E NEW FREEDOM"

In his book "The New Freedom," and in the magazine articles of which
it is composed, which appeared just after he had been inaugurated as
President, Mr. Woodrow Wilson made an entirely unprovoked attack upon
me and upon the Progressive party in connection with what he asserts
the policy of that party to be concerning the trusts, and as regards my
attitude while President about the trusts.

I am reluctant to say anything whatever about President Wilson at the
outset of his Administration unless I can speak of him with praise.
I have scrupulously refrained from saying or doing one thing
since election that could put the slightest obstacle, even of
misinterpretation, in his path. It is to the interest of the country
that he should succeed in his office. I cordially wish him success, and
I shall cordially support any policy of his that I believe to be in the
interests of the people of the United States. But when Mr. Wilson, after
being elected President, within the first fortnight after he has been
inaugurated into that high office, permits himself to be betrayed into
a public misstatement of what I have said, and what I stand for, then he
forces me to correct his statements.

Mr. Wilson opens his article by saying that the Progressive "doctrine is
that monopoly is inevitable, and that the only course open to the people
of the United States is to submit to it." This statement is without one
particle of foundation in fact. I challenge him to point out a sentence
in the Progressive platform or in any speech of mine which bears him
out. I can point him out any number which flatly contradict him. We have
never made any such statement as he alleges about monopolies. We have
said: "The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The
concentration of modern business, in some degree, is both inevitable and
necessary for National and international business efficiency." Does Mr.
Wilson deny this? Let him answer yes or no, directly. It is easy for
a politician detected in a misstatement to take refuge in evasive
rhetorical hyperbole. But Mr. Wilson is President of the United States,
and as such he is bound to candid utterance on every subject of public
interest which he himself has broached. If he disagrees with us, let him
be frank and consistent, and recommend to Congress that all corporations
be made illegal. Mr. Wilson's whole attack is largely based on a deft
but far from ingenuous confounding of what w