As the Progressivism spirit lived on, President Theodore Roosevelt embraced the three C’s: control of the corporations, consumer protection, and the conservation of natural resources in the United States.
Coal mine strike
In 1902, President Roosevelt met with miners and field operators in an effort to settle the coal strike that had broke out in the anthracite Pennsylvanian coalmines. Roosevelt, who represented millions of Americans, urged the operators to resolve the opposition amongst miners and to return to work. While around 140,000 workers demanded a 20% wage increase, others demanded the government’s recognition of the worker union and the reduction of the workday to 9 hours. The refusal of the miners to return to work, however, led to the lack of coal in schools, hospitals, and factories, as well as the unreasonable rising of the price of coal. While people suffered from the cold winter without coal, Roosevelt decided that he would take action personally to settle this dispute (represented in the cartoon by the figure on top of the horse, rearing in the large boulder labeled “Threatened Coal Strike”. Also, in the cartoon, TR is trying to prevent the large boulder from crashing down on the homes shown below, which are labeled “The Consumers”). He threatened to send federal troops to seize and take over the mines. Around three weeks later, the workers returned to the mines and agreed to the 10% pay increase and were granted the 9-hour workday. Nonetheless, their union was still not officially recognized, but this was the first time that the President and federal government acted to settle a strike through negotiations rather than immediately break it.