Harrison 1 The Gilded Age was characterized by internal conflicts: bosses vs. workers, political parties, and workers vs. government. Massive reform was needed, but it was slow to come. Theodore Roosevelt was a man who wanted to make a difference in the lives of Americans; circumstance offered him the chance, “With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the Nation’s history. He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency, as he vigorously led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy.”1 Roosevelt was the first president to focus on the expansion of executive power, and he believed the president should be a guiding hand to the people; to work for their best interest. “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.”2 Theodore Roosevelt, or “Teddy” as he was affectionately called by the people, wanted to focus his time in power on helping the working man and destroying large trusts. His criticisms of the wealthy upper class were two-fold, “First, continued exploitation of the public could result in a violent uprising that could destroy the whole system. Second, the captains of industry were arrogant enough to believe themselves superior to the elected government.” Teddy would weaponize the Sherman Antitrust Act against companies like the Northern Securities Company during his time as president to bring the wealthy down a peg. Theodore Roosevelt served two terms on the Republican ticket, but when the race for the 1912 election began, he changed parties. He ran for the new Progressive Party and gave several speeches while on the campaign trail, but none are quite so famous as his “The Leader and The Cause” speech. Before he even had the chance to speak, a lone gunman shot him in the chest. Theodore Roosevelt had lived a strenuous life, and was a hero of the Spanish-American war; a single bullet was not enough to Harrison 2 deter him. This paper will analyze how the “The Leader and The Cause” speech tackles ideas such as progressivism and organization of labor, and the context surrounding these issues during the latter days of the Gilded Age. Roosevelt began his speech explaining that he had been shot, and reassured the crowd he was alright to make his speech; he wanted to prove to the crowd that, I am in this cause with my whole heart and soul. I believe that the Progressive movement is making life a little easier for all our people; a movement to try to take the burdens off the men and especially the women and children of this country. I am absorbed in the success of that movement.3 What was this new ideology that Teddy spoke of in his speech? Progressivism was a new movement that would go on to affect the next couple of decades; it was a direct response to the Gilded Age, and the problems that plagued people during that era. Progressives took a rather contrarian view to those of the founding fathers, rejecting the idea that men are born free. They thought that freedom was a gift bestowed upon the people by the state. The Progressive goal of politics is freedom, now understood as freedom from the limits imposed by nature and necessity. They rejected the Founders' conception of freedom as useful for selfpreservation for the sake of the individual pursuit of happiness. For the Progressives, freedom is redefined as the fulfillment of human capacities, which becomes the primary task of the state. 4 Progressives saw the primary role of government as protection of the people, and in the context of the Gilded Age, it is easy to see why this ideology sprang up and gained popularity. The people who ascribed to Progressive ideas though of the state as above all other things and so this led to the disdain for the private business in America. Business was seen as a realm of selfish and oppressive companies. Teddy was a member of this group of thought and argued that the purpose of the government was to protect the poor, and he cautioned that mistreatment of workers would only go on for so long before someone snapped. In his speech he stated, “When you permit the conditions to grow such that the poor man as such will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they improperly have won, when that day comes, the most awful Harrison 3 passions will be let loose and it will be an ill day for our country.”5 Violent strikes, like the Pullman Strike of 1894, were still in the minds of many; this line was one that would have hit home to people in the Gilded Age. Roosevelt went on to speak to the need for justice and how the Progressives were the ones trying to attain justice for the masses. Now, friends, what we who are in this movement are endeavoring to do is forestall any such movement for justice now - a movement in which we ask all just men of generous hearts to join with the men who feel in their souls that lift upward which bids them refuse to be satisfied themselves while their countrymen and countrywomen suffer from avoidable misery. Now, friends, what we Progressives are trying to do is to enroll rich or poor, whatever their social or industrial position, to stand together for the most elementary rights of good citizenship, those elementary rights which are the foundation of good citizenship in this great Republic of ours.6 The Gilded Age was one that was characterized by