Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are
so closely intertwined that in the immense majority of cases a
straight-dealing man who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity and
industry, benefits himself must also benefit others. Normally the man
of great productive capacity who becomes rich by guiding the labor
of many other men does so by enabling them to produce more than they
could produce without his guidance; and both he and they share in the
benefit, which comes also to the public at large. The superficial
fact that the sharing may be unequal must never blind us to the
underlying fact that there is this sharing, and that the benefit comes
in some degree to each man concerned. Normally the wage-worker, the
man of small means, and the average consumer, as well as the average
producer, are all alike helped by making conditions such that the man
of exceptional business ability receives an exceptional reward for
his ability. Something can be done by legislation to help the general
prosperity; but no such help of a permanently beneficial character
can be given to the less able and less fortunate, save as the results
of a policy which shall inure to the advantage of all industrious and
efficient people who act decently; and this is only another way of
saying that any benefit which comes to the less able and less fortunate
must of necessity come even more to the more able and more fortunate.
If, therefore, the less fortunate man is moved by envy of his more
fortunate brother to strike at the conditions under which they have
both, though unequally, prospered, the result will assuredly be that
while damage may come to the one struck at, it will visit with an even
heavier load the one who strikes the blow. Taken as a whole, we must
all go up or go down together.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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