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