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/* Teddy Roosevelt */ improved
== Teddy Roosevelt ==
Vice President Theodore ("Teddy") Roosevelt was only 42 years old when President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Teddy Roosevelt abruptly thereby became the youngest President in American History. Athletically fit and vigorous, he brought an exciting level of aggression in leading America. He was a "progressive" but also an imperialist, pushing for a a strong foreign policy. As President Andrew Jackson had done over 70 years earlier, Teddy Roosevelt expanded the power of the presidency with a view that he should take whatever action promoted the public good, as long as it was not expressly prohibited by law or the Constitution. "I did not usurp power," Teddy Roosevelt declared, "but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power."<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tr26.html</ref>
Roosevelt became famous as a "trust buster" for requiring the dissolution of a huge railroad conglomerate in the Northwest. The Roosevelt Administration took the case of ''Northern Securities Co. v. U.S.'' to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1904 that the Sherman Antitrust Act required breaking up the railroad trust. This decision had the effect of "resurrecting" or reviving the Sherman Antitrust Act, and Roosevelt used it to break up other monopolies. His popularity soared as a result, because the common man loathed the big corporations.
In foreign policy, Roosevelt's famous approach was to "speak softly and carry a big stick" (to use against anyone who causes problems). In 1902 there was a boundary dispute concerning Venezuela resulting in a blockade by both Britain and Germany, but Roosevelt persuaded both to withdraw. He was a peacemaker, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
The Russo-Japanese War was an astounding victory by the small Japan against the large Russia on Chinese soil in 1904-05. In June 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire) was signed because Roosevelt invited Japan and Russia to a conferencethere to make peace. As a result of this treaty Japan expanded its influence in Far East, but Roosevelt rejected Japan's demand for reparations from Russia.
The Taft-Katsura Agreement in 1905 recognized (allowed) Japan's dominance in Korea, which Secretary of War (and future president) William Howard Taft approved. In return, Japan promised not to invade the Philippines, which was American territory at that time.
:There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
In further negotiations with Japan, in 1908 the Root-Takahira Agreement was signed by Secretary of State Elihu Root. This kept the status quo with Japan but established an "Open Door" policy for trade. Japan was allowed to annex Korea, which resulted in animosity between Koreans and Japan that exists to this day.
Roosevelt's greatest accomplishment was the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903, a treaty with Panama which granted to the United States a five-mile wide tract of land to build the Panama Canal for a fee of $10 million plus $250,000 per year.
The reason Roosevelt is one of four faces on Mount Rushmore (the other three are Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln) is because he established the national park system to conserve the treasures of the nation's natural resources (a "conservationist"). He was a big hiker and lover of the outdoors himself, even taking ambassadors from other countries on hikes in D.C. when they visited. After his second term ended in 1909, Roosevelt went on a safari in Africa. He declared that he felt as fit as a bull moose, and then named a new party that he started in 1912 the "Bull Moose Party." That political party was Teddy Roosevelt and little more, and disappeared quickly after he lost that election.
Roosevelt enjoyed support in newspapers, particularly among "muckrakers". Muckrakers were journalists who sensationalized the bad parts of big business and machine politics. Whenever Roosevelt "took on" big business, he was glorified in the papers and he probably enjoyed that.
