ABSTRACT
Theodore Roosevelt’s penchant for reform reflected the manly traits of risk, cleanliness, honesty, community, fairness, and Christian moral values. Theodore Roosevelt knew from his wide readings that monopolies were outlawed in ancient Greece, Rome, and Elizabethan England. Given the logic of the trust device, businesses assumed that when Theodore Roosevelt became President, he would follow his predecessors’ reluctance to challenge the use of trusts and similar devices that were created for anticompetitive practices. A “square deal” was the underlying condition of a business arrangement, athletic contest, or strenuous game, in which the participants and players know ahead of time that whatever the result, the arrangement, contest, or game would be decided between fair players, by fair rules, and on a fair field. Theodore Roosevelt’s expressed rationale for equal and fair rules was that they guarantee an orderly society.