class, the rich became richer on the backs of the poor, and so this promise of equality, regardless of “social or industrial position” was one that would have been very attractive to a crowd who had lived through the strong class differences of the last few decades. Many of the ideas that Progressives pushed for were controversial because they were in direct opposition to ideas that had dominated the era. Roosevelt goes on to push more for equality when he stated, “I wish to say that the Progressive Party is making its appeals to all our fellow citizens without any regard to their creed or to their birthplace.”7 Immigration had been a serious “issue” in the Gilded Age, as a massive influx of immigrants came to the United States in a short period of time. Many of the immigrants did not speak English and were illiterate, not only in English, but in their native tongues as well. This large influx of immigrants gave rise to the Nativist movement in the U.S. and led to fierce discrimination against all immigrants.8 The words being spoken in Theodore Roosevelt’s speech would reassure immigrants trying to make a life in the United States and those who were appalled at their mistreatment. He emphasizes in his speech that he cared not for the creed or country from which his men came while he fought in the Spanish-American War. Teddy liked to focus on the individual merit of people and his speech made that apparent, and during a time Harrison 4 where a racial and national hierarchy determined one’s value, his ideas were refreshing to those not deemed high on the pyramid by “science.” Roosevelt uses the idea of equality among people groups to transition to another hot button issue of the day, labor unions. His appeal to the people was two-fold: It is essential that here should be organizations of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize. My appeal for organized labor is two-fold; to the outsider and the capitalist I make my appeal to treat the laborer fairly, to recognize the fact that he must organize that there must be such organization, that the laboring man must organize for his own protection, and that it is the duty of the rest of us to help him and not hinder him in organizing. That is one-half appeal that I make.9 The Gilded Age was the first in American history to see the collective organization of businesses into large “mega businesses,” or trusts. This organization led to the dramatic increase in wealth for the upper class. This had led to the mistreatment of workers for profit and so Theodore was appealing to the big capitalists to be fair to their employees. Organizations like the American Federation of Labor (AFL), were hated by big capitalist. These unions fought for the rights of workers, working to establish 8-hour workdays, workers compensation, and controls on immigrant labor. He also appealed to the laborers: Now, the other half is to the labor man himself. My appeal to him is to remember that as he wants justice, so he must do justice. I want every labor man, every labor leader, every organized union man, to take the lead in denouncing disorder and in denouncing the inciting of riot; that in this country we shall proceed under the protection of our laws and with all respect to the laws, I want the labor men to feel in their turn that exactly as justice must be done them so they must do justice. They must bear their duty as citizens, their duty to this great country of ours, and that they must not rest content unless they do that duty to the fullest degree. Theodore Roosevelt was a self-made man, and his speech emphasized the point that laborers could not just sit around and wait to be saved, nor could they hasten to violence in an attempt to seize what they thought was owed them. Again, the image of violent strikes across the span of the Gilded Age came to the minds of people, and so he wanted to emphasize the futility of such violence. Teddy wanted to use the highest office in the land to work on reform and to attack big companies the legal way, through the correct processes of law. Harrison 5 Harrison 6 Bibliography Axelrod, Alan. The Gilded Age: 1876-1912, Overture to the American Century. New York, NY: Sterling, an Imprint of Sterling Publishing, 2017. "Interstate Commerce Act (1887)." Interstate Commerce Act (1887). Accessed October 23, 2018.https://www.ourdocuments.gov/print_friendly.php?flash=false&page=&doc=49&tit le=Interstate Commerce Act (1887). "Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 (1916)." Our Documents - Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 (1916). Accessed October 23, 2018. https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=59#. Schambra, William A. "The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of American Politics." The Heritage Foundation. Accessed October 23, 2018. https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/the-progressive-movement-and-thetransformation-american-politics. "The Rush of Immigrants." Ushistory.org. Accessed October 23, 2018. http://www.ushistory.org/us/38c.asp. "The Trust Buster." Ushistory.org. Accessed October 23, 2018. http://www.ushistory.org/us/43b.asp. "Theodore Roosevelt." The White House. Accessed October 23, 2018. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/theodore-roosevelt/.
