Teddy Roosevelt: The Stewardship Theory

Teddy Roosevelt turned the presidency into the "bully pulpit."  While most presidents before him, except during times of war, were inactive, Roosevelt made it to a president could be active even during times of peace, especially when he believed something was in the best interest of the populace, or "for your own good."

He explained this in his autobiography:

I declined to aosevdopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition.

William Howard Taft referred to this as the Stewardship Theory.  Not only must a president do what the Constitution commands him to do, he must also push forth his agenda if he believes it serves the general welfare.  The exception here is "unless he is expressly forbidden not do it" by the Constitution.

The problem with this is that many future progressive presidents took this a step further, and made it so their own personal agenda was prioritized above and beyond the Constitution.  When this started to happen was when chaos in our nation started to ensue.

William Howard Taft: The last liberal conservative

Theodore Roosevelt was so popular as his second term as president came to an end that he easily could have won a third term, yet he made the spontaneous decision almost immediately after his 1908 landslide victory not to run for re-election.  Not wanting to give up the progress he made, he hand selected his good friend and secretary of war, William Howard Taft,  to succeed him.

Taft did a good job of not making it publicly known what his political stance was on many of the political issues of the day.  It must have been presumed by Roosevelt, perhaps it was even discussed, that Taft would continue his work of reform (the progress) that he had accomplished.

Roosevelt was under the impression that Taft was, like him, a progressive. In fact, Roosevelt even had him make a pledge to do just that.

What Roosevelt did not know was that Taft was a classical liberal (a conservative by today's standards) who secretly despised Roosevelt's idealist agenda.  In fact, he would later claim that Roosevelt's disregard for the Constitution made him "not unlike Napoleon."

So, in essence, Taft reneged on his promise. But not initially.  He initially did some "trust busting" of his own by initiating 80 anti-trust suits.  However, he later backed away from these suits, and aligned himself with the more conservative members of his party, as opposed to Roosevelt's progressive wing of the party.

Despite being a conservative, he agreed to sign the Payne-Aldrich Tariff in 1909, which essentially raised some tariffs even higher than they were during the Roosevelt administration.  Roosevelt actually wanted him to veto this bill.

While he was president two very progressive amendments were ratified.

• 16th amendment, which called for a progressive income tax.  This allows Washington to tax income and not allocate it equally to all the states. This allowed the president and Congress the ability to pick and choose who to give the money to, which was a direct violation of the Constitution.
• 17th amendment, which called for the direct election of senators. This made is so that no longer could state House's choose the senators, instead they were voted on by the people. This made it less likely that senators would defend and protect state's rights, which was why it was set up the way it was.  This made it much easier for progressives to get their agenda approved even when it directly vioilated state rights (Obamacare is a great example)

Teddy Roosevelt was irate to learn that Taft had overturned many of his reforms, and he decided, still in his early 50s, that he still had the energy to be president.  Since the republicans nominated Taft, Roosevelt ran under the Bull Moose Party as an ardent progressive.  

Roosevelt was even more progressive than democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson.  Because the republican party was split, Wilson easily defeated both Roosevelt and Taft.  

Senator Albert J. Beveridge: Buddies with Teddy Roosevelt?

Senator Albert J. Beveridge is a name all school children should become aware of, because he was one of the leading Senate progressives responsible for helping Roosevelt champion and pass much of his progressive agenda.

He was the main ally of Teddy Roosevelt against his own party, mainly the classical liberals, or the conservative wing. By today's standards, Teddy Roosevelt was the John McCain, while William Howard Taft was the traditionalist like Sarah Palin (although it's not actually fair to compare Taft with Palin, but for this example it's fitting).

The following are some of the things Beveridge helped make possible for the progressives:

• Reform of the meat packing industry (with the help of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle) by the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 
• Child labor laws 
• 8 hour work day 

He was the friend of the following:

• The special interests 
• Conservationists 
• Reformers 
• Railroad magnates 
• Trusts 

He once noted, "The opposition tells us we ought not to rule a people without their consent. I answer, the rule of liberty, that all just governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government."

