Teddy Roosevelt

In farming, this simply means that we wish to see the farmer own his own land; we do not wish to see the farms so large that they become the property of absentee landlords who farm them by tenants, nor yet so small that the farmer becomes…

As far as possible I hope to see a frank recognition of the advantages conferred by machinery, organization, and division of labor, accompanied by an effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage-worker of railway, mill and…

It is not in peril from any man who derives authority from the people, who exercises it in sight of the people, and who is from time to time compelled to give an account of its exercise to the people.

Democracy is in peril wherever the administration of political power is scattered among a variety of men who work in secret, whose very names are unknown to the common people.

Power scattered through many administrators, many legislators, many men who work behind and through legislators and administrators, is impalpable, is unseen, is irresponsible, can not be reached, can not be held to account.

Concentrated power is palpable, visible, responsible, easily reached, quickly held to account.

It lies in having the power insufficiently concentrated, so that no one can be held responsible to the people for its use.

The danger to American democracy lies not in the least in the concentration of administrative power in responsible and accountable hands.

We no more believe in that empiricism which demand, absolutely unrestrained individualism than we do in that empiricism which clamors for a deadening socialism which would destroy all individual initiative and would ruin the country with a…

The power already exists; it does not have to be created; the only question is whether it shall be used or left idle--and meanwhile the corporations over which the power ought to be exercised will not remain idle.

There should be National as well as State guardianship of mines and forests.

There should be short time franchises for all corporations engaged in public business; including the corporations which get power from water rights.

There should be regulation by the National Government of the great interstate corporations, including a simple method of account keeping, publicity, supervision of the issue securities, abolition of rebates, and of special privileges.

But there is legislation which the Federal Government alone can enact and which is absolutely vital in order to secure the attainment of our purpose.

We believe that the administration should be for the benefit of the many; and that greed and rascality, practiced on a large scale, should be punished as relentlessly as if practiced on a small scale.

We believe that with concentration in administration there can come both be advantage of a larger ownership and of a more equitable distribution of profits, and at the same time a better service to the commonwealth.

We do not object to the concentration of wealth and administration; but we do believe in the distribution of the wealth in profits to the real owners, and in securing to the public the full benefit of the concentrated administration.

On the contrary, they favor both, with the all important proviso that there shall be such publicity about their workings, and such thoroughgoing control over them, as to insure their being in the interest, and not against the interest, of…

Those who believe in efficient national control, on the other hand, do not in the least object to combinations; do not in the least object to concentration in business administration.

The truth is that we who believe in this movement of asserting and exercising a genuine control, in the public interest, over these great corporations have to contend against two sets of enemies, who, though nominally opposed to one…

I believe that the more farsighted corporations are themselves coming to recognize the unwisdom of the violent hostility they have displayed during the last few years to regulation and control by the National Government of combinations…

The Central Government is the only power which, without oppression, can nevertheless thoroughly and adequately control and supervise the large corporations.

Such divided authority can not regulate commerce with wisdom and effect.

If this irresponsible outside business power is to be controlled in the interest of the general public it can only be controlled in one way--by giving adequate power of control to the one sovereignty capable of exercising such power--the…

The proposal to make the National Government supreme over, and therefore to give it complete control over, the railroads and other instruments of interstate commerce is merely a proposal to carry out to the letter one of the prime…