6. Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal, 1901 – 1909
As President, Theodore Roosevelt, a Progressive Republican, advocated for a program of reform and federal legislation which he called the Square Deal. Roosevelt envisioned helping the emerging middle class by eliminating the power of industrial and financial trusts, while at the same time protecting businesses from the growing power of labor unions. In his first term, he led Congress to pass legislation which weakened the railroad trusts by making the payment of rebates to monopolies illegal. Reforms in the meatpacking industry led to improved health and eliminated price fixing.
He also acted in areas of conservation of natural resources, reclamation of land for farming through irrigation created millions of acres of productive farmland, and strengthened the Navy over conservative opposition. Roosevelt also called for a federal income tax, though the Supreme Court had previously ruled that an income tax would require a constitutional amendment to be legal. He was also one of the first to call for reform in the area of political campaign financing, though conservative opponents of his agenda managed to prevent it from being more than a talking point.