TEXTBOOK-Brinkley, American History, Connecting with the Past, Volume II, McGraw Hill chapters 20-21 - Essay Example

The Square deal was an approach where Roosevelt was focused in solving three fundamental community concerns. The other progressive who took up the Presidential Office was Woodrow Wilson, a democrat with proper academic backgrounds who was equipped with various community development change ideologies (Alan 2011, pg.516). In their quest to facilitate a corruption free society and foster development by using the progressivism program, the two presidents experienced several obstacles that derailed the achievement of their goals; however, they managed to overcome some of the obstacles and in the end achieved their development agendas.

To begin with, when Roosevelt came to power as the President of the United States, he had a focus to address three aspects of the society in which on his own view were fundamental: Roosevelt was enthusiastic in protecting consumers, conserving the environment and controlling corporations (Alan 2011, pg. 516). In 1902, coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike demanding better pay, proper working conditions as well as a reduction of normal working time from ten hours to nine hours a day. President Roosevelt stepped in to create a solution to this conflict by calling a meeting with the mine owners for negotiations.

However, some of the mine owners were reluctant and did not attend the meeting; some of them did not show sympathy and were adamant to meet the demands of their workers. President Roosevelt, having been motivated by the majority support from the public, miners and the workers’, decided to use his ‘big stick’ where: He was to seize and manage the mines through the use of Government troops (Alan 2011, pg. 517). Additionally, President Roosevelt experienced great challenges in his effort to eliminate corruption among monopolistic businesses and corporations (Trusts) of which majority were owned by the America’s