Theodore Roosevelt came from a wealthy family in New York who had political aims, his father a banker and his mother the daughter of a Georgia planter. Roosevelt, however, was not a healthy child, so his father encouraged him to pursue physical fitness. His hard work paid off, and as he entered Harvard with a muscular frame, his condition bothered him less and less.

Soon he met and married Alice Hathaway Lee. Owing to complications, she died in childbirth on the very same day as the death of his mother. Devastated, he left for the North Dakota Territory, but could not live without the New York pace for long. Returning to New York in 1886, Roosevelt remarried and dedicated his life to public service. By 1898, he held offices including Police Commissioner of New York City, Assistant Secretary to the Navy, and Governor of New York.

When Theodore Roosevelt received the Republican vice-presidential nomination in 1900, the powerful Republican leader Mark Hanna warned that there would be only one life between “that cowboy” and the White House. When the election resulted in a Republican victory, Hanna turned to presidential nominee William McKinley and said, “Now it is up to you to live.” Less than a year later, McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York. Suddenly, 42-year-old Theodore Roosevelt became president, the youngest in the nation’s history. When Roosevelt moved into the White House in 1901, he brought progressivism with him.

McKinley had favored big business, but President Roosevelt was known to support business regulation and other progressive reforms. In 1902, Roosevelt ordered the Justice Department to take legal action against certain trusts that had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. His first target was the Northern Securities Company, a railroad monopoly formed by financiers J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill to control transportation in the Northwest. Northern Securities fought the government’s accusations of illegal activity all the way to the Supreme Court.

Finally, in 1904, the Justice Department won its case. The Supreme Court decided that Northern Securities had illegally limited trade and ordered the trust to be taken apart. During the rest of Roosevelt’s term as president, he obtained a total of 25 indictments, or legal charges, against trusts in the beef, oil, and tobacco industries. Although hailed as a trustbuster, Roosevelt did not want to break up all trusts. As he saw it, trusts should be regulated, not destroyed. He distinguished between “good trusts,” which were concerned with public welfare, and “bad trusts,” which were not.

In 1902, Roosevelt faced a major labor crisis. More than 100,000 Pennsylvania coal miners, members of the United Mine Workers, went on strike. They demanded better pay, an eight-hour workday, and recognition of the union’s right to represent its members in discussions with mine owners. The mine owners refused to negotiate with the workers. The coal strike dragged on for months. As winter approached, coal supplies began to run out.

Public opinion began to turn against the owners. As public pressure mounted, Roosevelt invited representatives of the owners and miners to a meeting at the White House. Roosevelt was outraged when the owners refused to negotiate. He threatened to send federal troops to work in the mines and produce the coal. The owners finally agreed to arbitration, settling the dispute by agreeing to accept the decision of an impartial outsider. Mine workers won a pay increase and a reduction in hours, but they did not gain recognition for the union.

Roosevelt’s action marked a departure from normal patterns of labor relations at the time. Earlier presidents had used troops against strikers, but Roosevelt had used the power of the federal government to force the company owners to negotiate. In other labor actions, however, Roosevelt supported employers in disputes with workers.

Roosevelt ran for the presidency in 1904, promising the people a square deal—fair and equal treatment for all. He was elected with more than 57 percent of the popular vote. Roosevelt’s “square deal” called for a considerable amount of government regulation of business. This contrasted with an attitude toward business that dated back to the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Roosevelt introduced a new era of government regulation. He supported the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug Acts; these acts gave the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration the power to visit businesses and inspect their products.

Roosevelt held a lifelong enthusiasm for the great outdoors and the wilderness. He believed in the need for conservation, the protection and preservation of natural resources. As president, Roosevelt took steps to conserve the country’s forests, mineral deposits, and water resources. In 1905, he proposed the U.S. Forest Service. He pressured Congress to set aside millions of acres of national forests and created the nation’s first wildlife sanctuaries.

Roosevelt also formed the National Conservation Commission, which produced the first survey of the country’s natural resources. Roosevelt has been called America’s first environmental president. While he made conservation an important public issue, Roosevelt also recognized the need for economic growth and development. He tried to strike a balance between business interests and conservation.