Richard Fisher

20th Century America

American Military University

10/19/2013

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In South Dakota’s Black Hills, 5,725 feet above sea level,

stands a monument that covers 1,278 acres. It has the busts of

four great American Presidents, each standing 60 feet tall.

George Washington, the father of our country, is at its head with

his eyes piercing the distant sunrise. No one has to ask why he

was chosen for this great honor; our first President, hero of the

Revolution, and one of the creators of our great constitution.

Over his left shoulder is the face of President Thomas

Jefferson. The third President of our great country, the

principle author of the Declaration of Independence, the

purchaser of the Louisiana Territory which doubled the size of

our country, and renowned as one of our countries greatest

Americans, he deserves this place of honor.

On the end is the man many people see as one of our greatest

Presidents of all time. He saved the Union by guiding our

country through the Civil War, delivered the famous Emancipation

Proclamation, advanced the power of the President to the benefit

of our country, and had a vision of reconstruction that would

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have allowed the South to return to the Union peacefully as

friends. Abraham Lincoln also is an obvious choice to enshrine

forever in the side of a mountain.

Tucked in the corner of the monument between Jefferson and

Lincoln is the face of a President who one may wonder why he is

with the three men previously mentioned. What did he do that

would cause him to be chosen as a monument of freedom and

democracy? As a child going through school, his name was not

mentioned as often as the others. His memory often lives in the

shadow of his cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt who was elected and

reelected as President a record breaking 4 times and helped guide

the US through the dark days of WWII, Pearl Harbor, and D-Day.

The one part of his presidency that I always remembered was that

he carried a “big stick” and I wasn’t even sure what that meant.

In this paper I will prove that Roosevelt deserves to be on

Mount Rushmore by analyzing the impact his presidency had on the

United States, not only on his time, but also all the way to the

present day. The monument wasn’t finished until 1941 and the

entirety of his impact wasn’t felt completely, but perhaps the

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sculptor Gutzon Borglum understood what a great president

Roosevelt was and could see how his policies would change the

face of America.

The areas of great impact I will focus on are first, his

policies on foreign relations and his interactions with other

countries. Second, I will look at his role as a progressive

president as it pertains to Trusts, rights for workers, and Civil

Rights. Lastly, I will look at his role and love for the

environment and how he single handedly changed the face of the

United States and her environment. These three areas were

important cogs in the machine that was Theodore Roosevelt’s

presidency. Due to his actions in these areas he defined himself

as one of the greatest American Presidents of all time and as a

man who set the stage for future politics for our country and our

people.

Foreign Policy

There is a very famous political cartoon published by Culver

Pictures Inc., which sums up Roosevelt’s foreign policy. In it

he is a larger than life being walking through the waters of the

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Caribbean Sea. All around him are the lands of Mexico, Panama,

Venezuela, Cuba, and Santo Domingo. He is dressed in his

stereotypical explorer clothes with his shoes tied around his

belt. Over his right shoulder is slung a giant stick that

scrapes the sky as he continues to circle the sea and in his left

hand he pulls a string of battleships that history calls the

“Great White Fleet”. This cartoon presents many different

aspects of Roosevelt’s beliefs and actions that he took while

living in the White House.

“Roosevelt frequently proclaimed himself an unabashed,

unapologetic imperialist.1” This showed in his policies. It all

starts with his Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. This James

Monroe created document stated that the western hemisphere was

off limits to all countries that did not already exist in that

part of the world. They were not to come and take advantage of

its rich natural resources, to colonize it, or to try to use it

in any way to improve its holdings and power on the international

stage. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to use this

document to the advantage of the United States. In his Corollary

1 Cooper, John Milton. Pivotal decades: the United States, 1900-1920. New York: Norton, 1990. Pg. 50

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he stated, “Chronic wrong doing or an impotence which results in

the general loosening of the ties of civilized society may in

America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some

civilized nation, and in the western hemisphere the adherence of

the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United

States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrong-

doing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police

power.”2 In other words, other countries were to stay out of the

America’s while at the same time, because the United States was

the self-proclaimed protector of all things western, she reserved

the right to interfere in those countries.

