In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the president of the United States. The energetic man had the nation's admiration for his duty with the Rough Riders and soon gained their respect as he kept the interests of the common man above all else.

As President, Roosevelt held the ideal that the Government should be the great arbiter of the conflicting economic forces in the Nation, especially between capital and labor, guaranteeing justice to each and dispensing favors to none.

Roosevelt emerged spectacularly as a "trust buster" by forcing the dissolution of a great railroad combination in the Northwest.

Other antitrust suits under the Sherman Act followed.

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.

At the next election, Roosevelt seceded the presidency to William H. Taft, who was supposed to carry through with Roosevelt's plans, though he proved to be rather conservative in this area. When Roosevelt got back from a hunting trip to Africa, he became angry at Taft's actions and ran against him in the republican primaries. He lost, but formed his own party. In the big election, he came in second against Woodrow Wilson, a reformer with ideas that were very similar to Roosevelt's. Progressiveness was at its apogee.

But Wilson had been in the White House only a year and a half - pushing through Congress measure after measure of his New Freedom program, when, unbelievably, War broke out in Europe. As World War 1 grew in fury and scope, the issues which it provoked came to dominate the American scene and the impulse toward reform was overwhelmed. The revolt of the American conscience was over.

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