It's should also be noted he was a Republican from Indiana, a historian, and the keynote speaker for the progressive party when Roosevelt ran for President in 1912.

He served as Senator from 1899 to 1911. He ran for the senate one more time in 1922 and lost, and dedicated the rest of his life to writing literature. He actually won the Pulitzer prize for his book, "The Life of John Marshal."

Teddy Roosevelt: The first progressive president

Teddy Roosevelt's administration marked a shift in American politics toward a more active president with greater powers.  In essence, he turned the executive into the "bully pulpit."

Most presidents from Thomas Jefferson to William McKinley believed the role of government was limited, and that individuals were better at making decisions than government.  This all changed with the death of William McKinley.  Teddy Roosevelt became president, and he used his energy to increase the powers of the executive, making it possible for future presidents to allow government to intercede in nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

In August of 1898 he returned home from Cuba the most popular man in the United States, and it was mainly for this reason that republican leaders in New York asked him to run for governor.  He was young had tons of energy, and turned out to be a brilliant politician.  It was hear he is thought to have said," said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."  His campaign used his war heroics, even going as far as to have Rough Riders speaking on his behalf, to help his chances.

He was 25-years-old when he was inaugurated as governor of New York in January of 1901.  He became an ardent reformer, or what later would be called "progressive," and later "liberal."  He called for:

• Laws limiting the long working hours of children
• Better conditions for workers in factories (sometimes called sweatshops)
• Signed a law imposing taxes on corporations

William Plat was a former U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate member from New York who was considered the "Political Boss" of the republican party.  He helped Roosevelt gain the governorship, and by 1900 he was tired of him.  He said, "I don't want him raising hell in my state any longer."  

Roosevelt was up for reelection.  The Boss came up with the perfect solution: he began a campaign to have Roosevelt nominated as William McKinley's vice president.  This would turn out to be perhaps the biggest blunder in the history of American politics.  McKinley, with Roosevelt riding on the ticket, easily defeated William Jennings Bryan.

Okay, so I alluded to the fact that Roosevelt would "fundamentally transform" the republican party into a progressive party.  Well, the same was true of the democratic party. It is probably for this reason that Grover Cleveland is often considered as the last classical liberal.  William Jennings Bryan had transformed the democratic party to becoming more progressive (big government) party.  So perhaps the transition was inevitable.  

Regardless, McKinley was now president.  But not for long.  On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot by an anarchist and by September 13 the president was dead.  This officially made Roosevelt the "Accidental President."

The irony of this news was that, along with the death of McKinley, so too was the death of limited government.  Roosevelt proceeded to fundamentally transform the executive.  He gave it powers that previous presidents believed were unconstitutional (and rightly so). 

Yet because of books like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," the American people came to realize (or at least to figure) that individual corporations were not going to regulate themselves, and the state's could not be trusted to create regulations fast enough.  So men like Roosevelt believed this was the job of the federal government.

His progressive agenda became known as the "Square Deal."  It incorporated three core principles that are still staunchly used by liberals today.  

1. Regulating Corporations
2. Protecting Consumers from the Free Market
3. Safeguarding Natural Resources from Overuse

To accomplish these, he increased the powers of the executive by becoming the first president to create agencies that would be given the authority to regulate, or make rules or laws for individuals and individual corporations, without the approval of Congress.  The first of these was the establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903, which gave consumers a voice in Washington. 

He distrusted wealthy business owners, and so he started by breaking up monopolies that were created by the formation of trusts. These monopolies were formed when stockholders from various companies turned their stock over to a trustee in exchange for a trust certificate guaranteeing them a dividend.  The companies were run as though they were one company, and therefore this allowed them to set prices as high or low as needed to drive the competition out of business.  