This idea of adding to the Monroe Doctrine would be used

again by other Presidents such as Kennedy and the Cuban conflicts

of The Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In his article For the Present and the Future: The Well-

Conceived, Successful, and Farsighted Statecraft of President

Theodore Roosevelt, William N. Tilchin gives us some insight into

his reasoning for such actions. He states that Roosevelt’s

actions toward foreign policy could be categorized into three 2 Ibid., pg. 50

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precepts; “broadly defined interests, US power, and Anglo-

American leadership.”3 These precepts would be the same reasons

that many Presidents after him would make certain decisions about

foreign policy.

According to Tilchin, broadly defined US interests is “…

important events occurring around the globe do affect the United

States and should be of concern to the country’s leaders. It is

not fruitless but also harmful to US interests to try to shield

America from major overseas developments, and isolationism

therefore is an irrational, self-defeating approach to US foreign

relations… [and that] the United States should seek to influence

and to shape important overseas events to its advantage rather

than passively waiting to see what impact such events will have

on the United States.”4

There were many instances in Roosevelt’s Presidential career

where he acted out of this idea of “broadly defined interests”.

For example, in 1902, Roosevelt “engaged in elaborate diplomatic

3 Tilchin, William N. For the Present and the Future: The Well-Conceived, Successful, and Farsighted Statecraft of President Theodore Roosevelt. Diplomacy and Statecraft: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Pg.6594 Ibid. pg.659

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maneuvers…to block Germany from intervening in Venezuela.”5

Germany was interested in collecting on debts owed to German

banks and after some political maneuvering on the part of

Roosevelt he was able to convince Germany to back off. There

were similar actions taken for Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and

the entire Caribbean which Roosevelt saw as an “American lake.”6

One of the greatest examples of this philosophy would have

to do with the US involvement in the Panama secession from

Colombia and the creating of the Panama Canal. “The U.S.

acquired sovereignty over the zone "in perpetuity" in 1903, as a

reward for helping Panama to achieve its independence. Roosevelt

had sent U.S. gunboats to protect a Panamanian national uprising—

funded by private American and French interests—against the

territory's Colombian rulers. In exchange for control of

the Canal Zone, the U.S. paid a total of $10 million to the

fledgling national government and agreed to pay $250,000 annually

in rent. Building the canal cost the U.S. an additional

$336,650,000.”7 The creation of the Canal was very important to

5 Cooper, John Milton. Pivotal decades: the United States, 1900-1920. New York: Norton, 1990. Pg. 516 Ibid. pg.517 Time Collision Course of the Canal. Time Magazine Vol. 106 Issue 4. 1975. Pg. 1

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the United States, in order for it to happen, and we get what we

want out of the deal, Panama would have to be free and

independent from Cambodia. So, in order to protect our interests,

the ships were sent and we influenced the outcome to benefit

ourselves. Roosevelt believed that the acquisition of the Panama

Canal was “…the most important action I took in foreign

affairs."8

This tact in foreign relations has been used many times

since Roosevelt’s presidency. Many leaders have followed his

example and reacted to global affairs in a way to benefit the US

and her interests, even if there was no immediate threat to

America and her people. For example: Harry Truman gives the

order to support South Korea after the North had crossed the 38th

Parallel in an attempt to unify the country as one communist

government. Eisenhower, after announcing the concept of the

Domino Theory, begins our interest and conflict into Vietnam. It

was felt during the time period of the Cold War that any

additional country becoming communist was in-fact a danger to the

US and its interests globally. Reagan calling for Gorbachev to

8 Ibid. pg.1

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“tear down this wall”, Bush and Operation Desert Storm, Clinton

and the bombing of Serbia and Kosovo, and even our current wars

in Afghanistan and Iraq could be argued were started, not just

for the fight against terrorism, but to protect our businesses

and economy from suffering because of oil.

