Theodore Roosevelt was a very important person in the Progressive era. He was a sickly asthmatic child and stayed home studying natural history. He was often called T.R. After college he entered politics. He later served on the New York state legislature at age 26. A while later he became the vice president of William McKinley. After McKinley was assassinated he became the president. He was the youngest president of the united states. He was the leader of the republican party; and formed the short-lived bull moose party. As he served as the 26th president he accomplished many things: he worked with trust-busting, consumer protection, and improving working conditions.
First, Roosevelt worked to break up trusts during his two terms as president. A trust buster is a person who wants to destroy all trusts. A trust is an agreement in which a person owns something to benefit another person. Roosevelt believed that there were good trust and bad trusts. The good trusts were fair and should be left alone. The bad trusts took advantage of their workers and cheated the public these trusts should be broken up. …show more content…
Most workers at this time worked in terrible conditions. The received little pay for working long hours with few breaks. The workers had to work in hot buildings with little ventilation and it was very dusty and dirty. As a result of child labor young children had to work dangerous jobs and many people were often hurt. President Roosevelt was the first to notice this issue and side with the workers; he realized that they were sickly from working in conditions and could not pay for their families to eat meals. Miners went on strike and mine owners refused to talk to them. Winter rolled around and people, schools and churches had no coal to heat rooms. In response Teddy threatened to send in troops to do the job. As a result of this the miners and owners reached an