Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
If I ever thought it necessary, if I thought a combination of laborers were doing wrong, I would apply for an injunction against them just as quickly as against so many capitalists.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th President of the United States (Republican, NY), Meeting at the White House with labor leaders, March 29, 1906
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time, it did seem impossible that labor and capital would ever have harmonious relations. But the notion that slavery would solve the problem is as preposterous as anything ever entered into the American political dialogue. But there were many in the South, and some in the North, who actually believed it. Even 150 years later, while labor and capital relations were much better than pre Civil War, they still could not be described as “harmonious” or “friendly”.
This statement from an avowed Marxist illustrates the complexity of the Cold War. Marxists and Communists like Pannekoek felt that there had to be a workers’ movement to overcome the capitalist interest in a nuclear arms race. However, they also believed that Russia had botched communism so badly that there could be no workers’ movement in the Soviet Union because of the repression. Only in America they believed could the impetus for disarmament come.
The second statement was made after he had been arrested and was in jail.
This quotation was reprinted and widely distributed by the CIO in its 1936 organizing drive of the Ford Motor Company
Ironically, this view was also held by many of the capitalist “Captains of American Industry” who believed that all unions were revolutionist regardless of the views of the union’s membership or leadership. Even today, there are some who still equate trade unionism with communism and revolution. The majority of the unions and the left never believed that, but the extreme communists and extreme capitalists did than and some do today.
Roosevelt shocked the conservative members of his own party with this statement. Labor unions were not then an accepted concept in American society. Anti trust legislation and enforcement was in its infancy and companies in an industry commonly conspired as to price fixing, labor negotiations and market share allocations. TR had a scrupulous sense of fairness and equity.
He had squads of thugs that he would “rent” out to other gangsters for their enforcement activities and to unions to protect themselves from goons and intimidate non union workers. However, he would not let his men work as goons and strike busters or for companies—despite huge pay offers—to keep their workers in line, a common practice at the time.
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.