The second precept Tilchin describes is “US Power”. He

states that “…power is the single most significant factor

determining the course of international relations. Thus, a

nation needs to be strong militarily in order to defend its

inhabitants and uphold its interests. According to this precept,

the best way for the United States to avoid war is to be well

prepared for war; hostile nations can be deterred from attacking

or challenging the United States if they are convinced that they

cannot possibly win…”9

This is where “Big Stick Diplomacy” comes into play, the

phrase that would become synonymous with the name Theodore

Roosevelt. There are five requirements needed in order to

effectively use this type of diplomacy where a country can speak

9 Tilchin, William N. For the Present and the Future: The Well-Conceived, Successful, and Farsighted Statecraft of President Theodore Roosevelt. Diplomacy and Statecraft: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Pg.659

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softly, but carry a big stick. First, one must “…possess a

formidable military apparatus” which Roosevelt did by expanding

and strengthening the Navy. Perhaps his time as a Navy Commander

led him to do so. Second, “to act justly toward other nations”;

this was not always followed, for many people believed he used

this diplomacy unjustly toward Panama in the creation of the

Canal. The next three things are to “…never bluff, to strike

only if prepared to strike hard, and to allow an honorable

adversary to save face in defeat.”10 Roosevelt upheld the latter

as he settled the dispute with Canada over the southeastern

boundary of Alaska. He allowed them an international tribunal to

help solve the problem, which helped Canada look as though it

wouldn’t back down to US authority, but the tribunal was

dominated by American leaders.11

Many years after Roosevelt’s term the idea of Big Stick

Diplomacy was used. One could argue that the entire Cold War was

fueled by this idea. The greatest nuclear torrent was the fact

that the bombs were there and both the Russians and the Americans

10 Ibid. pg.66211 Cooper, John Milton. Pivotal decades: the United States, 1900-1920. New York: Norton, 1990. Pg. 51

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claimed they were willing to use them in need be. The Soviets

used their show of strength to dominate Eastern Europe, while the

US used hers to practice the policy of containment, or the

stopping of the spread of communism. The US government is

prepared to spend $526.6 billion dollars on defense for the 2014

fiscal year.12 This shows that we still believe that having a

strong military is essential to guaranteeing peace throughout the

globe and to the ensuring that our interests are always going to

be protected. We are the largest and most powerful military in

the world, and we have bases on almost every continent and in

dozens of countries around the globe. All of this allows the US

to speak in a quiet voice, all the while waving our stick around

and showing the rest of the world how big it is.

Anglo-American leadership is the final point in Roosevelt’s

foreign policy. This is the belief that “…some nations and

peoples have progressed beyond others with respect to political

culture and international conduct, and that the world is far

better off if the most advanced nations are also the most

12 Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2014, pg. 69

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powerful.”13 Roosevelt built up positive relations with first,

Great Britain and then later France. He recognized the power of

the Royal Navy and exchanged in positive interactions in order to

ensure the alliance between the two nations. This relationship

with these countries still exist today as the United Kingdom and

France are seen as two of our greatest allies and fellow

champions for democracy. It was evident during WWI and WWII as

we fought on the same side, as all three showed a vested interest

in Western Europe and West Berlin after the war and were able to

work together to help those areas recover, and as we currently

participate in the United Nations and three of its main forces

and pushers for democracy.

Tilchin summarizes Roosevelt’s effect on our nation’s

foreign policy very nicely. He states: “When Theodore Roosevelt

vacated the presidency in March 1909, he left behind and

exemplary record: a much stronger US Navy; greater increased US

international structure and influence; a seasoned friendship

between Great Britain and the United States; unchallenged US

13 Tilchin, William N. For the Present and the Future: The Well-Conceived, Successful, and Farsighted Statecraft of President Theodore Roosevelt. Diplomacy and Statecraft: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Pg.659

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hegemony in the Caribbean alongside ample progress in

constructing the Panama Canal; stable relations with all three of

America’s major potential enemies (including a wide-ranging

understanding with Japan); steady advances toward self-government

in the Philippines; and, in general, seven-and-a-half years of

peace for the United States…, plus the cessation of one great

power war and the forestalling of another.”14 His way of

thinking brought success for our country for many years, and when

leaders like his cousin Franklin, Wilson, and Hoover who started

out by favoring an isolationist approach to world views, all

ended up going back to Theodore’s way of thinking to help resolve

conflicts that the US was facing.

