Theodore_Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt The first president to push for conservation was Theodore Roosevelt. With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the Nation's history. He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency, as he led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy.(pg1) He took the view that the President as a "steward of the people" should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution." I did not usurp power," he wrote, "but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power."(pg1) Some of Theodore Roosevelt's most effective achievements were in conservation. He added enormously to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.(pg1) From the Teddy Roosevelt Autobiography While I had lived in the West I had come to realize the vital need of irrigation to the country, and I had been both amused and irritated by the attitude of Eastern men who obtained from Congress grants of National money to develop harbors and yet fought the use of the Nation's power to develop park, national, land, service, people, parks, recycling, conservation, states, prichard, trash, paper, one, landfills, president, irrigation, country, congress, work, passed, new, landfill, help, first, cans, america, should, roosevelt, recycled, recycle, protect, need, laws, law, environment