Such an attitude on the part of a man like Roosevelt could not fail to
be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and assailed. Toward the end of his
Presidential career, when he was attacking with peculiar vigor the
"malefactors of great wealth" whom the Government had found it necessary
to punish for their predatory acts in corporate guise, it was gently
intimated by certain defenders of privilege that he was insane. At other
times, when he was insisting upon justice even to men who had achieved
material success, he was placed by the more rabid of the radical
opponents of privilege in the hierarchy of the worshipers of the
golden calf. His course along the middle of the onward way exposed him
peculiarly to the missiles of invective and scorn from the partisans on
either side. But neither could drive him into the arms of the other.

The best evidence of the soundness of the strategy with which he
assailed the enemies of the common good, with whirling war-club but with
scrupulous observance of the demands of justice and fair play, is to
be found in the measure of what he actually achieved. He did arouse
the popular mind and sting the popular conscience broad awake. He
did enforce the law without fear or favor. He did leave upon the
statute-book and in the machinery of government new means and methods
for the control of business and for the protection of the general
welfare against predatory wealth.

CHAPTER VIII. THE SQUARE DEAL FOR LABOR

It should go without saying that Roosevelt was vigorously and deeply
concerned with the relations between capital and labor, for he was
interested in everything that concerned the men and women of America,
everything that had to do with human relations. From the very beginning
of his public life he had been a champion of the workingman when the
workingman needed defense against exploitation and injustice. But his
advocacy of the workers' rights was never demagogic nor partial. In
industrial relations, as in the relations between business and the
community, he believed in the square deal. The rights of labor and
the rights of capital must, he firmly held, be respected each by the
other--and the rights of the public by both.

Roosevelt believed thoroughly in trade unions. He realized that one of
the striking accompaniments of the gigantic developments in business
and industry of the past few generations was a gross inequality in the
bargaining relation between the employer and the indiv