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.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 224lion in the white houseconsidered a form of gambling.He wanted the buying ofstocks to be as safe as putting money in a bank banks be-ing state regulated, at least.Then, to these hot-button de-mands, he added yet another new one: he wanted statecourts curbed.They had for too long favored large corpo-rations and trusts at the expense of labor in disputes.But the Congress was dubious about his radical sugges-tions.By late 1907, after Roosevelt stabilized the panic-stricken economy, the Congress was unwilling to upset bigbusiness, the rich, and conservatives, or the old ways of do-ing things.Roosevelt had badly lacerated the laissez-fairegovernmental engine, but it had not died.Congress wouldnot engage in any more reforms despite progressive rum-blings from reformers, farmers, and industrial laborers.These classes were joined in their bootless quests withmany educated intellectuals who were following the build-ing of welfare states abroad.A few of them were even read-ing Marx.The last year of Roosevelt s eventful presidency wasmarked by bitter legislative antagonism and even an at-tempt to censure the president.Then there was the reac-tionary work of the courts.There were reversals of majorantitrust decisions as well as the striking down of social leg-islation workers compensation, for example.(Employerswould no longer be responsible for worker injuries.) Allthese retrogressive actions fired up counterattacks by Roo-sevelt against congressional inaction and the courts for theirusing legal fictions to invalidate laws.Roosevelt, undeterred by attempts to clip his wings andoperating under executive discretion, kept up the battle.He wanted the progressive wing of the Republicans todominate the party and carry forward for a generation.224 0465010240-Donald.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 225The Imperial YearsThe President and First Lady, 1908These progressives would not be the wealthy class.Theywere the common men who worked for a living and wereentrepreneurial.He wanted progressives who were reform-ers to govern.Their strength was that they acknowledgedproblems and worked to solve them.He offered his activeleadership as the model for a Republican president.Thechief executive must have a proven character and must be225 0465010240-Donald.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 226lion in the white houseimbued with the notion that he has obligations to the richand the poor (an 1899 Roosevelt statement).He must bal-ance class interests, respect and protect all races and creeds,protect the nation s natural bounty, keep the nation de-fended through strength, and take his place in the world asa respected leader and peacemaker.As Roosevelt s presidency wound down, opinion mak-ers were at work assessing his foreign and domestic poli-cies.Democrats charged him with being militaristic andinterventionist (charges that still find their way into mod-ern biographies).Roosevelt always defended his armamentprograms and forward military actions as preventive.Hebelieved foreign policy was sustained by a force in being,as well as by good intentions. His guide was never todraw unless you mean to shoot. His record shows that,over and over again, in response to European imperial ac-tions, he chose negotiation and order over conflict.Hekept his major interventions within the Caribbean basin,always trying to convince the American people that it wasin their national interest to keep countries democratic andstable.A prime concern was Cuba, whose fledgling de-mocracy seemed always in peril.Its 1903 constitution al-lowed the United States to intervene; only reluctantly didRoosevelt invade the island in 1906 when its corrupt gov-ernment became unstable and violence broke out.(Thetroops left in 1909.) That year he also sent troops to twoother small Caribbean countries, Santo Domingo andHonduras, to stabilize them and protect life and property.A true military leader would probably have tried to con-quer these nations and attach them to the United States.Roosevelt never contemplated taking new lands after theSpanish-American War acquisitions.226 0465010240-Donald.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 227The Imperial YearsRoosevelt also eschewed militarism when he becameinterested in international arbitration treaties and navaldisarmament.Over the years, he had submitted arbitrationtreaties that gave the president the powers to initiate arbi-tration on his own.The Senate rejected them and did notapprove this initiative until after his presidency, and only ifit was consulted first.Roosevelt believed that the chief ex-ecutive needed independence in dealing with foreign pow-ers and that the legislature was ill suited for such a task.And he was willing to establish precedents for his succes-sors to follow.There was a meeting on arbitration issues,but this First Hague Conference failed.European powers, heedful only of their own needs intheir smoldering cockpit, pressed ahead in their attemptsto avoid war and called for a Second Hague Conference.Itmet in 1907, and Roosevelt was most interested in theagenda item on naval disarmament.He calculated that itwould be to his country s advantage to freeze naval ship-building to keep the militaristic Japanese as the fifth navalpower, with England first and America second.But all thegrand ideas for peace and for keeping, or for restoring, thebalance of power found little support.The second confer-ence also failed.Roosevelt s inventiveness in governing continued to thelast.He added to his legacy on the environment by propos-ing a regional combination to protect nature.He called aconference of governors to discuss common action.Thestates, combining regionally, could do as much as a federallaw could accomplish to protect the nation s natural re-sources.It was a new blueprint for future environmentalinitiatives.Regionalism was born in the progressive wingof the Republican Party.The call for action was so ahead of227 