Teddy Roosevelt was arguably one of the top 3 or 4 greatest Presidents (TR served from 1901 to 1909) in this country's history. During his life, TR fought for:
*The "Square Deal" (see quote below)
*The Sherman Anti trust Act (declared illegal every contract, combination (in the form of trust or otherwise), or conspiracy in restraint of interstate and foreign trade)
*The Pure Food and Drug Act (among other things, created the Food and Drug Administration)
*Conservation of natural resources (TR set aside more Federal land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined)
*Stricter regulation of industrial combinations ("trusts")
*Women?s suffrage (In 1912 women had the vote in several Western states, but in no state east of the Mississippi River)
*Prohibition of child labor
*An inheritance tax (TR believed that the transmission of enormous wealth to the next generation "does not do them any real service and is of great and genuine detriment to the community at large")
*A progressive income tax system (In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system)
*Peace between Russia and Japan, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
In other words, Teddy Roosevelt was the consummate Progressive and a model for today. I personally consider myself a "Progressive," not a "liberal" (and no, I'm not playing word games - there's a HUGE difference!) in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt. More on this later, but for now, here's the quote of the day, from the Bull Moose himself:
Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense...We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less...The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us.
New York State Fair, Syracuse, September 7, 1903