1

Landon Talbert

Dr.Rechuiti

HST

11/20/21

Longevity of Roosevelt Presidency Reform

ABSTRACT

Theodore Roosevelt is what many scholars consider to be a “Progressive” President, a

category of which we often think of as made up of “forward thinking” individuals, which

Theodore Roosevelt undoubtedly was. In this paper, I will ask the question “What reforms made

by the Theodore Roosevelt administration had inarguable longevity according to 3 different

authors?” To answer this question I will discuss the Roosevelt administration’s reforms in three

categories, Foreign Policy reform, social reform, and economic reform. At the close of each

category, we will discuss scholar’s views on the longevity of these reforms and their presence in

the lives of everyday people.

FOREIGN POLICY REFORM

Theodore Roosevelt took his approach to foreign policy from an African proverb “speak

softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far”. Historians came to call the Roosevelt approach

to foreign policy “big stick diplomacy”.1 But what exactly was meant when Roosevelt adopted

said proverb?

An excellent example of “big stick diplomacy” in action can be seen in the United States’

imperialist practices in Latin America. According to Eric Foner, the author of the required text

1 McCullough, David. Path Between the Seas. Simon and Schuster, 1977.
 2

for this course, the United States came out of the Gilded Age fully industrialized and produced

so many goods that they could not possibly be sold or consumed in total within the United

States’ borders. So, partly to expand into new markets and partly to bring “ civility to savage

nations and peoples” and partly to prove to the rest of the world that the United States was a new

world power, Theodore Roosevelt began to seek land to expand his empire upon. Unfortunately,

the definition of “savage peoples” mentioned above was often a racist euphemism used by

politicians and laymen alike that referred to anyone that was not a white European.

America decided that she would expand her markets into the island nations of Latin

America, a decision that was most likely influenced by the 1890 publication of Alfred Thayer

Mahan’s book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, which emphasized a strong nation’s

need for a supreme naval force presence in expanding spheres of influence. Through expanding

the navy and occupying the island nations of Latin America, The United States began to practice

what historians now call “new imperialism”, which is defined by Eric Foner as “when rival

European empires carved up large parts of the world among themselves.” 2

But what gave the United States the power and authority to claim these nations to their

new American Empire? The answer, surprisingly, lies in a speech written by John Quincy Adams

and delivered by President James Monroe.

Roosevelt had seen Europe’s actions and spheres of influence in mainland China after

participating in the put down of the Boxer Rebellion.3 To dissuade Europeans from entering the

western hemisphere and sounding their own spheres of influence within it, Roosevelt decided to

expand upon the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine had stated in 1823 that no European

power was to have political influence in the western hemisphere. Roosevelt expanded on the

2 Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
3 “Boxer Rebellion (1900).” Encyclopedia of War & American Society, doi:10.4135/9781412952460.n33.
 3

Monroe Doctrine, which he thought lacked any real “teeth”, by adding on the Roosevelt

Corollary.

The Roosevelt Corollary stated that if any European power were to act against the terms

stated in the Monroe doctrine that the United States would have full and just motivations to act

as an “international police power”. Put simply, this meant that if the terms of the Monroe

Doctrine were broken the United States would react with military force. To Roosevelt, this

addition added consequence to any European power that may attempt to work against the United

States wishes in Latin America.4

With the implementation of the Roosevelt Corollary, we can see Roosevelt's “big stick

diplomacy” in action. Roosevelt made no direct threat to any European nation in his addition to

the Monroe doctrine, yet the “big stick“ of military intervention was made prevalent and clear on

the world stage. In action, we can see “big stick diplomacy“ in President Roosevelt‘s reaction to

the British and German blockade of Venezuela during the Venezuelan Affair of 1902. It was

Roosevelt and his implementation of both diplomacies, and nonviolent implementation of naval

forces that saw the eventual end of the blockade by European powers. 5

While we can see the effects of the Roosevelt Corollary plainly in terms of relations with

European states, the long-term effects we can still see today are much more prevalent in Latin

America. It was this addition to the Monroe doctrine that would justify American imperialism in

Hawaii, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic just to name a few.

Scholars say that without the implementation of the Roosevelt Corollary, imperialism on the

world stage would have turned out a lot differently. This alternate history without the

4 Matthews, William Isaac. The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. 1948.
5 Mitchell, Nancy. The Danger of Dreams: German and American Imperialism in Latin America. The
University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
 4

implementation of the Roosevelt Corollary includes a possible future in which Hawaii was not

annexed by the United States.

