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Show I I ROOSEVELT AND BUSINESS H ? By Otto H. Kahn. AS a business man it may not be inappropriate that I say a few words concerning the late B Colonel Roosevelt's attitude toward business. m Contrary to the opinion held at one time by many M . lie was a true friend to business, as he was a true fl friend to every one of the callings which have a le-fl le-fl gitimatc part in the makeup of their nation's activ- H itics. Me fully realized the importance to national M well-being of the growth and prosperity of trade and M commerce. He appreciated the place of finance in M the scheme of things. He had due regard for the B i tested lessons of sound economics. m He was no trained business man, but his unfailing M intuition of what was right and sane and timely re-M re-M vcalcd to him the need and the advantage and the M safe limits of reform in respect of business practices M and business conceptions which had grown up, nat- H urally nnd almost necessarily, during the surging pcr- H iod of immense material development which set in M with the close of the Civil War and which might be M termed America's "industrial pioneer period." He H saw that business had grown to exercise excessive M and in certain aspects almost uncontrolled power, and 1 he knew that such power whenever, wherever and by B whomsoever exercised, breeds abuse and is a menace H both to the State and to those even who wield it. M Me determined to challenge that power, to impose 1 reasonable restraints and regulations upon it. He M ibclicvcd that if it were left to run its course unchecked M the inevitable result, in due course of time, would be m a violent reaction against it, big with the potentialities H of great harm to the legitimate interests of business M as well as to the people at large and to American in- M stitutions. He framed his program without heat or H animosity, with that sure adaption of the means to H the end, with that practical common sense and that H avoidance of theories and extremes which always H characterized his mental processes and his actions in H office. H It took courage at that time to challenge seriously H the power of business, and to summon it to surrender M certain progressives which it had gradually acquired 1 and which it had come to regard as naturally and m justly due to it. It had never been thus seriously and M definitely challenged before. What afterwards be- H came a pastime that any one could indulge in with M impunity and with supposed political advantage, what Hj aftenvards became "business baiting" and harrassing M bureaucratic over-regulation, was an act of great M courage at the time and under the circumstances when H Roosevelt undertook it, and was kept by him within H such limitations as to make the measures for which H he stood appear conservative indeed compared to M those which were enacted subsequently. H He encouraged the co-operation of leading busi- H ness men in framing and carrying out the measures H which he believed to be called for and which he was H convinced would prove ultimately for the best intcr- H ests of business itself. They refused. They believed H themselves strong enough to defeat his purpose. They H tried to dissuade him, failing in which they set out to B antagonize and thwart him. They did not succeed, H but the consequence of their attitude was that a bit- H tcr conflict was created between Colonel Roosevelt H and representatives of business, and that as a result H he felt himself called upon to resort to vigorous and H incisive appeals to public opinion, appeals which, in H the heat of battle, at times went beyond the mark. H Yet while the irritation and the heat, stress and H strain of the fight colored utterances and affected B his actions in individual cases at times, he never pcr- H nutted himself, in the legislative measures which he! H advocated and promoted, to go beyond the bounds H of moderation and the limits of reasonable correction. M In the midst of hard blows given and taken, he re- H tained his unfailing sense of what was sane, balanced, M , fair, practicable, called for. Vindictiveness did not H enter into his program. H f" ' Each one of the measures for which he became sponsor in the great reform movement which he inaugurated in-augurated has stood the test of time. None of them has harmed or impeded legitimate business, however big in scope. Business would not go back if it could to the conditions which, in certain respects, existed before the Roosevelt era. And just as he had the courage to tackle "big business" in the hey-dcy of its power and to devise and enforce restraints and remedies, so' he would have had the courage to tackle and bring under restraint re-straint any other element or combination which came to exercise a degree of power incompatible with the welfare and due balance of the community at large, and tended to become a law unto itself. It was my great honor and privilege to be consulted con-sulted by him from time to time, in the course of the f)ast few years, as to the economic and business prob-cms prob-cms of the day. I know, therefore, how his mind worked and his purposes shaped themselves in respect re-spect to these problems. And I know that if he had been called to the .leadership of the nation again, asj he undoubtedly would have been but for the national I calamity of his premature death, he would have build- j cd a structure in which hampering paternalism, out-l landish notions, visionary theories and class-serving' tendencies would have had no place, in which all con- j structivc forces would have had a free scope, and the clashing interests, distracting agitations and confusing aims and claims that arc harrassing the country would have found themselves under the dominance of a strong peace of even-handed and enlightened justice. just-ice. New York Times. |