Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at WashingtonGilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)
History
Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at Washington
Gilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)
Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaliel), 1865-1923; United States -- Politics and government -- 1921-1923
The revolution which Mr. Roosevelt brought about was the kind which
exclaims loudly "malefactors of great wealth" while writing to Mr.
Harriman "we are both practical men." It was the kind of revolution this
country desired. The nation wished to eat its cake and have it, to
retain government by business and have alongside it another government,
as powerful, as interesting, as colorful, as rich in personalities, as
the late autumn of pioneering had brought into gorgeous bloom.
Mr. Roosevelt's method with the new government was this: Senator Aldrich
and Speaker Cannon representing the still powerful coexistent government
by business in Congress, would call at the White House and tell the
President just how far he could go and no further. They would emerge. A
moment later the press in response to a summons would arrive. Mr.
Roosevelt would say: "I have just sent for Mr. Aldrich and Mr. Cannon
and forced them to accept my policy, etc." Nobody was deceived. Unlike
the philosopher who made all knowledge his province, Mr. Roosevelt made
all knowledge his playground, and not only all knowledge but all the
arts, including the art of government.
In Mr. Roosevelt's day the two governments, government by business and
political government, existed side by side, of about equal proportions;
and no one really wished either to overtop the other. We were indulging
in revolution with our customary prudence.
The human passion for equality which had risen against the last of those
dominant figures, the last and greatest of the pioneers, and started to
set up representatives of the public as great as they were, was
singularly fortunate in its first manifestations. It "found a man," in
that most amazing jack-of-all-trades, Mr. Roosevelt.
If business had its array of extraordinary personalities, the rival
establishment had its Roosevelt, who surrounded himself with a shining
group of amateurs, Mr. Root, Mr. Knox, General Wood, James Garfield, Mr.
Pinchot, Mr. Knox Smith, the "Tennis Cabinet," to all of whom he
succeeded in imparting some vividness from his own abounding
personality. If pioneers from the days of Daniel Boone on have been
romantic, amateurs are equally romantic. It was romance against romance.
The balance between the two governments did not last long. Government by
business was declining. It was being extruded from the control of
political affairs. Political government was rising. It was reaching out
to control certain phases of business itself. The great pioneers of
national industry were growing old. They were becoming self-conscious,
vaguely aware of changing circumstances, casting about for solider
foundations than "mere money getting," buying art and writing books,
establishing foundations, talking foolishly about their "divine right,"
about the crime of "dying rich."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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