American History: Teddy Roosevelt Wrestles Powerful Business Interests
11 August 2010
"Who is master?" A cartoon from the New York Herald shows Theodore Roosevelt struggling with a wrestler representing the railroads, as Uncle Sam watches.
BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time of great technological progress in the United States.
Yet many people felt that there was too little social progress. They demanded reforms in politics, industry and the use of natural resources.
Theodore Roosevelt supported this call for reforms. His first target was big business.
This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe continue the story of the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.
KAY GALLANT: In the early nineteen hundreds, a group of wealthy American businessmen agreed to join their railroads. They formed a company, or trust, to control the joint railroad. The new company would have complete control of rail transportation in the American West. There would be no competition.
President Roosevelt believed the new company violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The law said it was illegal for businesses to interfere with trade among the states. Roosevelt said he would make no compromises in enforcing the law. He asked the Supreme Court to break up the railroad trust.
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