They claimed that business was sound and honest, and the
upheaval was caused by the agitation of demagogues. The President, they
asserted, had destroyed confidence by his attack on the commercial
class. Federal prosecutions, new laws, and the enforcement of
inquisitorial pure-food regulations had made it impossible for business
to live. "Let us alone," they cried.

They convinced only themselves, a small minority of the people of the
United States. Since 1902 the people as a body, regardless of the great
parties, had opened their eyes to the trend of business and had decided
that public authority must be summoned to the defense of democracy. The
independent vote broke away from each party in increasingly numerous
cases. The old American view that democracy meant unrestrained
individualism had given way to the newer view that democratic
opportunity was dependent upon the restriction of monopoly. The
ostensible leaders, from the President down, were only the mouths that
spoke the new language. Without them the same condition would have
existed in large degree. The attack of the financial interests and Wall
Street upon the President only convinced the people that the Roosevelt
policies were, on the whole, their policies, and that individual
interest and party machinery must give way to their attainment.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The periodicals and special articles alluded to in this chapter
constitute the best sources as yet available for the period. There were
numerous investigations by committees of Congress that furnished facts
in their reports. Certain of the departments of government, notably the
Bureau of Corporations and the Department of Agriculture, were active in
the publication of facts. Thoughtful surveys of society in the United
States may be found in E.A. Ross, _Changing America_ (1912); H. Croly,
_The Promise of American Life_ (1909); A.B. Hart, _National Ideals
Historically Traced_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 26, 1907). The
autobiography of R.M. LaFollette is of considerable value. A great
number of books upon America by foreign visitors bring out special
viewpoints. Among these are F. Klein, _In the Land of the Strenuous
Life_ (1905); A. Bennett, _Your United States_ (1912); W. Archer,
_America To-Day_ (1899); Anon., _As a Chinaman Saw Us_ (1904); and James
Bryce has revised and brought down to date his _American Commonwealth_.

CHAPTER XX

NEW NATIONALISM

The process of adjusting nati