Theodore Roosevelt
When Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States in 1901, he was America's reform politician. He was tough on crime, he was tough on corruption, and he was tough on moral vices. That reputation immortalized his legacy, but to understand it, we need to understand where it came from. Before he was president, Theodore Roosevelt gained firsthand experiences with crime and corruption as the police commissioner of New York City. Lasting only two years in the job, cleaning up New York's crime proved to be one of the only challenges too tough for even Theodore Roosevelt.
Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt null Background
First, we need to appreciate the world in which Theodore Roosevelt was living. He was appointed police commissioner in 1895 at the age of 35. At the time, the United States was nearing the end of an era called the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was characterized by rapid industrialization and massive wealth, but also rampant crime, …show more content…
It wasn't just the police that Roosevelt wanted to fix; it was the entire city. For Roosevelt, this meant that every law had to be obeyed to the tee. In fact, he even went so far as to ensure that the police department was following strict regulations on how they disposed of their banana peels. He called for three police captains around, scolded them, and them read the ordinance about proper fruit disposal. The New York Times labeled it as Roosevelt's ''War on the Banana Skin''.
What really cost Commissioner Roosevelt his popularity, however, was a war on something even more popular than bananas: liquor. The city's ordinances banned the sale of alcohol on Sundays, but New Yorkers rarely (if ever) followed that policy. The city was the center of vice, and liquor sales were amongst the only things to truly survive economic recessions of the Gilded Age, including a big one in
When Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States in 1901, he was America's reform politician. He was tough on crime, he was tough on corruption, and he was tough on moral vices. That reputation immortalized his legacy, but to understand it, we need to understand where it came from. Before he was president, Theodore Roosevelt gained firsthand experiences with crime and corruption as the police commissioner of New York City. Lasting only two years in the job, cleaning up New York's crime proved to be one of the only challenges too tough for even Theodore Roosevelt.
Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt null Background
First, we need to appreciate the world in which Theodore Roosevelt was living. He was appointed police commissioner in 1895 at the age of 35. At the time, the United States was nearing the end of an era called the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was characterized by rapid industrialization and massive wealth, but also rampant crime, …show more content…
It wasn't just the police that Roosevelt wanted to fix; it was the entire city. For Roosevelt, this meant that every law had to be obeyed to the tee. In fact, he even went so far as to ensure that the police department was following strict regulations on how they disposed of their banana peels. He called for three police captains around, scolded them, and them read the ordinance about proper fruit disposal. The New York Times labeled it as Roosevelt's ''War on the Banana Skin''.
What really cost Commissioner Roosevelt his popularity, however, was a war on something even more popular than bananas: liquor. The city's ordinances banned the sale of alcohol on Sundays, but New Yorkers rarely (if ever) followed that policy. The city was the center of vice, and liquor sales were amongst the only things to truly survive economic recessions of the Gilded Age, including a big one in