Progressivism

Roosevelt is often called the first Progressive President.

This could not have come at a better time. At the turn of the

20th Century the United States found itself in the middle of an

Industrial Revolution. Factories were turning out important

products such as steel, meat, and textiles faster than ever

before. With the help of inventions such as Edison’s power 14 Ibid. pg.667

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plants and light bulb and Bell’s telephone, factories could work

around the clock and produce goods faster all the while demanding

longer hours from its employees. It was never a problem if an

employee couldn’t keep up or was injured or died due to the

unsafe working conditions because there was always a long line of

immigrants who were ready and willing to do the job.

Due to the sheer number of people who needed work, factory

owners had no reason to make life better for their employees.

The workers were treated like machines, if it quit working; they

simply threw it out and got another. One of the industries that

were truly the pinnacle of unsafe conditions was the meat packing

plants of Chicago. In his book The Jungle, Upton Sinclair

describes these deplorable conditions. He writes about the men

who worked in the pickle rooms who could die of a disease if they

cut their finger while working. There were the boners and

trimmers who would slice their hands up so much they would be

crisscrossed with scars and they would lose the feeling in many

of their fingers. There were beef luggers and men who had to

pull the hides off after painting them with acid which means

their fingers were worn down to their knuckles. The fertilizer 15

men were so smelly; a person 100 yards away could smell them.

The meat would lie in piles on the floor with rats, rat

droppings, poisoned bread used to kill the rats, the dead rats,

and all the dust and dirt piled on top of it. Men would fall in

the grinders and be sold as sausage along with the rest of the

meet.15

When President Roosevelt read the work of Sinclair he

investigated the allegations to only discover that they are all

true. He wanted for a while to pass a drug and meat inspection

bill to help clean up the meat packing plants. Unfortunately he

was being stonewalled by members of congress. To convince

Congress to support his measures he “threatened to publish [the

investigators] findings”. But when Congress continued to block

the measure he published one section of the findings and then “…

warned privately that if the passage of the comprehensive bill

did not come soon he would release the much harsher second

part.”16 Congress decided it would be best if it passed the bill

and the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act and well as the

15 Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. 1905, Chapter 916 Cooper, John Milton. Pivotal decades: the United States, 1900-1920. New York: Norton, 1990. Pg. 99

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Meat Inspection Act happened. These led to the creation of an

entity that still exists today, the Food and Drug Administration.

This move greatly affected the meat packing industry as it caused

the plants to clean up the meat they were selling as well as

making them safer places to work.

One of the greatest weapons used to make industry life

better was the establishment of Unions. As workers united,

especially under the Samuel Gompers and his American Federation

of Labor, workers were able to have the work day shortened, wages

go up, and conditions become much safer. Roosevelt took some

steps to support the Unions in their efforts for change. As

President he “also got Congress in 1908 to enact an employer’s

liability law…It established the legal basis for workers to seek

compensation for injuries sustained on the job and illnesses

contracted as a result of employment.”17 These were moves that

were supported by Unions. Up until the passage of this law,

employees were responsible for all of those things. This again

would change the landscape of factory life for many years

throughout the 20th century and today.

17 Ibid. pg.99

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Another way Roosevelt was progressive in his attitude toward

big business was his actions toward trusts. The Sherman Anti-

trust law was passed in 1890 but it was never enforced as it

should have been, partly due to the fact that the rules were so

vague. “The Sherman Antitrust Act got its first real test only

after Theodore Roosevelt became President…”18 Roosevelt said “We

do not want to destroy corporations, but we do wish to make them

[serve] the public good.”19 He went after the Pacific Northwest

Railroad controlled much of the rail lines between Chicago and

the Pacific and had the justice department sue it for monopoly

violations and it was broken up. He also filed suit against

Rockefeller’s oil giant Standard Oil as well as 44 other trusts.

