Teddy Roosevelt

Who are the four presidents on Mt. Rushmore? George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Which one was the first famous environmentalist? From 1901 to 1909, he designated 150 National Forests, five National Parks and other conservation projects. Before he thought about and cared for the environment, there were few protections. This Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, is rarely given credit for his work. He was like a teddy bear to his constituents, but he helped the real bears and all wildlife as well as the people.
Who was the youngest president? At the age of 42, he became president, younger than JFK. Which one busted big companies who were trying to control certain industries like the Sugar industry and Oil industry? Teddy was a trustbuster. Who helped millions to earn a living wage with the Square Deal? Who built up the Navy establishing America as a major world power? Who began the Panama Canal? Who won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end to the Russo-Japanese War? He was the first American in 1906 to win any Nobel Prize too. Who reduced the national debt by over $90,000,000? Who secured the passage of regulation of the railroads? Who promoted the Inspection Act to have meat inspections? Who secured consumer protection with the Pure Food and Drug Act? Theodore Roosevelt. These were done when he was president. He had other accomplishments as New York governor and a private citizen who founded National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Just as Abraham Lincoln advocated freedom for slaves this Republican believed in women's rights. As the leader of the Progressive or Bull Moose Party, he welcomed women into leadership positions as no major party had before. The party advocated women's rights including voting. He said, "Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly." in An Autobiography, 1913. And "Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the children in whose hands rests the future of the years. "
He had many famous quotes like: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." And "Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally—I do not mean figuratively, but literally—impossible for us to figure what that loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves."
Born October 27, 1838, he is often overlooked because of his niece Eleanor Roosevelt who was First Lady during a war. Most of the more promoted presidents were vanguards of our nation like the other three men on Mt. Rushmore.