the Hepburn Act in 1906 the ICC was able to set maximum shipping rates.  Consumer protection was furthered even more after Samuel Hopkins Adams exposed the corruption of the country’s medicine business and Upton Sinclair inadvertently exposed the unsanitary conditions of the Chicago meatpacking plants in The Jungle.  Soon the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection Acts were passed that addressed these issues.  The ordinary American was Roosevelt’s highest priority, and his reform legacy bespeaks just that.  With the advent of naturally occurring big businesses, Roosevelt wanted to ensure that every American was given a “square deal”.

 Before Roosevelt’s overhaul on big business, he first set out to reform the way American’s consume resources.  As an avid hunter and naturalist who took trips to Africa and South America, Roosevelt really connected with the environment.  So much so that even at the age of nine, Roosevelt wrote a paper entitled “The Natural history of Insects”.  Nevertheless, he was not inclined to go so far as to describe nature anthropomorphically like other naturalists such as John Muir.  Rather, unlike Muir who wanted the complete preservation of all natural resources to the greatest extent possible even to the privation of humans, Roosevelt championed the efficient usage of American natural resources—or limited conservationism.  The idea that industrialization should continue to transform the wilderness only at the consent of the public underlines Roosevelt’s basic positioning.  This is just the surface of Roosevelt’s involvement in preserving nature, however.  He was very much proactive, instituting reforms such as the Newlands Reclamation Act which allocated a certain portion of the revenue from public land sales to the proliferation of irrigation in arid regions.  Furthermore, Roosevelt expanded the nation’s preserved forests which constituted millions of newly protected lands.  And finally, he invigorated prosecution efforts towards violators of federal land laws.  Therefore, with the culmination of all Roosevelt’s reforms, it can be concluded that his policies greatly advanced the cause of environmental protection, perhaps building the foundation for certain organizations that exist today including the EPA or Environmental Protection Agency.