Robert M. La Follette Quotes

The executive [President] could have saved the people from the appalling conditions which confront us today, if all the power of this government had been put forth to enforce the [Sherman] Anti-Trust law.

[The excessive] evils associated with [unregulated] competition [came about] through the shameful neglect of government to fulfill its primary function of protecting equal rights and enforcing justice.]

The people were told in the last campaign that trusts [corporate monopolies] were a natural evolution, and that the only way to deal with them was to regulate them. The people are tired of being told such things. What they want is the kind of opportunity that formerly existed in this country.

I insist that the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," applies as much to the monopolist as to the highwayman.

Theodore Roosevelt understood that unregulated monopoly could pose an even greater threat than unrestrained government.

As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the nation's masters.

What we call Monopoly is Business at the end of its journey. The concentration of wealth, the wiping out of the middle classes, are other names for it. To get it is, in the world of affairs, the chief end of man.

Monopolies, whether private or governmental, are always abused by those who hold them.

… the rules of big business … have superseded the teachings of our parents and are reducible to a simple maxim: Get a monopoly; let Society work for you: and remember that the best of all business is politics, for a legislative grant, franchise, subsidy or tax exemption is worth more than a Kimberly or Comstock lode, since it does not require any labor, either mental or physical, for its exploitation”

There are persons who constantly clamor. They complain of oppression, speculation, and pernicious influence of wealth. They cry out loudly against all banks and corporations, and a means by which small capitalists become united in order to produce important and beneficial results. They carry on mad hostility against all established institutions. They would choke the fountain of industry and dry all streams.

[The beef trust is] an atrocious conspiracy of greed against need…. Can anyone deny that such absolute control by a few men over the food supply of the nation is in the highest degree hostile to the public welfare.

Markets, when left to themselves, can sort of slip into being just the private property of big businesses and cartels, meeting the needs of some businesses and not the needs of customers.

I think big business is a terrible thing for the spirit of the country, as our spirit is the best thing about us.

After we have calmly stood by and allowed monopolies to grow fat, we should not be asked to make them bloated.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by 'unbridled' you mean unregulated.

Combinations [large corporate conglomerates], governed entirely by the law of greed … threaten the integrity of our institutions.

Private enterprise is ceasing to be free enterprise. Private enterprise indeed became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise

The so-called anti-trust laws were intended to prevent the creation of monopolies and to forbid unreasonable profits to those monopolies

In this country in colonial days the laws were very strict against combinations and contracts in restraint of trade. But here again there was a gradual amelioration of the laws, until co-operation was permitted along many lines, including division of territory, limitation of output, and even fixing of prices; provided always that, as a result of the co-operation, the combinations or contracts did not result in monopoly, were not general, were not immoral, and were not contrary to public policy.

We ... deceive ourselves in believing that competition can secure for the public fair treatment in such cases.

The only way you can stop the unregulated monopoly ... from gouging ... is to introduce competition.

[Monopolies are:] ... the bane of our body politic at the present day.

[Americans are] trampled to death beneath the iron heel [of monopolies and trusts.]

The trusts and combinations—the communism of self—whose machinations have prevented us from reaching the success we deserved, should not be forgotten or forgiven.

The issue is whether the trusts or the people shall rule …whether the Railroad [Louisville & Nashville Railroad] is the servant or the master of the people.