“Roosevelt thought government regulation, or enforcement of laws,

was a good long-term solution to bad business behavior. ‘The

great development of industrialism,’ he said, ‘means that there

must be an increase in the supervision exercised by the

government over business enterprise.’”20

18 Hart, Diane. History Alive! The United States. Palo Alto: Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, 2002. Pg.37419 Ibid. pg.37420 Ibid. pg374

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It is understood that in order for consumers to get the

highest quality product at the lowest possible price there has to

be competition; and if there are monopolies then there is no

competition and the consumers suffers. If not for the actions of

Roosevelt against the major trusts of his day the American

economy would look very different than it does today.

Before I get into his progressive thinking as it pertains to

gender and race relations, it is important to point out that

Roosevelt, like so many others, was a product of the society from

which he lived. By our standards, ours meaning now in the early

21st Century, Roosevelt was not very sympathetic toward women and

African Americans because we live in a society of almost complete

acceptance. Roosevelt, however, was raised in a Victorian

lifestyle where the role of the female was to support and care

for her husband and Jim Crow was still the dominate principal in

our country.

That being said, “…one [may] discover that many of his

positions were far advanced, but that to a considerable extent

his approach prepared the way for the later standards that the

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modern world – at least officially – has adopted.”21 His way of

thinking toward both race and gender were different from the

world around him and paved the way for our way of thinking today.

As it pertains to gender, Roosevelt was “enlightened” on the

issue for most of his life. Max Skidmore in his article Theodore

Roosevelt on Race and Gender, quoted biographer Nathan Miller by

saying that he could trace his views of women back to his college

days where his senior essay topic was: “The Practicability of

Equalizing Men and Women Before the Law.”22 Skidmore went on to

say that “[Roosevelt] had no doubt in the abstract that women

should have equal rights with men, but argued that equality was

more than an abstract issue. He believed that equal rights were

feasible, right then in the last quarter of the nineteenth

century. He called for equality of inheritance rights, for ‘the

most absolute equality’ in marriage, and even wrote that he did

not ‘think the woman should assume the man’s name.”23 This was a

very radical way of thinking for a Victorian raised man.

21 Skidmore, Max J. Theodore Roosevelt on Race and Gender. Journal of American Culture,1998. Pg.3522 Ibid. pg. 3723 Ibid. pg. 37

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“He was angered by humor that placed women in an unfavorable

light and his pronouncements on rape, wife abuse, and

prostitution are those of late-twentieth-century feminists. For

example, when governor of New York and president, he called for

harsh punishment for rapists, and in case when asked to display

leniency, he admitted to wishing he could increase the sentence

and urged that nothing be done to allow the courts to protect the

men.”24

Even though it wasn’t always the popular thing to do,

Roosevelt did find some success as President in gaining equal

rights for women. “One resulted from the efforts of Mary

McDowell, Edith Abbott, and Sophonisba Breckinridge, all of Hull

House, who in 1905 encouraged Jane Addams to appeal to the

president for his support of an investigation into work

conditions for women and children. Groups like the Women's Trade

Union League and The General Federation of Women's Clubs as well

as settlement house workers rallied behind the study plan.

Roosevelt endorsed the idea and thanked Addams for her "sanity,

24 Daniels, Doris Groshen. Theodore Roosevelt and Gender Roles. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 1996.

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good humor and judgment" and for not being one of the "reformers

of the hysterical stamp." He wrote department heads urging them

to cooperate and asked Congress for the money to fund the

project. In 1907, about ten percent of the money requested was

appropriated and TR could report that the Department of Labor "is

practically a Department of Sociology." The resulting nineteen-

volume Report on the Condition of Women and Child Wage Earners in

the United States provided the ammunition the women needed to

press for more vigorous factory inspection and improved work

conditions.”25

“Early in his career, Roosevelt had criticized the South for

preventing blacks from voting.”26 He also would associate with

groups of people who believed that “deplored the oppression of

American blacks.”27 He even, despite opposition from many people

around him, invited an African American to dinner at the White

House. I believe this was a silent way for him to show his

sympathy for the plight of the blacks in America.

