2ndvannroo
Theodore Roosevelt said in his speech in Kansas, on August 31, 1910, titled,
“The New Nationalism”:
"Combinations in industry are the result of an imperative economic law
which cannot be repealed by political legislation. The effort at prohibiting
all combination has substantially failed. The way out lies, not in attempting
to prevent such combinations, but in completely controlling them in the
interest of the public welfare. "1
He thought the government shall have power to control the cooperation because
the big businesses and the great cooperation were growing bigger and bigger,
unless a control from the governments. Theodore Roosevelt in his address, “The
Confession of Faith”, on August 6th, 1912, said,
The present conditions of business cannot be accepted as satisfactory.
There are too many who do not prosper enough, and of the few who
prosper greatly there are certainly some whose prosperity does not mean
well for the country. Rational Progressives, no matter how radical, are well
aware that nothing the Government can do will make some men prosper,
and we heartily approve the prosperity, no matter how great, of any man, if
it comes as an incident to rendering service to the community; but we wish
to shape conditions so that a greater number of the small men who are
decent, industrious and energetic shall be able to succeed, and so that the
big man who is dishonest shall not be allowed to succeed at all.2
“We wish to shape to conditions so that…”, Roosevelt said. The figure of his
speech was similar to a cartoon drawn on the Detroit New, which entitled
“Making a New Platform” on September 10th, 1910, days after his speaking tour
in the western United States. The cartoon showed a worker was cutting a
Progressive Log into a fitting shape to the New Nationalism Building. About two
years after his addressing “The New Nationalism”, he made my quote from his
speech, titled, “The Confession of Faith” on August 6, 1912, in Chicago. This
1
Roosevelt, Speech at Ossawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910
Theodore Roosevelt, A Confession of Faith: BUSINESS AND THE CONTROL OF THE TRUSTS
August 6, 1912
2
speech of “The Confession of Faith” in Chicago changed the Cartoon a little bit
(use your imagination). The worker was cutting a piece of wood, named
Cooperation Log, making it fit to the New Nationalism Building. “The provision of
Sherman Anti-Trust Act made illegal all attempts to monopolize any party in trade
or commerce.” If you would see the Great Cooperation as a party, the
government was going to monopolize the party in trade and in commerce
(throughout the control and the concentration, which will be discussed later in this
paper). The government would have played a role like a monopoly in reducing
the competition, and the US government would have violated to the Sherman
Anti-Trust Act of 1892, which US law was made to curb the monopoly. The New
Nationalism of Theodore Roosevelt was not of American legislation and was
illegal.
The idea of national control on the cooperation came from Charles Van Hise.
An introduction to the Concentration and Control of Charles R. Van Hise by Brett
Fleghinger, a history professor of Cal State San Bernardino said,
…Van Hise’s main concern was that the government create the conditions
necessary to allow for the “highest economic efficiency”, conditions that
explicitly included massive size and repudiation of competition. Van
Hise’s emphasis was slightly different from Roosevelt’s, but the similarity
of their goals and assumptions illustrates the potential power and
procorporate radicalism inherent in Roosevelt’s program. Roosevelt
emphasized the regulatory aspects of the national government, whereas
Van Hise chose the more benign idea of cooperation and coordination;
regardless of the nuances of terminology, they held a common position
that saw the power of organized wealth as inevitable, positive, and
necessarily subject to the control of federal authorities.3
So, Van Hise and Roosevelt were talking about the same thing.
3
Brett Flehinger. The Election 1912 and the Power of Progressivism