The Square Deal was President Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program. In 1910: When I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service.[1]
Roosevelt reflected three basic goals: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection.[2] These three demands are often referred to as the "three C's" of Roosevelt's Square Deal.
Thus, it aimed at helping middle class citizens and involved attacking plutocracy and bad trusts while at the same time protecting business from the most extreme demands of organized labor. A progressive Republican, Roosevelt believed in government action to mitigate social evils, and as president he in 1908 denounced "the representatives of predatory wealth” as guilty of “all forms of iniquity from the oppression of wage workers to unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing competition, and to defrauding the public by stock-jobbing and the manipulation of securities.
During his second term, Roosevelt tried to extend his Square Deal further, but was blocked by conservative Republicans in Congress.
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