The test case for Roosevelt was J.P. Morgan's attempt to combine three railroads and to combine them into a single corporation called Northern Securities Company.  Roosevelt had attorney general Philander Knox bring suit charging that this was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.  The Supreme Court decided in Roosevelt's favor, thus giving the government the authority to break up other trusts, such as those in the beef, cattle, and oil industries. 

Roosevelt said he was only out to get trusts that he saw were abusing workers or overcharging customers. So, essentially, the federal government decided what trusts could continue to exist.  During Roosevelt's eight years 40 trusts were dissolved. He became known as the "trust buster." 

In 1902 he used what was now referred to as the "bully pulpit" to settle a dispute between business and labor.  In May, 15,000 workers went on strike to protest low wages and unsafe working conditions in coal mines. The mine owners hired non-union replacement workers.  Ticked off, the striking workers terrorized the replacement workers.  

Since coal was a essential for a functioning economy -- it was used to generate electricity, heat, power railroads, and heat homes, businesses, and schools -- the strike caused schools to close, coal prices to quadruple, and families to freeze during the winter.  It also resulted in riots as people fought to obtain coal from the few remaining locomotives that carried it.  

Previous presidents supported state's rights, and the rights of individual corporations, and therefore, if they got involved, they would support the corporations.  Roosevelt decided to take a different approach.  Even though he had no legal right to interfere, he invited both sides to Washington.  An arbitrator came up with a plan the strikers accepted but the mine owners rejected. 

So he tried speaking softly, now he got out his big stick.  He unconstitutionally ordered U.S. troops to prepare to take over the mines.  Workers were allowed to go back to work, and an arbitrator worked out an agreement that required a 10 percent wage increase, reduction in workday hours, and safer working conditions. Of course in order to do this coal prices were raised 10 percent.  

The people were happy that the president took away some of the liberties of the coal operators to the benefit of the common worker.  Roosevelt's popularity skyrocketed.

Modern libertarians won't like his next move, but many conservatives would.  For years people had wanted to create a channel across Panama so ships wouldn't have to travel thousands of miles around the tip of South America.  The Colombian government had rejected this idea.

However, a group in Panama had wanted to break away from Columbia and form their own government. Roosevelt decided he would support these radicals obtain their independence in exchange for the right to a Canal Zone where a canal could be dug out.  After ten years of construction, the Panama Canal opened in 1914.

Did Roosevelt have the Constitutional right to tinker in national affairs for his own personal gain the way he did? This is a question that made Roosevelt's actions so controversial.  The answer is still debated to this day.  However, this action created a precedent for future presidents to act upon.

During the 1904 election, Alton B. Parker, a judge from New York, ran as a conservative against liberal William Randolph Hearst for the democratic nomination.  Parker won the nomination, although was no match against the popular Roosevelt.  Parker received only 140 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 336.

Roosevelt would gloat about the results: "I have the greatest popular majority and the greatest electoral majority ever given a candidate for president."  But then he went on to say that he would not run for reelection in 1908.  This was a decision he would come to regret.

By 1906 various investigative reporters were reporting on abuses in the workplace. Roosevelt often responded to these reporters, calling them "Muckrakers."  One example of such "muckraking" was the book "The Jungle," by Upton Sinclair, which reported on the unfair and uncleanly working conditions in the meat packing industry.

They also gave Roosevelt an opportunity to solve more problems, and buy more votes for his party (or for the progressive cause, if you will).  He acted by creating regulations that would create more consumer protections and better working conditions.  Keep in mind here that Sinclair was a socialist, and he was after the workers more so than the consumers.

To get started, he encouraged Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act in June of 1906.  This act mandated that food prepared in factories be properly labeled and and safely produced.  It lead to the formation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which had the ability to set regulations on the workplace without the permission of Congress.

The FDA went on to:

• Ban foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products
• Direct the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry to inspect products and refer offenders to prosecuters
• Required active ingredients be placed on the label of a drug's packaging 
• It required that drugs could not fall below purity levels established b the U.S. Pharmacopeia or the National Formulary.

