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Capitalizing on his success as
a war-hero and courting the American press, Theodore Roosevelt saw
his way to the Vice Presidency under President William McKinley
in 1897. And it was McKinley's assassination in 1901 that ushered
Roosevelt into the Presidency. Once there, however, he used the
press to advance his issue agenda which emphasized regulating monopolies
and protecting the environment. Both reflecting and fueling an increased
national attention to conservation, Roosevelt championed the movement
throughout his presidency, as shown in a conservation
timeline, which also speaks to the
media's coverage of Roosevelt's efforts. In his Seventh Annual Message,
Roosevelt went so far as to assert that "the conservation of
our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental
problem which underlies almost every other problem of our National
life," thereby defining conservation as a primary component
of national policy.
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