Why The Trusts And Bosses Oppose The Progressive Party
Performed by Theodore Roosevelt
Recorded September 22, 1912
Now this statement of Mr. Archbold
represents but part of the truth. Mr. Bliss did have
real and great influence with me. I respected him
and admired him. I should have paid heed to any request
or suggestion he made, would have carefully considered
it and would have earnestly desired to adopt it, if
I honorably could. But it is perfectly true that neither
Mr. Bliss nor any other human being ever had any influence
over me so far as concerned getting me to abandon
the prosecution of any corporation or any individual
engaged in wrong doing. To this extent, Mr. Archbolds
testimony is entirely true, and I call your attention
to the fact that Mr. Archbold and Mr. Penrose come
forward to testify against me only because at the
moment, I am heading the Progressive movement. Were
I a private citizen, it wouldnt enter their
heads to make any assault on me. They dislike me,
I grant you, and the longer I live the greater cause
I shall give them to dislike me. But that isnt
the fundamental motive thats influencing them.
The fundamental motive that induces them to act as
they have acted in this matter is, not merely that
they dislike me, but far more because they dread you.
They dread you, the people. You and those like you
who make up the people of the United States. They
know that their time has come once the people obtain
real power. We stand for the rights of the people.
We stand for the rights of the wage-worker. We stand
for his right to a living wage. We stand for the right
and duty of the government to limit the hours of women
in industry, to abolish child labor, to shape the
conditions of life and living so that the average
wage worker shall be able so to lead his own life
and so to support his wife and his children that these
children shall grow up into men and women fit for
the exacting duties of American citizenship. The big
trust magnates of the type of Mr. Archbold, the big
politicians of the old boss type so well represented
by Mr. Penrose, stand against the people. They object
to the government, to government being used primarily
in the interest of the people themselves. Naturally,
they will do all they can to breakdown the only real
enemies that they have and the only real champions,
the only real and efficient champions of popular right,
and economic, social, and industrial justice.