The actions of Roosevelt here were very popular. However, how good were they actually in retrospect? Conservatives would argue that cleaning up the meat packing industry should have been left to the states, not the federal government.  Likewise, creating laws and regulations is the job of Congress, not the executive branch.

By the turn of the century many railroad owners recognized their costs were increasing, so they decided to take advantage of the increased demand for their services by increasing their rates.  Passengers and shippers were unhappy with this, and the fact that railroads were giving free passes to loyal shippers.

So in 1903 he signed the Elkins Act, named for Senator Steven B. Elkins.  It strengthened the Interstate Commerce Committee (ICC) that was created in 1887 when Grover Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act.  Now the ICC had the ability to impose fines on railroads for offering rebates, and punish shippers who accepted the rebates.

In 1906 he signed the Hepburn Act, named after its sponsor, republican William Peters Hepburn.  This act fortified the Interstate Commerce Committee, giving it the authority to set maximum rates, to restrict use of free passes, and the ability to enforce the regulations it created.  It also brought other businesses that transport goods and services under the control of the ICC, including terminals, storage facilities, pipelines, ferries, and trucking.

Both of these acts benefited consumers at the expense of the railroads. These Acts were justified under the false pretense that railroads were rich and could afford it. What the new laws did was retard the growth of the south, which the railroads could no longer afford to subsidize.  This was one of the unintended consequences of government interventions into the marketplace "with good intentions."

In essence, Roosevelt did something that would cause many of the founding fathers, and most of the previous presidents, roll over in their graves: he turned the government into a giant watchdog. Many people were fearful of what a large central government might do to personal liberties.  One newspaper wrote that Roosevelt's programs were "the most amazing program of centralization that any President of the United States has ever accomplished."

History would show that they were justified in their fear.  Roosevelt, in essence, opened a Pandora's Box, setting precedents that nearly every president after him used to their advantage to push forth an agenda and to obtain votes. Before Roosevelt, this was never done out of fear of what might happen if they did.

Fearing that Roosevelt's agenda might harm the country, conservatives decided to take Roosevelt's promise not to run for reelection to heart.  They started to work to delay his agenda any way they could, hoping that the next president wouldn't be so "progressive."

Congress was successful, although the president sometimes found ways to push forth his agenda (similar to what Obama would later do) to push forth his agenda anyway: by using executive orders.  One of his executive orders blocked the misuse of natural resources (forests, wildlife areas, vital waterways, natural wonders like the Grand Canyon).  He also assembled a conference of state and territorial governors to discuss conservation.

Surely these are all nice things.  Surely it's great to see the federal government preserving natural resources.  it's great to see all the natural parks and forests from being destroyed.  Still, many wondered if this was proper use of the executive branch.

All of Roosevelt's actions were noble, but they all increased the power and scope of government.  They created regulations, each of which took away another personal liberty.  Plus they were expensive, and would require sacrifices by the populace.

This was one of the reasons tariffs stayed generally high during his term in office, and he refused to even hear arguments about tariffs while he was president. This was also the reason why Roosevelt became the first president to push for a progressive income tax system.

Among his last actions was to utilize the precedent created by the McKinley administration (a time when he was vice president) to show the mite of the U.S. military, and the ability of the U.S. to be a world power. Japanese immigrants in California were the subject of discrimination.  Leaders in Japan made clear their disappointment.  Roosevelt responded by sending 16 battle ships (The Great White Fleet) on a goodwill cruise around the world.  This would be the "greatest display of naval power ever brought together in one squadron."

While protectionists would consider this a bad move on his part, I think it was good.  It, along with the actions of Mckinley, helped clear the path to the United States becoming a Superpower.

During his last two years in office Roosevelt worked hard to push forth more progressive programs, but Congress decided not to act on any of them because they knew Roosevelt would be out of office in 2008. They figured his successor wouldn't be so progressive, or at least have the energy, and things would return to normal.

