best friend and keenest student from
across the seas, was able to say that in a long life, during which he
had studied intimately the government of many different countries, he
had never in any country seen a more eager, high-minded, and efficient
set of public servants, men more useful and more creditable to their
country, than the men then doing the work of the American Government in
Washington and in the field.

CHAPTER VII. THE SQUARE DEAL FOR BUSINESS

During the times of Roosevelt, the American people were profoundly
concerned with the trust problem. So was Roosevelt himself. In this
important field of the relations between "big business" and the people
he had a perfectly definite point of view, though he did not have a cut
and dried programme. He was always more interested in a point of view
than in a programme, for he realized that the one is lasting, the other
shifting. He knew that if you stand on sound footing and look at a
subject from the true angle, you may safely modify your plan of action
as often and as rapidly as may be necessary to fit changing conditions.
But if your footing is insecure or your angle of vision distorted, the
most attractive programme in the world may come to ignominious disaster.

There were, broadly speaking, three attitudes toward the trust problem
which were strongly held by different groups in the United States. At
one extreme was the threatening growl of big business, "Let us alone!"
At the other pole was the shrill outcry of William Jennings Bryan and
his fellow exhorters, "Smash the trusts!" In the golden middle ground
was the vigorous demand of Roosevelt for a "square deal."

In his first message to Congress, the President set forth his point of
view with frankness and clarity. His comprehensive discussion of
the matter may be summarized thus: The tremendous and highly complex
industrial development which went on with great rapidity during the
latter half of the nineteenth century produced serious social problems.
The old laws and the old customs which had almost the binding force
of law were once quite sufficient to regulate the accumulation and
distribution of wealth. Since the industrial changes which have so
enormously increased the productive power of mankind, these regulations
are no longer sufficient. The process of the creation of great corporate
fortunes has aroused much antagonism; but much of this, antagonism has
been without warrant. There have been, it is