Theodore Roosevelt Breaking up Trusts and Strikes
In the early 1900’s there were around 300 companies that controlled much of the manufacturing in the United States. The businesses were only getting bigger and bigger, integrating both horizontally and vertically very quickly. We all know that the bigger and stronger one business gets, the more the small hometown businesses struggle. Living in a small town, I know how much small businesses mean to the community. The larger businesses had harsh working environments and hours, this resulted in many workers going on strike. With the number of monopolies and strikes growing, someone had to take action to start breaking them apart.
Theodore Roosevelt is given credit for heading up the trust-busting era. Roosevelt was more for having the government regulate monopolies, but his successor William Taft wanted the courts to take charge of breaking them up. Teddy broke many trusts apart receiving the name, the “Trust Buster.” Personally I don’t think that he should be named the “Trust Buster.” There were many other presidents that also broke apart many trusts. For example, Woodrow Wilson combined Roosevelt's and Taft's ideas and and broke up many trusts as well.
As far as breaking up trusts and strikes, Teddy took many approaches at it. One of the main monopolies he broke apart was the railroad combination in the Northwest. One of the main things he did was He created a Justice Department that was in charge of breaking apart rapidly grown railroad companies, and companies that were restraining trade. Roosevelt was involved in the Sherman Antitrust Act, which broke up many monopolies. I think that it was good to break apart monopolies. It would be hard to imagine how life would be if monopolies were still around today.
Starting off the 1900’s, coal mining was a very successful business. Mining was very dangerous and dirty work. Many workers felt as if they were being treated unfairly and decided to go on strikes to receive better pay and shorter hours. Mine owners didn't like these strikes and asked President Roosevelt to send the Army to break up these strikes. President Roosevelt threatened to send in the Army to take over the mines, not to break up the strikes, but never ended up having to. The mine owners agreed to work out pay and hours with their workers and the strikes ended in a calm, collected manner. I think that it is good that we didn't get the Army involved in breaking up strikes. I think that it is good we ended this major series of strikes by working with and compromising with each other.
The top two pictures are Political Cartoons showing Roosevelt breaking up trust. The bottom picture shows the Coal Strike of 1902.
Sources:
"Northern Securities Case." TR Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
"Learning to Give, Philanthropy Education Resources That Teach Giving and Civic Engagement." Learning to Give. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
"Coal Strike of 1902." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
"U.S. Department of Labor -- History -- The Coal Strike of 1902; Turning Point in U.S. Policy." U.S. Department of Labor -- History -- The Coal Strike of 1902; Turning Point in U.S. Policy. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
Comments
Excellent job! Great job of adding your voice throughout the blog entry!