Roosevelt personally selected his secretary of war, his friend William Howard Taft, to be the leader of the next administration.  Roosevelt believed Taft was the best person to continue on pushing forth the progressive agenda.  Little did he know that Taft was not a supporter of the progressive agenda at all, and was actually a conservative.

So, while many today associate the democratic party with the progressive movement, the father of the movement was actually Teddy Roosevelt -- a republican.  He is the father of modern liberalism.  He created the "activist president," thereby setting the precedent for the president to be active during times of peace as well as times of war. 

Theodore Roosevelt: The first progressive President

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt (1858-1919)
President (19011909)

During the presidential election of 1896 classical liberals controlled the republican party, or what was otherwise known as the Grand Old Party (GOP).  They believed that the best way to preserve and protect the Constitution, and thereby natural rights, was to prevent the young and rising progressive 

voice of Theodore Roosevelt from gaining influence on the party. They had to prevent him from becoming president.  

Roosevelt was always the smartest guy in the room. He was brave, as he proved as commander of the rough riders.  He was strong, as he proved by participating in a 2,500-mile safari through British East Africa and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, He was a brilliant, as he proved by writing more history books in his lifetime than most people will ever read in their lives.  He was also a great public speaker, as he proved many times on the campaign trail.  So when he decided to joint the progressive movement, this made him all the more dangerous.  He had to be stopped. 

Up to this time, the presidency was a relatively powerless position, and this was by design of the founding fathers who did not want the U.S. government to have the power to control individuals as the British Monarchy did.  It was for this reason James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights, and why a steep system of checks and balances was created.  Up to this time, nearly every president respected such Constitutional restraint, refusing to use the office of the president to advance their agendas.

Plus most presidents up to this time respected the idea that all liberties, or rights, were handed down from a higher power, and they referred to them as inalienable rights, or natural rights.  They believed that individuals made flawed decisions, but were far better capable of making the best decisions than any government.  They also believed that because humans were flawed, the world could not be made perfect, that true euphoria could only be obtained after death in Heaven.

The progressives, on the other hand, believed their experts could make the tough decisions to perfect the flaws of individuals.  Yet standing in their way was the Constitution, and the idea that since the habits of mankind never changed, so too should the Constitution never change.  Surely it could be amended, yet making such changes were intentionally made difficult to prevent people from making changes based on modern emotion.

So now they were fit with the task of convincing people that the Constitution should not be etched in stone, that it was a living document that should be changed to meet the needs of the modern world.  They needed a leader to convince people, or to fool them, into ceding some of their personal liberties to the state.

One of the first signs that progressives yearned for a leader came from an Essay called Leaders of Men by Woodrow Wilson (who would later become president himself) in 1890.  He said a "true leader" used the people like "tools."  He said of the people:

"They must get their ideas very absolutely put, and are much readier to receive a half truth which they can promptly understand than a whose truth which has too may sides to be seen all at once.  The competent leader of men cares little for the internal niceties of other people's characters: he cares much -- everything -- for the external uses to which they may be put... He supplies the power; others supply only the materials upon which that power operates... It is the power which dictates, dominates,; the materials yield.  Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader."  

Wilson, along with other progressives, believed Theodore Roosevelt was just that man.  Leaders of the GOP also saw Roosevelt as a rising star among the ranks of progressives, and they knew he had eyes on the presidency.  So for the good of the party, and for the good of of the nation, they devised an ingenious plan to stop him: they would select him as McKinley's Vice President. 

Yes, indeed, this was a very ingenious plan, or so they thought.  It would get Roosevelt out of the way for four, eight, maybe even twelve years.  

You see, back then the vice presidency was pretty much a menial job, relegated to sitting around and waiting to break a tie in the Senate or for the president to die. As of September 1901, his vote was needed only once.  So as vice president, as the GOP had hoped, he accomplished nearly nothing.

