d at the opening of the New York
Stock Exchange at ten o'clock that morning. Fortunately Roosevelt
never shilly-shallied when a crisis confronted him. His decision was
instantaneous. He assured his callers that while, of course, he could
not advise them to take the action, proposed, he felt that he had no
public duty to interpose any objection.

This assurance was quite sufficient. The pure chase was made and
announced, the firm in question did not fail, and the panic was
arrested. The immediate reaction of practically the whole country was
one of relief. It was only later, when the danger was past, that critics
began to make themselves heard. Any one who had taken the trouble
to ascertain the facts would have known beyond question that the
acquisition of the Tennessee properties was not sufficient to change
the status of the Steel Corporation under the anti-trust law. But the
critics did not want to know the facts. They wanted--most of them, at
least--to have a stick with which to beat Roosevelt. Besides, many of
them did not hold Roosevelt's views about the square deal. Their belief
was that whatever big business did was ipso facto evil and that it was
the duty of public officials to find out what big business wanted to do
and then prevent its accomplishment.

Under a later Administration, Roosevelt was invited to come before a
Congressional investigating committee to explain what he did in this
famous case. There he told the complete story of the occurrence simply,
frankly, and emphatically, and ended with this statement: "If I were on
a sailboat, I should not ordinarily meddle with any of the gear; but if
a sudden squall struck us, and the main sheet jammed, so that the boat
threatened to capsize, I would unhesitatingly cut the main sheet, even
though I were sure that the owner, no matter how grateful to me at the
moment for having saved his life, would a few weeks later, when he had
forgotten his danger and his fear, decide to sue me for the value of
the cut rope. But I would feel a hearty contempt for the owner who so
acted."

Two laws passed during the second Roosevelt Administration had an
important bearing on the conduct of American business, though in a
different way from those which have already been considered. They were
the Pure Food law, and the Meat Inspection act. Both were measures for
the protection of the public health; but both were at the same time
measures for the control of private business. Th