Theodore Roosevelt: The First Modern President

Many people who know history very well would openly say that Theodore Roosevelt was truly the first modern president and that he transformed the presidency. This was because he vigorously led congress and American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy. That is quite strange to hear since he was the 26th President of the United States. In 1904 the Roosevelt Corollary was added to the Monroe Doctrine and it said that the US will act as international police powers in the western hempishere. Some of the major ways that Teddy transformed his presidency was passing several acts and creating several concepts that truly helped the country prosper. Some of those ideas are the creation of the Panama Canal, The Meat Inspection Act and the US Forest Conservation. The first way Teddy truly transformed the presidency was how he regulated big business. Up to his presidency, big businesses led the economy in making money. Small, family owned businesses were not able to prosper during that time. So when Teddy came in he strengthened the interstate commerce commission. He was the first to take actions to break up bad trusts and got the nick name as a “trust busting president”. He got this nick name by his aggressive use of
President Roosevelt went on to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act which meant the sale of misbranded or harmful food and drugs were to be forbidened. He then went on to pass the Meat Inspection Act. This act required inspection on sold meat and created sanitation standards in processing plants. For example now a days meat is processed and cleaned basically a hundred times before it is put out for sale. That is all because of President Roosevelt. Before this act was passed, meat would be put out for sale basically right after being taken off the animal and people were getting very