However, on September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.  One was a superficial puncture to his sternum, but the other went into his abdomen.  He was rushed to surgery and survived the initial assassination attempt, although died eight days later due to gangrene.  Vice President Roosevelt was immediately sworn in as the 26th President of the United States. 

So the effort to get Roosevelt out of the way had backfired.  He became the first progressive president, and as was feared, he quickly moved to increase the powers of the President and Congress.  As noted by Johah Goldberg in his 2007 history of the progressive movement called "Liberal Fascism," said:

As president, he regularly exceeded the bounds of his traditional and legal powers, doing his will first and waiting (or not) for the courts and the legislatures to catch up.

As Glenn Beck said in his 2012 book "Cowards:

"His (Roosevelt's) "Square Deal"... started the ball rolling.  It got the nose of big government under the Constitution's tend by regulating business and the banks.  

His Square Deal involved three C's:

1. Control of Corporations
2. Consumer Protection
3. Conservation

At the time the government had little say in how industries ran their business, and most presidents did not want to get involved for fear that it would set a dangerous precedence, perhaps resulting in future presidents gaining too much power.  

Yet there was pressure by various groups of people for governmental reforms that would improve working conditions for laborers, and make foods safer for consumption.  This sort of created an ideal environment for Roosevelt to advance his progressive agenda. 

Workers wanted fair pay and working conditions, and industries wanted to keep wages low.  According to AP U.S.: History Notes, this sort of came to a head in 1902 during the athracite coal strike in Pennsylvania.  Coal mining was dirty and dangerous work, and 140,000 coal minors went on strike demanding a 20 percent pay raise and a reduction in their work day from 10 hours to nine hours. Of course winter was approaching, so the decline in coal reserves that resulted created lots of tension around the nation.

Of course where there is a problem there is an opportunity to advance the progressive agenda, and Roosevelt would take full advantage. He went against established precedent and, instead of allowing industries to solve their own problems, he decided to do it for them.  

AP U.S.: History Notes said:

Roosevelt, going against established precedent, decided to step in. He summoned the mine owners and union representatives to meet with him in Washington. Roosevelt was partly moved by strong public support and took the side of the miners. Still, the mine owners were reluctant to negotiate until Roosevelt, threatening to use his “big stick,” declared that he would seize the mines and operate them with federal troops. Owners reluctantly agreed to arbitration, where the striking workers received a 10 percent pay increase and a nine-hour working day. This was the first time a president sided with unions in a labor dispute, and it helped cement Roosevelt’s reputation as a friend of the common people and gave his administration the nickname “The Square Deal.”

It was also the first time the president was used as a "bully pulpit," and the first time the president made a decision as an "Imperial President."  Classical Liberals feared that this type of precedence would lead to the president having "king-like" powers, leading to a police-state whereby the government could use it's power to force people to act in a certain way.

This was clearly a violation of Constitutional restraint, and yet because he was seen as siding with the "common people," making a decision for the good of the people, there was hardly any outcry about this act was the first seed being planted under the Constitution that would lead to a fundamental transformation from capitalism to socialism, from individual choice to government deciding what's best for us, from a nation where the people policed themselves, to a police state where people could be fined, arrested, and even jailed for making poor decisions.

AP U.S.: Notes continued:

Emboldened by this success and in pursuit of the first element of his Square Deal, Roosevelt began to attack large, monopolistic corporations. Some trusts were effective and legitimate, but many of these companies engaged in corrupt and preferential business practices. In 1902, the Northern Securities Company, owned by J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill, controlled most of the railroads in the northwestern United States and intended to create a total monopoly. Roosevelt initiated legal proceedings against Northern Securities and eventually the Supreme Court ordered that the company be dissolved. Roosevelt’s radical actions angered big business and earned him the reputation of a “trust buster,” despite the fact that his successors Taft and Wilson actually dissolved more trusts.

