Frequently Asked Questions
Do YOU Have a Question You Would Like Answered? What do we mean by “trust buster”? After the Civil War, America’s economy changed in some important ways. Giant corporations began to spring up, backed by almost unbelievable amounts of capital (money). Some of these corporations engaged in monopolistic practices. That means that they drove out competitors and then charged whatever they wished for goods and services. This was particularly true when the rich company owners worked together, openly or secretly, to create holding companies, umbrella corporations, or “trusts” that cut production costs and discouraged or drove out competition. Congress passed legislation called the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 to give the national government the power to regulate these new gigantic corporations and trusts. The law was almost never enforced, however, until Theodore Roosevelt became President on September 14, 1901. Roosevelt decided to challenge a few of the worst trusts using the Sherman Antitrust Act. His first target was the Northern Securities Company, a monopolistic railroad trust that he was pretty sure he could break up with the backing of the federal court system. Taking on these trusts was among the most controversial work Roosevelt ever did as President. He was successful. The Supreme Court upheld the Justice Department’s challenge of the Northern Securities Company in 1904. The company was forced to break up. During the rest of his time as President, Roosevelt filed suit against a number of other trusts. In some circles, this led to his reputation as an enemy to capitalism and a breaker up of trusts, or a “trust buster.” Actually, his intervention in the economy was pretty modest. The man who followed Roosevelt as President, William Howard Taft, challenged many more trusts than TR. Roosevelt challenged the trusts because he believed that the only effective protection for average citizens in an age of corporate gigantism was an activist federal government. Did Roosevelt have something to do with the Teddy Bear? Indirectly. Roosevelt inspired the Teddy Bear. As President he went on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. He very much wanted to shoot a bear, but the hunting was poor and it looked as if his trip would end without a successful kill. One of the advance men of his hunting party found an old bear, clubbed it with a pistol, and tied it to a tree. When President Roosevelt came upon the scene, the man said, Mr. President, you may now shoot your bear. Of course, Roosevelt refused to shoot a captive bear. That would not be sporting. He said if he shot the bear he “wouldn’t be able to look my boys in the face again.” He demanded that it be turned loosed. A Washington Post cartoonist by the name of Clifford K. Berryman drew a cartoon of a cuddly little bear tied to a tree and President Roosevelt turning his back in indignation. The caption was, “Drawing the Line in Mississippi.” Soon, a Brooklyn, New York, toy salesman wrote to President Roosevelt to ask if he could name a cloth bear his wife had manufactured a “Teddy Bear” in Roosevelt’s honor. Roosevelt agreed, though he had no idea that the fad would take off. How many children did Roosevelt have? Roosevelt had six children and two wives. His first wife Alice Hathaway Lee died on Valentine’s Day 1884, just two days after giving birth to her only child Alice, the famous Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Even though Theodore Roosevelt thought he would never remarry, he fell in love in 1885 with his childhood sweetheart Edith Carow. They were married in December 1886. Together they had five children: Theodore (1887), Kermit (1889), Ethel (1891), Archibald (1894), and Quentin (1897). Quentin was his favorite. Quentin was the only child that died before Roosevelt himself. Quentin died in an aerial dogfight over Germany during World War I. Roosevelt was a great father. He threw water balloons from the White House roof side by side with his children. He engaged in daily wrestling matches and “bear” fights in the White House. He liked to treat children as little adults (he did not talk down to them), but he was in many ways an overgrown boy himself. His wife Edith said Roosevelt was her seventh child. Why is Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore? The sculptor of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, was a friend and admirer of Roosevelt. He chose to carve Presidents who played a key role in the development of the American West. George Washington was chosen because he was the first President and the “Father of Our Country.” Washington was also very interested in developing canals that would link the eastern seaboard and the American West. Thomas Jefferson was chosen because he purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803. Eventually, eleven states were carved out of the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson also sent Lewis and Clark up the Missouri River in 1804. Abraham Lincoln was chosen because he is regarded as the man who saved the union during the secession crisis of the 1860s. But Lincoln also signed the Homestead Act (1862) and helped to establish the transcontinental railroads of the 1860s and 1870s. Roosevelt was America’s first cowboy President. He not only ranched in what is now North Dakota between 1883 and around 1900, but he was a big game hunter who traveled all over North America in search of trophy animals. He became an ardent conservationist. He helped to create the Boone & Crockett Club (1886), which promotes responsible hunting and the protection of rare or endangered animal species. As President he did more for conservation than any of his predecessors. Roosevelt was a natural choice for Mount Rushmore. In fact, if any of the four simply has to be carved on the mountain, it is Roosevelt rather than Lincoln, Jefferson, or Washington. Sculpting at Mount Rushmore began in 1927 and ended in 1941. |