Theodore Roosevelt

E

Election of 1904

Roosevelt wanted to win the presidency in his own right. Republican leader Mark Hanna of Ohio, who wanted the office for himself, sought to block a resolution by the 1903 Ohio Republican convention endorsing Roosevelt’s candidacy for the following year. Roosevelt outmaneuvered Hanna, who died before the Republican National Convention. At the national convention, Roosevelt won the nomination as its presidential candidate by acclamation.

Members of the Democratic Party were disappointed with the showing of Nebraska editor and reformer William Jennings Bryan in 1900, and nominated the conservative judge Alton B. Parker of New York. Roosevelt, however, proved himself appealing to minority groups, armed services veterans, and many reformers. He also won support from major financiers who trusted his belief in law and order. His election pledge not to run for a “third” term was to embarrass him on later occasions, and he regretted having made it, nevertheless his victory in 1904 was spectacular. Roosevelt won 336 electoral votes to 140 for Parker, whose votes came entirely from the South and who fared worse than Bryan. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana became Roosevelt’s vice president.

VI

Second Term as President

A

Domestic Affairs

Roosevelt’s second administration opened in an already matured atmosphere of domestic reform. The nation faced massive problems involving basic government policy on such issues as food, railroads, and the public domain. Roosevelt was eager to push for conservation of natural resources and for curbing great private fortunes through income and inheritance taxes, but he was still reluctant to increase government controls over business.

A

1

Pure Food

At a Senate investigation in 1899, Roosevelt had denounced the poorly processed beef that his soldiers had been given to eat during the Spanish-American War and said he would as soon have eaten his old hat. However, meat preparation, like all food and drug preparations, seemed safe from government intervention. Investigations focused on patent medicines and helped stimulate congressional action in favor of a pure food and drugs bill. The meat-packers were exposed in the Upton Sinclair novel The Jungle (1906).

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The novel caused discomfort because of its vivid description of unsanitary meat handling. Roosevelt, who had earlier believed a report that meat was being safely processed, sent another commission to Chicago and released to the press a report highly critical of the meat-packers’ methods. Succeeding agitation during 1906 helped Congress to pass a bill providing for meat inspection. The controversy also greatly aided the success of the fight to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act, which prohibited the manufacture of unsafe foods or drugs.

A

2

Railroad Regulation

A bill for revitalizing the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was long overdue. Unfair business practices that the commission could not control not only led to unjust rates but also threatened public safety. Roosevelt was suspicious of unbridled free enterprise, but he opposed Bryan’s demand that the railroads be taken over by the government. Roosevelt was also unsympathetic to the aggressive campaign of United States Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin to discredit the railroads’ policies.

In 1905 Roosevelt urged “government supervision and regulation of charges by the railroads,” although he also warned against “radical” legislation. Representative William P. Hepburn of Idaho became his congressional spokesman for a moderate regulatory measure. Reformers and journalistic supporters helped him overcome strong conservative resistance to what was hailed as a major precedent-setting achievement. As a farsighted conservative noted, “It saved us from government ownership.”

The Hepburn Act of 1906 authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to determine and prescribe maximum rates and to order the railroads to conform to them within 30 days. It also extended the regulatory powers of the commission to sleeping car, pipeline, and express companies. Four years later it was extended to telephone and telegraph companies.

A

3

Conservation

One of Roosevelt’s major interests was public land. Although he learned much about it from Chief U.S. Forester Gifford Pinchot, his own studies in natural history and his travels about the country convinced him of the need to preserve the country’s natural heritage. Forest, mineral, and water controls seemed to him basic to guarantee the nation’s resources. Giving more attention to the problem than any previous president, he set aside some 60 million hectares (150 million acres) of public lands to protect them from exploitation by private interests. He later added 34 million hectares (85 million acres) in Alaska and the Northwest to the public domain. The Reclamation Act of 1902 established irrigation and other services for Western lands. One of the many tangible monuments to his program was the Roosevelt Dam, built by the Reclamation Service, near Phoenix, Arizona. Roosevelt’s regard for natural resources and other aesthetic and practical aspects of conservation inspired him in 1908 to convene a “Congress of Governors” of all the states, plus many experts and legislators, to discuss national policy. Some members of Congress were annoyed by his free spending, which they were required to support, and sought to make political capital of the fact. Nevertheless the session was a landmark in conservation.