Roosevelt summed up the Progressive feeling in his "Square Deal" speech - that it was all about morals, not economics. He sought the "moral regeneration of the business world." He preached that it was just plain wrong for some people, by tricks and wiles, to get a stranglehold on business and politics, while others were cheated out of the opportunity. This was the kind of talk that millions of Americans from all walks of life - devoted to the idea of a fair chance for all - could understand and respond to. The effect on the legislation that TR backed was minor compared with the effect of his personality and his preaching upon a whole generation of Americans. He struck a new key note for the times and it resounded all over America.

But TR simply acted in the interests of the common working man, fixing things that they found unjust. For years, the poor and immigrants were unhappy with treatment from their big-business employers. Their long working hours and exploitation of children were, among other things, exposed by the Muckrakers. These new reformers took over the old Populist idea that the government should work for the public's economic well-being.

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