0465010240-Donald [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 224lion in the white houseconsidered a form of gambling.He wanted the buying ofstocks to be as safe as putting money in a bank banks be-ing state regulated, at least.Then, to these hot-button de-mands, he added yet another new one: he wanted statecourts curbed.They had for too long favored large corpo-rations and trusts at the expense of labor in disputes.But the Congress was dubious about his radical sugges-tions.By late 1907, after Roosevelt stabilized the panic-stricken economy, the Congress was unwilling to upset bigbusiness, the rich, and conservatives, or the old ways of do-ing things.Roosevelt had badly lacerated the laissez-fairegovernmental engine, but it had not died.Congress wouldnot engage in any more reforms despite progressive rum-blings from reformers, farmers, and industrial laborers.These classes were joined in their bootless quests withmany educated intellectuals who were following the build-ing of welfare states abroad.A few of them were even read-ing Marx.The last year of Roosevelt s eventful presidency wasmarked by bitter legislative antagonism and even an at-tempt to censure the president.Then there was the reac-tionary work of the courts.There were reversals of majorantitrust decisions as well as the striking down of social leg-islation workers compensation, for example.(Employerswould no longer be responsible for worker injuries.) Allthese retrogressive actions fired up counterattacks by Roo-sevelt against congressional inaction and the courts for theirusing legal fictions to invalidate laws.Roosevelt, undeterred by attempts to clip his wings andoperating under executive discretion, kept up the battle.He wanted the progressive wing of the Republicans todominate the party and carry forward for a generation.224 0465010240-Donald.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 225The Imperial YearsThe President and First Lady, 1908These progressives would not be the wealthy class.Theywere the common men who worked for a living and wereentrepreneurial.He wanted progressives who were reform-ers to govern.Their strength was that they acknowledgedproblems and worked to solve them.He offered his activeleadership as the model for a Republican president.Thechief executive must have a proven character and must be225 0465010240-Donald.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 226lion in the white houseimbued with the notion that he has obligations to the richand the poor (an 1899 Roosevelt statement).He must bal-ance class interests, respect and protect all races and creeds,protect the nation s natural bounty, keep the nation de-fended through strength, and take his place in the world asa respected leader and peacemaker.As Roosevelt s presidency wound down, opinion mak-ers were at work assessing his foreign and domestic poli-cies.Democrats charged him with being militaristic andinterventionist (charges that still find their way into mod-ern biographies).Roosevelt always defended his armamentprograms and forward military actions as preventive.Hebelieved foreign policy was sustained by a force in being,as well as by good intentions. His guide was never todraw unless you mean to shoot. His record shows that,over and over again, in response to European imperial ac-tions, he chose negotiation and order over conflict.Hekept his major interventions within the Caribbean basin,always trying to convince the American people that it wasin their national interest to keep countries democratic andstable.A prime concern was Cuba, whose fledgling de-mocracy seemed always in peril.Its 1903 constitution al-lowed the United States to intervene; only reluctantly didRoosevelt invade the island in 1906 when its corrupt gov-ernment became unstable and violence broke out.(Thetroops left in 1909.) That year he also sent troops to twoother small Caribbean countries, Santo Domingo andHonduras, to stabilize them and protect life and property.A true military leader would probably have tried to con-quer these nations and attach them to the United States.Roosevelt never contemplated taking new lands after theSpanish-American War acquisitions.226 0465010240-Donald.qxd:Layout 1 8/25/08 5:36 PM Page 227The Imperial YearsRoosevelt also eschewed militarism when he becameinterested in international arbitration treaties and navaldisarmament.Over the years, he had submitted arbitrationtreaties that gave the president the powers to initiate arbi-tration on his own.The Senate rejected them and did notapprove this initiative until after his presidency, and only ifit was consulted first.Roosevelt believed that the chief ex-ecutive needed independence in dealing with foreign pow-ers and that the legislature was ill suited for such a task.And he was willing to establish precedents for his succes-sors to follow.There was a meeting on arbitration issues,but this First Hague Conference failed.European powers, heedful only of their own needs intheir smoldering cockpit, pressed ahead in their attemptsto avoid war and called for a Second Hague Conference.Itmet in 1907, and Roosevelt was most interested in theagenda item on naval disarmament.He calculated that itwould be to his country s advantage to freeze naval ship-building to keep the militaristic Japanese as the fifth navalpower, with England first and America second.But all thegrand ideas for peace and for keeping, or for restoring, thebalance of power found little support.The second confer-ence also failed.Roosevelt s inventiveness in governing continued to thelast.He added to his legacy on the environment by propos-ing a regional combination to protect nature.He called aconference of governors to discuss common action.Thestates, combining regionally, could do as much as a federallaw could accomplish to protect the nation s natural re-sources.It was a new blueprint for future environmentalinitiatives.Regionalism was born in the progressive wingof the Republican Party.The call for action was so ahead of227 0465010240-Donald [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]