Roosevelt was also the first president to urge Congress to increase the size and scope of the executive by creating the Department of Commerce and Labor (DOCL).  The department was charged with monitoring corporations to make sure they engaged in fair practices.  The DOCL created the Bureau of Corporations, which was charged with for the benefit of the people (for our own good) to monitor interstate commerce, to help dissolve monopolies, and promote fair competition between companies.

In this way, the DOCL was the first executive department charged with making regulations for industries without direct approval of Congress.  Industries were forced to comply with these regulations or risk fines, or arrest by the newly established police-state.

Later presidents would follow this precedence in creating executive departments with similar power over individuals and industries, such as the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.  These departments are charged with making regulations for our own good, and people have to obey even when they don't agree with these regulations.

He then pressured Congress to create the Elkins Act, which punished companies with steep fines if they participated in illegal business practices, such as rebating and price fixing.  They he encouraged them to pass the Hepburn Act, which made the Interstate Commerce Commission even more powerful.  It was now able to set rates, inspect company books, and investigate railroads, sleeping car companies, oil pipelines, and other transportation firms.

In response to Upton Sinclairs book "The Jungle," which made the public aware of the poor conditions in which meat was prepared, Roosevelt saw this as another problem that the government could solve, once allowing him a prime opportunity to advance his agenda.

He pressured Congress, and they eventually, and reluctantly, agreed to pass the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.  This gave the government power to prevent mislabeling of food, alcohol and drugs, thus "perfecting" these areas of industry, and preventing individual industrial executives from making flawed decisions.

These acts were good in a way, because they prevented poor business practices, and sort of placed a government seal of approval on prepared foods, so consumers knew they were getting quality food.  However, it also gave the government unprecedented powers over these industries, taking away the natural right to make poor choices.

You see, this is the kind of governmental powers the founding fathers, and the first 24 presidents (we won't count Grover Cleveland twice), yearned to prevent.  It was as thought the first 24 presidents studied and remembered how bad it was for people living under the British Monarchy, or just about every government prior to the signing of the U.S. Constitution, and now all of a sudden people just forgot.  Now there were people, many in high positions (including the president) who violated the same Constitutional restraints meant to protect the government from abducting personal liberties.

Not all of what Teddy did for the country was bad. After all, factories needed cleaning up, and consumers dearly needed assurance that the food they were purchasing was safe for consumption.

He also got the government involved in purchasing and preserving natural resources.  As anyone who lives in Manistee, Michigan can surely attest (or at least those how appreciate Manistee's history), lumber barons moved into the Manistee area and cut down all the Great White Pines in the area. This made the barons rich, and made it so Manistee had the third most millionaires per capita in all of Michigan.

The problem was that these lumber barons, along with lumber barons all over the United States, were not planting new trees to replace the ones they were cutting down.  So, once all the Great White Pines were gone, the lumber barons left town or simply went out of business, to a great disadvantage to local economies.

Roosevelt, who was a great outdoorsman, yearned to remedy this problem as part of his Square Deal (Conservation).  In this way, along with jumping on the progressive bandwagon, he also jumped on the conservation and environmental bandwagon.  Since people were too stupid to make the right decisions on their own, he pushed for laws to force them.  The problem was that most of the laws passed weren't enforced.

Roosevelt was also concerned about all the timberland that was being destroyed, and so he urged Congress to set aside 125 million acres of timberland as national reserves.  This was how forests like the Manistee National Forests came to be protected forests, and how many national parks, such as Yellowstone, came to fruition.  He also guaranteed preservation of some water and coal reserves.

Overall, it wasn't what he did that was so bad, it was how he did it, by creating a powerful government.  As the founders, and the previous 24 presidents understood, power breeds corruption.  Many presidents after Roosevelt, and nearly every president after Woodrow Wilson, abused this power for their own personal gain.

Theodore Roosevelt had succeeded in making the executive into a "Bully Pulpit," making himself the first imperial president.  Yet the damage he did to the Constitution was only the beginning. The precedence he set would later help Wilson move this agenda into another stratosphere.