We can see the negative long term effects of colonialism on Latin America through what

scholars call “Colonialism’s Institutional Legacy”. According to Andy Baker, author of Shaping

the Developing World, The United State’s actions in Latin America during the early 20th century

could be partially to blame for Latin America’s lack of economic development in the present

day. Baker states, “Western colonialism created rules that centralized political power in a

colonial and native elite. Members of this elite used this political power themselves to enrich

themselves at the expense of the broader masses, concentrating wealth into their own hands…” 6

Considering the quotation stated above, as well as the number of Less Developed

Countries (LDCs) that currently inhabit the areas formerly colonized by the United States, we

can assume that the political institutions brought to Latin American colonies of the Roosevelt

Administration was partially to blame for the USA’s former colonies “LDC” statuses. Some

former colonies in Latin America and the CAribbean have been able to make their way off the

list of the 46 LDCs, but some still remain on the list to this day.7 The long term effect of

Roosevelt’s foriegn policy reform was not a positive one.

SOCIAL REFORM

6 Baker, Andy. Shaping the Developing World, the West, the South, and the Natural World. SAGE, 2022
pg 93
7 “The Least Developed Countries Report 2021.” Least Developed Countries Report, 2021,
doi:10.18356/9789210056052
 5

While Teddy Roosevelt had an outward disdain for journalists that brought the negative

effects of the second industrial revolution into the forefront, it was through them that he would

gain knowledge of and solve many of the problems brought on by rapid industrialization through

social reform.

For example, it was in Upton Sinclair‘s The Jungle that the shortcomings of the

meatpacking industry and their unsanitary practices were brought into the limelight. Through this

“muckraking“ the American public was shocked and appalled at the disgusting nature by which

their meat products were being put onto store shelves.8 The Roosevelt administration sought to

solve this problem through the implementation of a new federal government organization called

the food and drug administration. The Food and Drug administration (FDA) would regulate food

safety and sanitation.9 Furthermore, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Hepburn Act were all

passed under Roosevelt’s presidency and were further implementations that saw strict

regulations on how food was to be processed and produced in a sanitary way.10

The Food and Drug Administration is still operating today, and they oversee not only the

sanitary and safe production of food products but also the safe and sanitary production of

pharmaceutical and over-the-counter medications and drugs.

Roosevelt, the outdoorsman he was, was a staunch and active conservationist as well.

According to Shane P. Mahoney, author of The North American Model of Wildlife

Conservation, President Roosevelt should be considered the most important figure in the history

of conservation in the United States. Mahoney states, “Roosevelt was the primary progenitor of

8 Fillers, Louis. Muckrakers. Stanford University Press, 1968.

9 Eaglstein, William H. “Brief History of the FDA.” The FDA for Doctors, 2014, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-
08362-9_24.
10 Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
 6

the modern arrangement of national forests, national parks, and wildlife refuges in the United

States.”11

Roosevelt facilitated the formation and rapid expansion of what would become the

National Park and Forest system. Mahoney, when prompted on Roosvelt’s contribution to

protected lands, says, “He (Roosevelt) greatly expanded the national forest system to 150

million acres and established sixteen national parks and fifty-one national bird reserves that are

now part of the national refuge system. His actions were often highly protectionist in nature…”12

The longevity of Roosevelt’s economic reform is not to be understated, as it was

Roosevelt’s approach to eco-friendly use of natural resources that led to our ecological approach

to resource extraction today. Mahoney again states that “It was this (Roosevelt’s) philosophy

that developed first into the sustained-yield and then the sustainable- use approaches to

resource management that prevail today.”13 In fewer words, it was the Roosevelt administration

that planted the seeds for sustainable use policies of natural resources we have implemented

today to protect our planet. Here, the longevity of Roosevelt’s reform is clear.

ECONOMIC REFORM

Through the second industrial revolution, the United States entered what historians now

call the Gilded Age. Those who led the United States into this new industrial age were now some

11 Shane P. Mahoney, and Valerius Geist. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2019. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2091750&site=eds-live.
12 Shane P. Mahoney, and Valerius Geist. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2019. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2091750&site=eds-live
13 Shane P. Mahoney, and Valerius Geist. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2019. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2091750&site=eds-live
 7

of the most wealthy people on the planet. These “captains of industry“ rose to the top of a

laissez-faire economic system through less than honest means.14

One of these less than honest practices was the building of Trusts. Trusts were essentially

groups of companies within the same industry run by one board of directors. This practice

created exclusionary monopolies that would set prices within the Trust that no other company

could compete with, and thus eliminated competition.15 Roosevelt saw this as a threat not only to

American capitalism, but also to the efficacy of democracy. As many of the richest and most

powerful men in The United States were those who sat at the heads of these bad trusts and

seeded political corruption.

