General Discussion

so they could be richer while their steel workers worked ridiculous hours and tens of thousands died or were disabled from unsafe conditions.

What turned things around was New York robber barons who wanted Teddy Roosevelt out of the governorship convinced McKinley to take him on as VP, where they thought Teddy would have no power. But for McKinley's assassination, we might have been in this place more than a hundred years ago. His Progressive Era gave us trust-busting, regulation of food industry, preservation of vast natural areas, labor protections including the 8 hour work day, inheritance taxes....

His presidency was a miracle without which our country would be a very different place.