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The Progressive Era wouldn't be complete without its progressive

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president the first of these guys was a guy named Theodore Roosevelt sure he [Presidents of Progressive Era appear]

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brought about some major changes to America but by far his proudest moment

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and crowning achievement was having the teddy bear named after him for William [Boy holding a teddy bear]

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McKinley he pushed so hard for the Willie bear America's presidential teddy

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bear was a bona fide war hero having done some impressive stuff with his

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Rough Riders during the spanish-american war but even though he was popular many [Soldiers firing rifles]

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of his fellow Republicans were kind of afraid of this cowboy and his

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progressive views we have to admit a guy in Spurs is kind of intimidating so [Man riding a horse]

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instead of giving him the presidential nomination they had him run as vice

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president to William McKinley well of course despite the Republican Party

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strategizing Roosevelt did become president after McKinley was shot in [Roosevelt appears]

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September of 1901 and it certainly didn't take Teddy long to make use of

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his new position and act on the social issue that mattered to him he did all

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kinds of stuff that made the powers-that-be nervous like increasing

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the power of the federal government protecting citizens from the rampant

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power of big business and setting aside American wilderness for national parks

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Roosevelt started referring to his office as his bully pulpit because he

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used it aggressively to push his ideas this is a case where many Americans were [Roosevelt giving speech]

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alright with bullying Roosevelt's policies came to be known as his square

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deal not because the policies were uncool but because he sided with

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American workers to take on large trusts and giant corporations Roosevelt talked [Roosevelt punching man with face as sack of money]

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Congress into boosting the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission and

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forming the Department of Commerce and labor in 1906 he successfully promoted

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consumer safety by pressuring Congress into creating the Pure Food and Drug Act

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and the Meat Inspection Act class 1 being inspired by the jungle Upton

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Sinclair's gross out classic about the meatpacking industry

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well old Teddy also worked to break up big trusts or groups of businesses who [Teddy speaking to crowd of people]

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work together to stifle competition they did this by controlling a whole

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commodity chain which basically means every step of the process of making [Commodity chain appears]

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their product well this works great for making the company owners rich but it [Rockerfeller holding commodity chain]

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also worked great for helping them to charge whatever unfair price they wanted

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yeah Roosevelt believed in capitalism in big business but he just wasn't down

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with the idea of huge mega powerful businesses taking advantage of consumers [Standard oil trust monster appears]

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so he used the federal government in the Supreme Court to file lawsuits against

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monopolies in to break up large trusts well this Republican cowboy took on some

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of the wealthiest businessmen of his age like JP Morgan it was a regular gunfight [Man looks at wanted poster of J. P. Morgan]

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at the OK Corral but this one had a happier ending for Roosevelt at least

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