Bad trusts and monopolies restrained competition, driving up profits for our “Captains of

Industry”. This restraint and lack of opportunity, however, led the majority of the nation to live

as wage slaves. 16

Roosevelt saw this disparity between laborers and business owners and decided that it

was the role of the federal government to become involved and protect the openness and fairness

of capitalism. Roosevelt's first administration sought to tackle the problem of monopolies and

did so through the implementation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Eric Foner describes

the Sherman Antitrust Act as one “which banned all combinations and practices that restrained

free trade.”17 This act, while not passed while Roosevelt served as president, was however used

heavily when trials against monopolistic Trusts were being held.

14 Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
15 Encyclopedia of U.S. History. . Encyclopedia.com. 24 Nov. 2021 .” Encyclopedia.com,
Encyclopedia.com, 9 Dec. 2021, www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/
monopolies-and-trusts.
16 Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
17 Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.
 8

One example of this act being used as a tool to fight against monopolies was in 1902

when President Roosevelt urged the justice department to dismantle the Northern Securities

Company (NSC).18 The NCS was essentially used to create an exclusionary monopoly out of the

railroad system and dissuade any sort of competition by setting prices to control railroading. It

was in March of 1904 that the Supreme Court ruled that the NSC violated the Sherman Antitrust

Act. A huge victory for the Roosevelt administration as this was the first major example of

Roosevelt’s use of legislation to dissuade exclusionary economic practice.

Theodore Roosevelt was also the president responsible for enacting the creation of the

Bureau of Corporations, which sought to protect American consumers through its mission of “

the enforcement of civil U.S. antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection”19

According to Lewis L Gould, author of The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, it was

Roosevelt’s formation of this group that was of the utmost importance to ensuring the longevity

of the American economy. Gould states “through the formation of the Bureau of Corporations,

and subsequently the Federal Trade Commission, protections against threats to the American

Dream implemented by President Roosevelt ensured economic protections for The United

States’s posterity”.20

Through analysis of the Roosvelt administration’s reworking of the United States’

economic policy, we can see the longevity of the administration's economic reform through

current implementation of antitrust legislations through the current day actions of the Federal

Trade Commission. In analyzing the text above we can come to the conclusion that Theodore

18 “TR's Legacy.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tr-

legacy/
19 Federal Trade Commission, 8 Dec. 2021, www.ftc.gov/.
20 Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. University Press of Kansas, 2011.
 9

Roosevelt’s economic reforms did a great deal to ensure economic opportunity for all of the

United State’s future generations.

CONCLUSION

As seen above, we discussed the implementation, the effects of, and the longevity of

reforms made by the Theodore Roosevelt administration. We discussed the negative effects of

“Big Stick Diplomacy” in Latin America and the Caribbean, the use of the Sherman Antitrust

Act and the formation of the Federal Trade Commission, as well as the formation of the National

Parks Service and other social reforms As shown, these reforms had both great positive effects

though the negative effects of Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy are too great to be ignored. In

conclusion, though the effects of reforms made by the Roosevelt administration were both

positive and negative, what cannot be argued is the longevity of the Roosevelt Era reforms. To

this day we can see the legacy of Theodore Rooesevelt’s presidency in our everyday lives.

Works Cited

Encyclopedia of U.S. History. . Encyclopedia.com. 24 Nov. 2021

<Https://Www.encyclopedia.com>.” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, 9 Dec. 2021,

www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/

monopolies-and-trusts.

Baker, Andy. Shaping the Developing World the West, the South, and the Natural World. SAGE,

2022.

“Boxer Rebellion (1900).” Encyclopedia of War &amp; American Society,

doi:10.4135/9781412952460.n33.

Eaglstein, William H. “Brief History of the FDA.” The FDA for Doctors, 2014, pp. 89–93.,

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08362-9_24.
 10

Federal Trade Commission, 8 Dec. 2021, www.ftc.gov/.

Fillers, Louis. Muckrakers. Stanford University Press, 1968.

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. W. W. Norton &amp; Company, 2020.

Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. University Press of Kansas, 2011.

“The Least Developed Countries Report 2021.” Least Developed Countries Report, 2021,

doi:10.18356/9789210056052.

Mahoney, Shane P., and Valerius Geist. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.

Matthews, William Isaac. The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. 1948.

McCullough, David. Path Between the Seas. Simon and Schuster, 1977.

Mitchell, Nancy. The Danger of Dreams: German and American Imperialism in Latin America.

The University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

“TR's Legacy.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tr-legacy/.