Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions.
Roosevelt, Theodore. "First Annual Message." Washington, D.C., 3 Dec. 1901.
TR came from a wealthy, upper class family, and because of his position favoring regulation of corporations he was called a traitor to his class by many.
This statement demonstrated the classic difference that Roosevelt had with the right wing of his party and that of the contemporary Republican party. Namely they thought that the only obligation of the corporation of other business was to the owners / shareholders while Roosevelt saw the obligation to the State and the people. The State and the society gives corporations many privileges that normal businesses do not have—most important is limited liability for the corporation’s negligence or even intentional damage to people. If the Corporation had no obligation to the State and to the people, why should they get this limited liability and other benefits?
The issue was still not decided by the beginning of the 21st Century except that a certain amount of public disclosure was required if the company raised funds by selling stock to the public, but there were some giant corporations that were private and exercised huge power and influence and yet whose operations were secret.
He was referring to the fact that Google was performing a wonderful public service of indexing and making searchable and readable all the books in the Harvard and other major libraries.
McCain held this view despite the fact that most other politicians of his party supported removal of any corporate restraints.
Webster was taking regular bribes from large corporations and even complained when his payments were late. So he might have had a pro-large business bias. At the time taking bribes even if there was a quid pro quo was not illegal or even “unethical” by then Congressional rules.
At the time this was a very widely held, bipartisan view. See {634818} . Given statements like this, TR if he were alive today would never be able to get the Republican Nomination for President; nor could he obtain the Democratic Nomination because of his view on the military, expansionism, defense spending and war.
This warning was a decade before the Meltdown of 2008, but was not heeded by any of the politicians. As a result a number of the companies that made all those risky decisions assumed that if something went terribly wrong the government would not let them fail. Unfortunately, they were right and the taxpayers spent billions to prevent companies from failing. After the meltdown all the politicians vowed to end the too big to fail concept, but while some improvements were made, the Congress could not come to agreement, and the markets and a number of companies think that they are still too big to fail. This is particularly true for Defense Contractors where the government has and probably will in the future, protect irresponsible companies from failure if they are the only company that makes needed weapons and other equipment.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer, who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900 and the 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901. Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.
