New Nationalism vs. New Freedom

Comparison of New Nationalism and New Freedom

New Nationalism

New Freedom

Idea 1: A New Kind of Democracy

a. Concentration in industry is inevitable.
1. Federal control is needed to protect the
laboring man.
2. National interest requires that property be
regulated.
a. Concentration in industry is not inevitable.
1. Laboring man must be free from all con-
trol, either federal or corporate.
2. Free competition will destroy monopoly.

Idea 2: New Laws for Social Justice

a. Minimum wage law for women
b. Federal Child Labor Law
c. Enlarge Conservation program
d. Use the Federal government to solve labor
problems. a. Federal control will destroy free competition
or free enterprise.
b. The Federal government cannot act like a fa-
ther to the laboring men.

1. How can you account for Roosevelt's failure to draw the Democratic progressives away from Wilson?
2. What was the greatest significance of the election to the progressives?

Comparison of New Freedom Policies Before and After 1914

New-Freedom before 1914
I. Signed Underwood Tariff Bill
2. Helped push through the Federal Reserve
Act
3. Prevented a bill that would have helped
labor evade anti-trust laws
4. Refused to fight for Women's Suffrage
5. Refused to fight for the National Child Labor
Law
6. Refused to restrict immigration into the
United States
7. Separated whites from Blacks in federal of-
flces
New Freedom after 1914
I. Against almost all odds, appointed Louis D.
Brandeis to the Supreme C6urt. (Brandeis
was the one leading spokesman for social
reform.)
Supported Federal Farm Loan Act (Federal
Government took responsibility for the in-
equality of farmers' competition.)
3. Pressured Democrats to accept a federal
workman's and child labor law
4. Announced that tariff laws be changed so
business could have some reasonable pr~
tection

Directions: From your reading, can you add any other pieces of legislation that reflect on Wilson's pro-
gram Cf "New Freedom"? If so, add them to the proper column. Then answer the following question:
To what extent was Wilson's program of New Freedom nothing more than "warmed over" New Nation-

New Nationalism

[1Jask that we work in a spirit of broad and far-reaching
nationalism when we work for what concerns our
people as a whole. We are all Americans. Our common
interests are as broad as the continent. I speak to you
here in Kansas exacUy as I would speak in New York
or Georgia, for the most vital problems are those which
aHect us all alike. The National Government belongs
to the whole American people, and where the whole
American people are interested, that interest can be
guarded effectively only bv the National Government.
The betterment which we seek must be accomplished,
I believe, mainly through the National Government.
The American people are right in demanding that
New Nationalism, without which we cannot hope to
deal with new problems. The New Nationalism puts
the national need before sectional or personal advan-
tage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results
from local legislatures attempting to treat national is-
sues as local issue~ It is still more impatient of the im-
potence which springs from overdi vision of
governmental powers~ the impotence which makes it
possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired
by wealthy special interests, to bring national activi-
ties to a deadlock. This New Nationalism regards the
executive power as the steward of the public welfare.
It demands of the judiciarv that it shall be interested
p ;rily in human welfare rather than in property,
j~ as it demands that the representative body shall
represent all the people rather than any one class or
section of the people. (At Osawatomie, Kan., August 31,
1910.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 26; Nat. Ed. XVII, 19.1

New Freedom

Gentlemen say, they have been saying for a long
time, and, therefore, I assume that they believe, that
trusts are inevitable. They don't say that big business
is inevitable. They don't say merelv that the elabora-
tion of business upon a great co-operative scale is char-
acteristic of our time and has come about bv the natural
operation of modern civilization. We would admit that
But they say that the particular kind of combinations
that are now controlling our economic development
came into existence naturally and were inevitable; and
that, therefore, we have to accept them as unavoidable
and administer our development through them.
I admit the popularity of the theory that the trusts
have come about through the natural development of
business conditions in the United States, and that it is
a mistake to try to oppose the processes by which they
have been built up, because those processes belong to
the very nature of business in our time, and that there-
fore the only thing we can do, and the only thing we

ought to attempt to do, is to accept them as inevitable
arrangements and make the best out of it that we can
b,v regulation.
I answer, nevertheless, that this attitude rests upon
a confusion of thought. Big business is no doubt to a
large extent necessar;v and natural. The development
of business upon a great scale, upon a great scale of co-
operation, is inevitable, and, let me add, is probably
desirable. But that is a very different matter from the
development of trusts, because the trusts have not
grown. They have been artificially created; they have
been put together, not by natural processes, but by the
will, the deliberate planning will, of men who were
more powerful than their neighbors in the business
world, and who wished to make their power secure
against competition.
Did you ever look into the way a trust wag made?
It is very natural, in one sense, in the same sense in
which human greed is naturaL If I haven't efficiency
enough to beat my rivals, then the thing lam inclined
to do is to get together with my rivals and say: "Don't
let's cut each other's throats; let's combine and deter-
mine prices for ourselves; determine the output, and
thereby determine the prices: and dominate and con-
trol the market." That is very naturaL That has been
done ever since freebooting was established. That has
been done ever since power was used to establish con-
troL The reason that the masters of combination have
sought to shut out competition is that the basis of con-
trol under competition is brains and efficiency. fadmit
that any large corporation built up by the legitimate
processes of business, by economy, by efficiency, is
natural; and I am not afraid of it, no matter how big it
gro~ It can stay big only by doing its work more
thoroughly than anybody else. And there is a point of
bigness - as every businessman in this country knows,
though some of them will not admit it where you pass
the limit of efficiency and get into the region of dum-
siness and unwieldiness. You can make your combine
so extensive that you can't digest it into a single system;
you can getso many parts that you can `t assemble them
as you would an effective piece of machinery. The point
of efficiency is overstepped in the natural process of
development oftentimes, and it has been overstepped
many times in the artificial and deliberate formation
of trus~ ...

