Teddy Vs. The Railroads
Despite its good intentions, the Interstate of commerce did very little to help the situation regarding powerful robber barons, for they could just simply appeal the commission's decisions to the federal court, have them debate about the problem for years, while they continued with their corrupt deeds. To finally stop this problem, Teddy urged the congress to pass the Elkins Act of 1903, which was aimed at curbing rebates rewarded by big companies to shippers. The Hepburn Act of 1906 restricted free passes that appeared much like bribery. The Interstate of commerce committee was now finally able to expand their jurisdiction on express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipelines.
Believing this was not enough, Roosevelt went out to destroy "bad trusts" and control "good trusts." He started by attacking the Northern Securities company, a railroad holding company run by J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill. This resulted in the Supreme court case between Northern Securities and the government. This case upheld Roosevelt's antitrust suit and order the northern securities company to be dissolved. It also began the chain of over 40 legal cases against giant monopolies and eventually led to the illegality of trusts.
This political cartoon on an issue of Harper's weekly depicts Roosevelt's fight against railroad companies. The Elephant represents the Republicans as well as the acronym, GOP, which stands for Good Old Party (the republican party).
Opinion: As strong and anti-big business-y Roosevelt appeared to be, he was actually very wise in acknowledging the good in trusts and the bad. He accepted the fact that the success of American businesses will eventually bring success to the country as a whole, but he also knew that "with power, comes great responsibility" and that too much of a good thing isn't necessarily good.
Believing this was not enough, Roosevelt went out to destroy "bad trusts" and control "good trusts." He started by attacking the Northern Securities company, a railroad holding company run by J.P. Morgan and James J. Hill. This resulted in the Supreme court case between Northern Securities and the government. This case upheld Roosevelt's antitrust suit and order the northern securities company to be dissolved. It also began the chain of over 40 legal cases against giant monopolies and eventually led to the illegality of trusts.
This political cartoon on an issue of Harper's weekly depicts Roosevelt's fight against railroad companies. The Elephant represents the Republicans as well as the acronym, GOP, which stands for Good Old Party (the republican party).
Opinion: As strong and anti-big business-y Roosevelt appeared to be, he was actually very wise in acknowledging the good in trusts and the bad. He accepted the fact that the success of American businesses will eventually bring success to the country as a whole, but he also knew that "with power, comes great responsibility" and that too much of a good thing isn't necessarily good.