Square Deal

For other uses, see Square Deal (disambiguation).

"Square Deal" redirects here. For the tile game, see Square Deal (game). For the employment practices of George F. Johnson, see Endicott-Johnson Co. & The Square Deal.

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The Square Deal was President Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program formed upon three basic ideas: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. Thus, it aimed at helping middle class citizens and involved attacking plutocracy and bad trusts while at the same time protecting business from the most extreme demands of organized labor. In contrast to his conservative predecessor William McKinley, Roosevelt was a liberal Republican who believed in government action to mitigate social evils, and as president denounced “the representatives of predatory wealth” as guilty of “all forms of iniquity from the oppression of wage workers to defrauding the public.”

In his second term, he tried to extend his square deal further. Roosevelt pushed for the courts, which had been guided by a clearly delineated standard up to that point, to yield to the wishes of the executive branch on all subsequent anti-trust suits.

In 1903, with Roosevelt's support, Congress passed the Elkins Act. This stated that railroads were not allowed to give rebates to favored companies any longer. These rebates had treated small Midwestern farmers unfairly by not allowing them equal access to the services of the railroad. The Interstate Commerce Commission controlled the prices that railroads could charge, which had the long-term negative effect of weakening the railroads, as they faced new competition from trucks and buses.

Legislation was passed which specified that meat had to be processed safely with proper sanitation, giving the advantage to large packing houses and undercutting small local operations. Foodstuffs and drugs could no longer be mislabeled, nor could consumers be deliberately misled. Roosevelt also fought strongly for land conservation, and safeguarded millions of hectares of wilderness from commercial exploitation.

Legislation

In addition to the Elkins Act, more legislation pertaining to the Square Deal was enacted during the Roosevelt administration:

• The Antiquities Act of 1906 gave the president authority to restrict use of particular public land.
• The Hepburn Act of 1906 strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission; prior to that, the commission had minimal resources to carry out its duties.
• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were both widely accredited to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which revealed the horrific and unsanitary processes of meat products.

References

• Brands, H. W. (1997). T. R.: The Last Romantic. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465069590. http://www.questia.com/library/book/t-r-the-last-romantic-by-h-w-brands.jsp. 
• Brinkley, Alan (2007). American History: A Survey (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0073124926. 
• Gould, Lewis L. (1992). The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700605651. 
• Harbaugh, William Henry (1961). The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt (1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus And Cudahy. ISBN 978-0195198225. http://www.archive.org/details/powerandresponsi012652mbp. 
• Morris, Edmund (2001). Theodore Rex (1st ed.). Random House. ISBN 978-0394555096. 
• Mowry, George E. (1958). The Era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America, 1900-1912 (1st ed.). New York and Evanston: Harper Torchbooks. ISBN 978-0061330223. http://www.archive.org/details/eraoftheodoreroo010861mbp. 
• Rhodes, James (1922). The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations, 1897-1909. New York: The MacMillan Company. ISBN 978-1406734645. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6404794.