Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
The large corporations, commonly called trusts, though organized in one State, always do business in many States, often doing very little business in the State where they are incorporated. There is utter lack of uniformity in the State laws about them; and as no State has any exclusive interest in or power over their acts, it has in practice proved impossible to get adequate regulation through State action. Therefore, in the interest of the whole people, the Nation should, without interfering with the power of the States in the matter itself, also assume power of supervision and regulation over all corporations doing an interstate business.
Federal regulation of corporations involved in Interstate Commerce was then a “radical new notion”.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th President of the United States (Republican, NY) First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1901
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
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.
During The Depression although business in general was doing very poorly, there were a few which had grown immensely powerful and abused the power as there was little or no regulation at the time.
Actually, both political parties had a range of opinion on the issue of control of the trusts, monopolies and large corporations. Roosevelt and his liberal wing of the Republic opinion were for regulating corporations and strengthening and enforcing the anti-trust laws. However, many of his party refused to admit that there were any abuses and/or if there were, the effect of Federal regulation and anti-trust enforcement would be worse that then problems caused by the trusts. At the same time, the Democrats had Bryan’s wing that wanted to break up the trusts and large corporations, and that is why Roosevelt had so much public support—enough to pass the legislation and make the President’s initiatives very popular. Roosevelt a shrewd campaigner attacked the Democrats knowing full well that many agreed with him, and ignored the conservative wing of his own party who were the ones who actively opposed his corporate reform effort.
The issue was could a person from another state come into New Jersey and dredge oysters with the same rights and privileges as a citizen of New Jersey? Washington said, no.
The Chief Justice refused to accept the previously established legal precedents of other states which would limit considerably the right of the state to regulate corporations. As a result Wisconsin became one of America’s pioneers in regulating corporations which over 25 years later, Theodore Roosevelt was to do for the nation as a whole. The phrase “empire within an empire,” the translation of the Latin that Ryan used, has often been quoted to describe the power corporations had at that time.
The term “great corporations” had been in common use to indicate large corporations with no implications of quality as “great” would imply today. Search for “great corporations” to see the common usage.
The President and his new appointee were half joking but many of the large corporations were attacking the new department and its head frequently. The extreme conservatives used the technique of personally discrediting the head of the agency to discredit the agency and its activities. The President himself was so popular that they did not dare attack him.
Macdarland’s role was the equivalent of the Mayor of Washington DC. As an ally and apologist for McKinley, he felt that the President was doing the best he could to deal with the monopolies who were then keeping competitive capitalism from functioning properly. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt thought McKinley weak and vacillating especially on the “trusts”, and when he assumed the Presidency, he accomplished much more. TR however did not discover the Trust problem. As this quotation shows, there was general political awareness amongst the politicians of the day of the Trust/Monopoly problem in America. It was Roosevelt who did something about it to the distress of many of his own party leaders who had previously intimidated McKinley into inaction.
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.