25 Ibid. Further in article26 Skidmore, Max J. Theodore Roosevelt on Race and Gender. Journal of American Culture,1998. Pg.4227 Ibid. pg.42

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Unfortunately Roosevelt knew that in order for him to stay

relevant in politics he would have to “…avoid taking stands on

issues which he knew would bring failure. Civil rights fell into

this category, although in private condemned southern bigotry and

reactionary actions.”28 The time in which he lived would not

allow him to take action against these injustices that he saw,

but, his devotion and ideals toward the issues of race and gender

would set the stage for future actions in the 20th century;

namely the 19th Amendment and the Civil Rights movement. One

could argue that if not for such a popular man like Roosevelt and

his personal ideals, than perhaps others may not have been so

open to change.

Environment

Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and deep in his heart he

loved the outdoors and wished to protect it. He became so well

known for this that there were political cartoons drawn where he

28 Ibid. pg. 43

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is with a young bear cub as his companion in the wilderness.

This would later cause stuffed bears to be known as “Teddy”

Bears.

“…Theodore Roosevelt was a strenuous preservationist when it

came to saving American wilderness and wildlife.”29 He perhaps

did more for our nation’s environment than any other President

before or since. “Wildlife protection and forest conservation,

Roosevelt insisted, were a moral imperative and represented the

high-water mark of his entire tenure at the White House.”30 The

environment remained an underlying theme throughout his entire

administration. As he dealt with the Panama Canal, the

Caribbean, busting trusts, and other progressive areas, he never

lost sight of his true passion, the outdoors. He believed that

most Americans didn’t understand the treasures that the American

wilderness had he dedicated his work to making them known. He

said in reference to America, “Surely our people do not

understand even yet the rich heritage that is theirs…”31

29Brinkley, Douglas. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. New York, Harper Collins, 2009. Pg. 130 Ibid. pg. 2031 Ibid. pg. 21

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While serving as President he had many great

accomplishments, most of which we are the beneficiaries of. When

he took office there were five national parks,32 when he left

there was eleven.33

He is also responsible for creating or enlarging 150

national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, and 18 National

Monuments including Devils Tower of Wyoming, Montezuma Castle in

Arizona, and the beloved Grand Canyon.34

His drive to conserve our nation was summed up nicely by

Douglas Brinkley. He said, “[Roosevelt] saw the planet as one

single biological organism pulsing with life and championed the

interconnectedness of nature as his own Sermon on the Mount. As

forces of globalization run amok, Roosevelt’s stout resoluteness

to protect our environment is a strong reminder of our national

wilderness heritage…”35

In conclusion, I can’t think of a better President to be

enshrined on Mount Rushmore than President Theodore Roosevelt.

32 Ibid. pg.45033 Ibid. pg. 82934 Ibid. Pgs. 825-83035 Ibid. pg. 817

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His relentless pursuit of global dominance and the increasing of

Executive power, his drive for progressivism, and his love and

conservation of the American Wilderness have and will forever

impact our great nation. He deserves to have his face

permanently etched in stone staring out over the great nation

that he loved and fought for.

Bibliography – Sources Sighted

1 - Cooper, John Milton. Pivotal decades: the United States, 1900-1920. New York: Norton, 1990

2 - Tilchin, William N. For the Present and the Future: The Well-Conceived, Successful, and Farsighted Statecraft of President Theodore Roosevelt. Diplomacy and Statecraft: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008

3 - Time Collision Course of the Canal. Time Magazine Vol. 106 Issue 4. 1975.

4 - Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2014,

5 - Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. 1905

26

6 - Hart, Diane. History Alive! The United States. Palo Alto: Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, 2002

7 - Skidmore, Max J. Theodore Roosevelt on Race and Gender. Journal of American Culture, 1998

8 - Daniels, Doris Groshen. Theodore Roosevelt and Gender Roles.Presidential Studies Quarterly, 1996.

9 - Brinkley, Douglas. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Rooseveltand the Crusade for America. New York, Harper Collins, 2009.

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