Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-04-16
The Muck Rake Brigade"===by Theodore Roosevelt

trusted honestly to protect the rights
of the public against the misdeed of
"a corporation is - : At public man wbQ
will just as surely protect the corpor-
alton itself from wrongful aggression.
If public man is willing to yield to
popular clamor and do wrong to the
men of wealth or to rich corporations,
! it may be set down as certain that if
the opportunity comes he will secretly
and fl1rtively do wrong to the public
in the interest of corporation
But, in addition to honesty, we need
sanity. No honesty will make a pub
lie man useful if that man is timid' or
foolish, if he is a hot-headed zealot
or an impracticable visionary. AS we
strive for reform we find that it is
not at all merely the cause of long
uphill pull. On the contrary, there is
almost as much OF breeching work as
of collar work; to depend only on
traces means that there will soon be
a runaway and an upset. The men of
wealth who today are trying to pre-
vent the regulation and control of
their business in the interest of the
public by the proper government au-
thorities will not succeed, in my judg-
ment, in checking the progress of the
movement. But if they did succeed
they would find that they had sown
the wind and would surely reap the
whirlwind, for they would ultimately
provoke the violent excuses which
accompany reform coming by con-
vulsion instead of by steady and natur-
al growth.
On the other hand, the wild preach
ers of unrest and discomfort, the wild
agitators against the entire existing
order, the men who act crookeday,
whether because of sinister design
or from mere puzzleheadedness the
men who preach destruction without
proposing any substitute for what
they intend to destroy, or who pro-
pose a substitute which would be far
worse than the existing evil-aH these
men are the most dangerous oppon-
ents of real reform. If they get their
way they will lead the people into a
deeper pit than any into which they
could fall under the present system.
If they fail to get their way they. win
still do incalculable harm by pro-
yoking the kind of reaction, which i'm
its revolt against the senseless evil
of their teaching, would enthrone
more securely than ever the very evils
which their misguided followers be
lieve they are attacking
More important than ought else. is
the development of the broadcast SYM
pathy of man for man The welfare
|of the wage worker, the welfare OF
the tiller of the soil, upon these de
pend the welfare of the entire eoun-
try; their good is not to be sought in
pulling down others: but their good
must be the prime object of all our
[statesmansh
Materially We must strive to secure
a broader economic opportunity for
all men, SO that each shall have bet
ter chance to show the stuff of which
he is made Spiritually and officially
We must strive to bring about clean
living and right thinking We appre-
ciate that the things of the body are
| Import but we appreciate ALEC
that the: things OF the soul are Inn
measurable more important The
Foundation stone OF national life Is.
and ever must Do, the high ind yfdua
character oe The average citizen.