How Did Theodore Roosevelt's Monopolies

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Aside from foreign disputes Roosevelt was also very aware of the domestic issues that were occurring at the time. He was outraged by the complete monopolies trusts such as sugar, oil, and railroads had over people and how they exploited them for their own gain. He believed that Wall Street was being foolish and that their disregard of the public would in effect end in uprisings by the citizens whose wages were docked in order to receive more profit and whose money was gambled with. Theodore began his first term by attacking trusts with the Sherman Anti-Trust act, which for many years had no effect on said trusts due to courts ruling in favor of businesses. Nonetheless, Roosevelt persisted on breaking up the monopolies throughout his presidency. He went on to file a suit against the most powerful industrialist of the time, JP Morgan. Morgan controlled Northern Securities, which was a combination of 3 major railroads. Morgan basically had as much power as the government and had access to resources that were equivalent in value to 10 times what the US spent every year, which meant he basically had financial control over American life. This was an issue Theodore fought the strongest against because he believed that no tycoon should have the same amount of power …show more content…
Theodore would be proved wrong and when news got to him that Taft was contradicting his reforms, Theodore made a comeback and was warmly greeted by the masses. He began to give speeches disapproving of the moves that Taft was making in favor of the conservative ideas of congress. When he finally came to the conclusion that Taft was “useless”, he decided to run