Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1920-02-06
FRIDAY, FEB. E. 1920.
ROOSEVELT AND BUSINESS
By Otto H. Kahn.

A S a business man it may not be inappropriate
"A that ] say few words concerning the late
Colonel Roosevelt's attitude toward business.
Contrary to the opinion held at one time by many
he was true friend to business as he was true
friend to every one of the callings which have e-
gtmate part in the makeup of their nations activ-
tiles. He fully realized the Importance to national
well-beng of the growth and prosperity of trade and
commerce. He appreciated the place of finance in
the scheme of things. He had due regard for the
tested lessons of sound economics.
He was no trained business man. but his unfailing
intuition OF what was right and and timely
vealed to him the need and the advantage and the
safe limits of reform in respect of business practices
and business conceptions which had grown up. nat
urally and almost necessarily during the surging per-
iod of immense material development which set in
with the close of the Civil War and which might be
termed Americas industrial pioneer period" He
saw that business had grown to exercise excessive
and IN certain aspects almost uncontrolled power, and
he knew that such power whenever, wherever and by
whomsoever exercised breeds abuse and is menace
both to the State and to those even who WELD it,
He determined to challenge that power, to impose
reasonable restraints and regulations upon it, He
believed that 1t were left to run its course unchecked
the inevitable result in due course of time, would be
avoleni reaction against it. big with the potentaties
OF great harm to the legitimate interests of business
as well as to the people at large and to American in
situations He framed his program without heat or
anlmoslty with that sure adoption of the means to
the end. with that practical common sense and that
avoidance of theories and extremes which always
characterized his mental processes and his actions in
office.
II took courage at that time to challenge seriously
the power of business. and to summon it to surrender
certain progressves which il had gradually acquired
and which it had come to regard as naturally and
IN III had has Lac, Il
definitely challenged before. What afterwards be-
came pastme that any one could indulge in with
impunlty and with supposed political advantage what
afterwards became business batting" and harrassing
bureaucratic over-regulation was an act of great
courage at the time and under the circumstances when
Roosevelt undertook it, and was kept by him within
such limitations as to make the measures for which
he stood appear conservative indeed compared to
those which were enacted subsequently,
He encouraged the cooperation of leading bust
ness men in framing and carrying out the measures
which he believed to be called for and which he was
convinced would prove ultimately for the best inter
ests OF business itself. They refused They believed
themselves strong enough to defeat his purpose They
tined to dssuade him. failing in which they set out to
antagonze and thwar him. They did not succeed,
but the consequence of their attitude was that bit
ter conflict was created between Colonel Roosevelt
and representatives of business and that as result
he felt himself called upon to resort to vigorous and
incisve appeals to public opinion, appeals which, in
the heat of battle, at times went beyond the mark.
Yet while the irritation and the heat, stress and
strain of the fight colored utterances and affected
his actions in individual cases at times. he never per-
mitted himself in the legislative measures which he
advocated and promoted to go beyond the bounds
of moderation and the limits OF reasonable correction
In the midst of hard blows given and taken, he re-
tanned his unfang sense of what was sane, balanced
fair, practicable, called for Vindictveness did not
enter into his program.
Each one of the measures for which he became