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Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt Essay

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Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt were two of America’s great presidents. This is why I feel that both men were equally important in what they did and said they would do. Both in their own ways have added a little of what makes this country what it is today. Both had their own beliefs of how reform, empowerment of the people and foreign policy should be accomplished. As president, the main goal was to do what they felt best for the American people. In doing so, how different could they really be? To me, the empowerment of the people means giving people their rights, and in doing so making their lives a little better. Both men were considered to be "trust busters". By stopping …show more content…

For the most part they were the same. Both thought that reform was necessary, but the way that they went about it was different. For example, Wilson ratified the eighteenth amendment, which was the prohibition, outlawing liquor from being manufactured, sold, or transported. Roosevelt never would have approved it; he did try to outlaw football because of the injury that it caused. Instead of being outlawed, he compromised on structured rules. Both men were concerned with child labor. Both men organized investigations into child labor and later formed the federal children’s bureau, let by Roosevelt, and the Keating-Owen child labor act, outlawing the shipment of goods made by child labor, put in place by Wilson. Wilson wanted to lower tariffs, oppose business consolidation, and urge the government to break up giant corporations. On the other hand, Roosevelt believed in higher taxes, consider business consolidation acceptable, urging giant corporations to be permitted, but only with government regulations. Always present was the U.S. involvement in Foreign Affairs. Wilson’s missionary diplomacy was meant to teach Latin American countries about democracy, constitutionalism, and the process of a government based upon a system of laws. Instead of providing long-term stability, the result was lengthy occupations of the counties by American military forces. World War 1 was a time when the presidents

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