1890 Letitia J.

Theodore Roosevelt

            Theodore Roosevelt was a man with many attributes. He was governor of New York, Vice-President of the United States becoming President when President McKinley was assassinated. He was the 26^th President of the United States (1901-1909). He was a strong advocate of imperialism. He used the federal government and his presidency to gain many things during this time. He used them to intervene in labor disputes and break up monopolies. He advocated that discrimination against immigrants harmed democracy. He was an asthmatic and home schooled as a child. He became a great historian by studying natural history.  He was a naval officer and used the navy to his advantage during the Spanish-American War. He advocated for a strong American military and commercialism both at home and abroad. He managed to get the Panama Canal built creating a water way that prevented ships having to sail around Latin America which made for speedy transportation of goods being shipped to and from America. He allowed the United States to intervene in the affairs of other nations, creating the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 which simply meant that wrongdoing in other nations may need intervention by a more civilized nation. The Roosevelt Corollary was justified in later disputes with the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Philippines.  Because he was a great hunter and avid outdoorsman, he was a conservationist and used the government to create many natural parks and wildlife refuges.

 

The History of the Teddy Bear

 

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi. As reported in the Washington Post, the presidential hunting party tracked and captured a lean, black bear, tying it to a tree. The president was summoned, but when he arrived on the scene, he refused to shoot the tied and exhausted bear, considering it unsportsmanlike.

The following day, November 16, Clifford Barryman, Washington Post editorial cartoonist, immortalized the incident as part of a front-page cartoon montage. Barryman pictured Roosevelt, his gun before him with the butt resting on the ground and his back to the animal, gesturing his refusal to take the trophy shot. Written across the lower part of the cartoon were the words "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which coupled the hunting incident to a political dispute.

            The cartoon drew immediate attention. In Brooklyn, NY, shopkeeper Morris Michtom displayed two toy bears in the window of his Stationary and novelty store. His wife, Rose, had made the bears from plush stuffed excelsior and finished with black shoe button eyes. Michtom recognized the immediate popularity of the new toy, requested and received permission from Roosevelt himself to call them "Teddy's Bears."

The little stuffed bears were a success. As demand for them increased, Michtom moved his business to a loft, under the name of the Ideal Novelty and Toy Corporation.

At the same time as it was born in The United States, the Teddy Bear was also born in Germany. The Steiff Company of Giengen produced it's first jointed stuffed bears during the same 1902-1903 period. The company had made toys for a number of years and had produced small wool-felt pincushion type animals of many varieties. The animals were the creation of Margaret Steiff. Steiff bears were first introduced at the 1903 Leipzig Fair, where an American buyer saw them and ordered several thousand for shipment to the US. While other stories have been told regarding the birth of this wonderful toy, the simultaneous births in Brooklyn and Giengen are the best substantiated.

The cartoon at the top of this page is a later version of the Barryman cartoon as it appeared in The Washington Star.

Imperialism acted upon less developed countries in order to make them successful and able to thrive.  It benefited both countries in that free trade became possible.  Just as Americans saw profits to be made in removing the Indians from land in the United States, they saw the possibilities in the sugar trade from Hawaii.  They also foresaw needing more land for more immigrants.  Hawaii became U.S. territory in 1900 to prevent the French or British from taking the land.  With the help of the United States their economy flourished and the population grew.  Hawaii was considered a highly valuable economic resource.

Jones, Created Equal, Brief Third Edition, Volume 2

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