The position is, therefore, in the interest of peace as well as in the interest of justice.
Teddy Roosevelt
The Public Record
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. A member of the Republican Party, he was born on October 27, 1858, in New York. Roosevelt was a prominent leader of the Progressive Movement, advocating for domestic policies that included trust-busting, regulation of corporations, and conservation of natural resources. His administration is noted for significant reforms and the establishment of national parks and forests.
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Moreover, for the United States to take such a position offers the only possible way of ensuring us against a clash with some foreign power.
To do so ensures the defaulting republic from having to pay debts of an improper character under duress, while it also ensures honest creditors of the republic from being passed by in the interest of dishonest or grasping creditors.
There are of course limits to the wrongs which any self-respecting nation can endure.
Not only we, but all American Republics who are benefited by the existence of the Doctrine, must recognize the obligations each nation is under as regards foreign peoples no less than its duty to insist upon its own rights.
When we announce a policy, such as the Monroe Doctrine, we thereby commit ourselves to the consequences of the policy, and those consequences from time to time alter.
It is useful at home, and is meeting with recognition abroad because we have adapted our application of it to meet the growing and changing needs of the Hemisphere.
If we had refused to apply the Doctrine to changing conditions it would now be completely outworn, would not meet any of the needs of the present day, and indeed would probably by this time have sunk into complete oblivion.
But while recognizing most clearly all above set forth, it remains our clear duty to strive in every practicable way to bring nearer the time when the sword shall not be the arbiter among nations.
A man does not have to defend his rights with his own hand, because he can call upon the police, upon the sheriff’s posse, upon the militia, or in certain extreme cases upon the Army, to defend him.
The private citizen is protected in his rights by the law, because the law rests in the last resort upon force exercised through the forms of law.
Peace is normally the handmaiden of righteousness; but when peace and righteousness conflict then a great and upright people can never for a moment hesitate to follow the path which leads toward righteousness, even though that path also…
While none of these inquiries have yet progressed far enough to warrant final conclusions, they have already confirmed and emphasized the general impression that the organization of the Departments is often faulty in principle and wasteful…
Society can not exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there be within the more there must be without.
There is need of full knowledge on which to base action looking toward State and municipal legislation for the protection of working women.
Over five million American women are now engaged in gainful occupations; yet there is an almost complete dearth of data upon which to base any trustworthy conclusions as regards a subject as important as it is vast and complicated.
The Department of Commerce and Labor should also make a thorough investigation of the conditions of women in industry.
The inspection service has fully demonstrated its usefulness, and in appropriating for its maintenance the Congress should make provision for an increase in the number of inspectors.
The Government’s most effective aid in arriving at this result has been its inspection service, and that these improved conditions are not more general is due to the insufficient number of inspectors employed.
We wish to ensure as fair treatment for the small town as for the big city; for the small shipper as for the big shipper.
We judge a man by his conduct—that is, by his character—and not by his wealth or intellect.
Illegal transactions often occur under the forms of law.
Much has been accomplished; particularly marked has been the moral effect of the prosecutions; but it is increasingly evident that there will be a very insufficient beneficial result in the way of economic change.
If this proves impossible, it will certainly be necessary ultimately to confer in fullest form such power upon the National Government by a proper amendment of the Constitution.
In order to ensure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct.
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