the long run identical; but when it clearly appears that there is
a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper
hand, for property belongs to man and not man to property."

Several times it happened to Roosevelt to be confronted with the
necessity of meeting with force the threat of violence on the
part of striking workers. He never refused the challenge, and his
firmness never lost him the respect of any but the worthless
among the workingmen. When he was Police Commissioner, strikers
in New York were coming into continual conflict with the police.
Roosevelt asked the strike leaders to meet him in order to talk
things over. These leaders did not know the man with whom they
were dealing; they tried to bully him. They truculently announced
the things that they would do if the police were not compliant to
their wishes. But they did not get far in that direction.
Roosevelt called a halt with a snap of his jaws. "Gentlemen!" he
said, "we want to understand one another. That was my object in
coming here. Remember, please, that he who counsels violence does
the cause of labor the poorest service. Also, he loses his case.
Understand distinctly that order will be kept. The police will
keep it. Now, gentlemen!" There was surprised silence for a
moment, and then smashing applause. They had learned suddenly
what kind of a man Roosevelt was. All their respect was his.

It was after he became President that his greatest opportunity
occurred to put into effect his convictions about the industrial
problem. In 1909. there was a strike which brought about a
complete stoppage of work for several months in the anthracite
coal regions. Both operators and workers were determined to make
no concession. The coal famine became a national menace as the