7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7On September 14, 1901, McKinley died after being
shot by an assassin, and Roosevelt became president. He
was the youngest person ever to enter the presidency, and
he transformed the public image of the office at once. He
renamed the executive mansion the White House, and his
young children from his second wife, Edith, romped on
the White House lawn. From what he called the presiden-
cy’s “bully pulpit,” Roosevelt gave speeches aimed at
raising public consciousness about various issues. His
refusal to shoot a bear cub on a 1902 hunting trip inspired
a toy maker to name a stuffed bear after him, and the teddy
bear fad soon swept the nation.
The Square Deal
In 1902 Roosevelt cajoled Republican conservatives into
creating the Bureau of Corporations with the power to
investigate businesses engaged in interstate commerce but
without regulatory powers. He also resurrected the nearly
defunct Sherman Antitrust Act by bringing a successful suit
to break up a huge railroad conglomerate. Roosevelt pur-
sued this policy of trust-busting by initiating suits against
43 other major corporations during the next seven years.
Also in 1902 Roosevelt intervened in the anthracite
coal strike, when he publicly asked representatives of cap-
ital and labour to meet in the White House and accept his
mediation. His tactics worked to end the strike and gain a
modest pay hike for the miners. Roosevelt characterized
his actions as striving toward a Square Deal between capi-
tal and labour, and those words became his campaign
slogan in the 1904 election.
After he was reelected, Roosevelt pushed Congress to
grant powers to the Interstate Commerce Commission to
regulate interstate railroad rates. The Hepburn Act of
1906 conveyed those powers and created the federal