The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-06-17
ROOSEVELT SPEAKS
FOR INDUSTRIAL
DEMOCRACY NOW
Former President Declares that
Big Men Must Be
Curbed.

NEW YORK. June 17.-DiscuSs1on OF
the political problems confronting the
country through the development OF
power by large corporations is made in
vigorous Language by former President
Theodore Roosevelt in his article in this
weeks Outlook.
Taking for his subject 1.-THE Thraldom
OF Names" Mr.. Roosevelt says it be-
hooves our people never to be misled
by designing people who appeal to he
reverence for, or antipathy toward, a
given name In order to achieve some
alien The rule of a mob, he
declares, may be as t%yrannical and op-
pressive as the rule of a single in
dfviduaa, and the rule of an oligarchy,
whether this oligarchy is a plutocracy
or q Bureaucracy, may be as sordid n
bap0dtfarsty as that of a mob, but he
NIB lsSdars usually state that all that
they are doing is necessary in order to
advance the cause of liberty while
the dictator and oligarchy are usually
defended upon the ground that the
course they follow is absolutely neces-
ea<y SO as to secur order" Z
MANY excellent people are taken IN
by the use of the word liberty at the
one time" says the ex-President, land
the-use Of the word order at the other,
and ignore the simple fact that despot-
ism Is despotism, whether COM
oppression oppression, whether COM
mitted by one individual or by many In
dfviduals, by a State or by a private
corporation. All forms Of tyranny and
cruelty must alike be condemned by
honest men
I'VE, in this country, have been very
fortunate. Thanks to the teaching and
the practise of the men whom we most
revere as leaders, of the men like Wash
ington and Lincoln, we have hitherto
escaped the twin CULTS of ~despotisrn
and mob rule, and we have never been
in any danger from the worst forms of
religious bitterness. But we should
therefore be all the more careful, as we
dea1 with industrial and social prob
lens, not to fall into mistakes similar
to those which nave brought lasting
disaster on less fortunately situated
peoples.
we must beware, above all things,
of being misled by wicked or foolish
men who would condone homicide and
violence, and apologize for the dyna-
inter and the assassin because, for
eooth. they choose to take the ground
that crime is no crime If the wicked
nan happens also to have been a shift
less and unthrifty or lazy man who
has new maese property.
sit Il essential that we should wrest
the control of the government out of the
hands of rich men, who use 1T for I'M
healthy purposes, and should keep 1t out
Of their handsJ and to this end the first
requisite is to provide means adequately
to deal with corporations, which are
essential to modern business, but which,
under the decisions of the courts, and
because of the short-sightedness Of the
public. rave become the chief factors
in political and business debasement.
But II would be just as bad to put the
control of the government into the
hands Of demagogues and Missionaries,
who seek to panJer to ignorance and
prejudice by penalizing thrift and bust
ness enterprise, and running all men of
means, with, as an attendant result, the
ruin of the entire community.
Those who advocate total lack of
regulation, those who advocate lawless-
ness in the business world, themselves
give n strongest impulse to what 1
believe would be the deadening love-
ment toward State socialism.
"There must be law to control the big
men, and, therefore, especially the big
corporations, In the Industrial world, In
the interest of our Industrial democracy
Of today. This law must be efficient,
and, therefore, 1T must he administered
by executive officers, and not by law
suits of the courts. II this is not done.
the agitation to increase nj of all
measure the share of the government in
this work will receive an enormous I'M
petus, The movement for government
control of the great business corpora
ions is no more a movement against
liberty, han a movement to put a stop
TO violence is a movement against lib
erty.
HThe hinge irresponsible corporation
which demands liberty from the super
vision Of government agents stands ON
b same ground ms the less dangerous
criminal of the streets who wishes lib
erty from police interference
The ex-Presddent closes with a direct
reference to newspapers. yet another
thing" he says. mo movement ever
has done or ever viii do good In this
country where assault IL made not upon
evil wherever found. but simply upon
VII as It happens to be found in "a par
ocular CLASH