Roosevelt's Square Deal was centered around his three main concerns: corporations, consumer protection, and conservation, and this Deal eventually lead to him focusing on making several improvements in these problematic social issues during his presidency.
Control corporations: Roosevelt urged Congress to establish the Department of Commerce to focus improving working conditions and social welfare, such as reporting illegal activity. Additionally, Roosevelt intervened in a coal strike to support miners in their need of earning a higher salary.
Consumer protection: Although fictional, The Jungle, written by the muckraker Upton Sinclair, featured shocking details about what Sinclair had noticed about America's meatpacking industries, such as the unsanitary environments and processes by where and how the meat was processed. Because of this, the contaminated meat products that were shipped overseas caused an increase in illnesses to spread. Roosevelt felt that it was unacceptable for people to be buying contaminated meats, so in 1906, Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act into power in order to regulate that meats that were being shipped were safe for people to eat.
Additionally, Roosevelt also signed the Food and Drug act, which stated that making and selling mislabeled food and drugs was illegal. Signing the Act gave the government the power to ensure drug safety in order to stop “patent” drugs from being traded.
Conservation: Because of the country's common misconception that there was an endless supply of land and natural resources, this led to many people not caring much about taking care of the environment, as well as increased Roosevelt’s feelings of needing to protect National Parks. He helped to start the National Park System, an organization where public land would be protected from destructive deforestation to add developments in a city. As a result of the National Park System and the US Forest Service that he helped to start, over 100 national forests, 51 bird and game preserves, and 5 national parks were established. In total, his efforts to protect these places caused him to achieve the protection of over 230 million acres of public lands.
Overall, Roosevelt's efforts to establish these programs greatly benefited the country because they've helped to address problems to solve large issues.
Allison,
ReplyDeleteGreat job - thank you for expanding on something we've learned in class in a comprehensive manner. When we kept reading and learning about the "Square Deal," I wasn't completely sure to what it exactly entailed, but this blog post clarified that for me. I especially thought it was interesting that, today, meat inspection and accurate food labeling is the norm, no one expects otherwise, how before our time, many people suffered from lack of regulation. I also thought that it was interesting to know that the modern conservation movement was rooted in Roosevelt's initiative. Great job, overall!