President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, and
Theodore Roosevelt became President. At the time, many
people felt that large were using unfair business
practices. Writers, known as , revealed dishonest
business practices. wrote about the meat-
packing industry, and Ida Tarbell wrote about Standard Oil.
Meanwhile, Roosevelt worked to reform large corporations. He
believed the government should be able to break up , or
businesses that fixed prices to get rid of competition.
The Panama Canal
In 1903, Roosevelt purchased from Panama a ten-mile wide
strip of land. Shortly after, Roosevelt began making plans to
build the . With a canal, ships would no longer
have to travel around South America to reach the Caribbean
Sea; it would cut 7,000 miles off such a trip. Building the canal
was dangerous work, and many died from and yellow
fever.
New Inventions
In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright invented the first
with an engine. Orville made the first flight on December 17,
1903. In 1913, Henry Ford invented the and
used it and interchangeable parts to mass-produce
automobiles. President Roosevelt invented ways to protect our
wilderness areas. He set aside about 150 million acres of
land for national parks and national monuments, such as the
Grand Canyon. Roosevelt also created where
animals were safe from hunters.