Theodore Roosevelt. Five years ago, or
when he was still in office and had the power, he would not have
dared to make that statement. But he finds it politically safe and
expedient to make it now. It is not at all a radical statement. On
the contrary, it is simply the echo of E. H. Gary, that is to say,
John Pierpont Morgan, president of all the trusts.

"Mr. Roosevelt now proposes that Bismarck attempted in Germany
forty years ago to thwart the Socialist movement, and that is State
Socialism, so called, which is in fact the most despotic and
degrading form of capitalism.

"President Roosevelt, who is popularly supposed to be hostile to
the trusts, is in truth their best friend. He would have the
government, the capitalist government, of course, practically
operate the trusts and turn the profits over to their idle owners.
This would mean release from responsibility and immunity of
prosecution for the trust owners, _while at the same time the
government would have to serve as strikebreaker for the trust
owners_, and the armed forces of the government would be employed
to keep the working class in subjection.

"If this were possible, it would mark the halfway ground between
industrial despotism and industrial democracy. But it is not
possible, at least it is possible only temporarily, long enough to
demonstrate its failure. The expanding industrial forces now
transforming society, realigning political parties, and reshaping
the government itself cannot be fettered in any such artificial
arrangement as Mr. Roosevelt proposes. These forces, with the
rising and awakening working class in alliance with them, will
sweep all such barriers from the track of evolution until finally
they can find full expression in industrial freedom and social
democracy.

"In this scheme of State Socialism, or rather State capitalism, Mr.
Roosevelt fails to inform us how the idle owners of the trusts are
to function except as profit absorbers and parasites. In that
capacity they can certainly be dispensed with entirely and that is
precisely what will happen when the evolution now in progress
culminates in the reorganization of society."[77] (My italics.)

[72] Victor S. Clark, "The Labour Movement in Australasia."

[73] In her "American Socialism of the Present Day"