Comparison of New Nationalism and New Freedom
New Nationalism	New Freedom
Idea 1: A New Kind of Democracy
a. Concentration in industry is inevitable. 1. Federal control is needed to protect the laboring man. 2. National interest requires that property be regulated.	a. Concentration in industry is not inevitable. 1. Laboring man must be free from all con- trol, either federal or corporate. 2. Free competition will destroy monopoly.
Idea 2: New Laws for Social Justice
a. Minimum wage law for women b. Federal Child Labor Law c. Enlarge Conservation program d. Use the Federal government to solve labor problems.	a. Federal control will destroy free competition or free enterprise. b. The Federal government cannot act like a fa- ther to the laboring men.
1. How can you account for Roosevelt's failure to draw the Democratic progressives away from Wilson? 2. What was the greatest significance of the election to the progressives?
Comparison of New Freedom Policies Before and After 1914
New-Freedom before 1914 I. Signed Underwood Tariff Bill 2. Helped push through the Federal Reserve Act 3. Prevented a bill that would have helped labor evade anti-trust laws 4. Refused to fight for Women's Suffrage 5. Refused to fight for the National Child Labor Law 6. Refused to restrict immigration into the United States 7. Separated whites from Blacks in federal of- flces	New Freedom after 1914 I. Against almost all odds, appointed Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme C6urt. (Brandeis was the one leading spokesman for social reform.) Supported Federal Farm Loan Act (Federal Government took responsibility for the in- equality of farmers' competition.) 3. Pressured Democrats to accept a federal workman's and child labor law 4. Announced that tariff laws be changed so business could have some reasonable pr~ tection
Directions: From your reading, can you add any other pieces of legislation that reflect on Wilson's pro- gram Cf "New Freedom"? If so, add them to the proper column. Then answer the following question: To what extent was Wilson's program of New Freedom nothing more than "warmed over" New Nation-
New Nationalism [1Jask that we work in a spirit of broad and far-reaching nationalism when we work for what concerns our people as a whole. We are all Americans. Our common interests are as broad as the continent. I speak to you here in Kansas exacUy as I would speak in New York or Georgia, for the most vital problems are those which aHect us all alike. The National Government belongs to the whole American people, and where the whole American people are interested, that interest can be guarded effectively only bv the National Government. The betterment which we seek must be accomplished, I believe, mainly through the National Government. The American people are right in demanding that New Nationalism, without which we cannot hope to deal with new problems. The New Nationalism puts the national need before sectional or personal advan- tage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results from local legislatures attempting to treat national is- sues as local issue~ It is still more impatient of the im- potence which springs from overdi vision of governmental powers~ the impotence which makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring national activi- ties to a deadlock. This New Nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of the public welfare. It demands of the judiciarv that it shall be interested p ;rily in human welfare rather than in property, j~ as it demands that the representative body shall represent all the people rather than any one class or section of the people. (At Osawatomie, Kan., August 31, 1910.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 26; Nat. Ed. XVII, 19.1
New Freedom Gentlemen say, they have been saying for a long time, and, therefore, I assume that they believe, that trusts are inevitable. They don't say that big business is inevitable. They don't say merelv that the elabora- tion of business upon a great co-operative scale is char- acteristic of our time and has come about bv the natural operation of modern civilization. We would admit that But they say that the particular kind of combinations that are now controlling our economic development came into existence naturally and were inevitable; and that, therefore, we have to accept them as unavoidable and administer our development through them. I admit the popularity of the theory that the trusts have come about through the natural development of business conditions in the United States, and that it is a mistake to try to oppose the processes by which they have been built up, because those processes belong to the very nature of business in our time, and that there- fore the only thing we can do, and the only thing we ought to attempt to do, is to accept them as inevitable arrangements and make the best out of it that we can b,v regulation. I answer, nevertheless, that this attitude rests upon a confusion of thought. Big business is no doubt to a large extent necessar;v and natural. The development of business upon a great scale, upon a great scale of co- operation, is inevitable, and, let me add, is probably desirable. But that is a very different matter from the development of trusts, because the trusts have not grown. They have been artificially created; they have been put together, not by natural processes, but by the will, the deliberate planning will, of men who were more powerful than their neighbors in the business world, and who wished to make their power secure against competition. Did you ever look into the way a trust wag made? It is very natural, in one sense, in the same sense in which human greed is naturaL If I haven't efficiency enough to beat my rivals, then the thing lam inclined to do is to get together with my rivals and say: "Don't let's cut each other's throats; let's combine and deter- mine prices for ourselves; determine the output, and thereby determine the prices: and dominate and con- trol the market." That is very naturaL That has been done ever since freebooting was established. That has been done ever since power was used to establish con- troL The reason that the masters of combination have sought to shut out competition is that the basis of con- trol under competition is brains and efficiency. fadmit that any large corporation built up by the legitimate processes of business, by economy, by efficiency, is natural; and I am not afraid of it, no matter how big it gro~ It can stay big only by doing its work more thoroughly than anybody else. And there is a point of bigness - as every businessman in this country knows, though some of them will not admit it where you pass the limit of efficiency and get into the region of dum- siness and unwieldiness. You can make your combine so extensive that you can't digest it into a single system; you can getso many parts that you can `t assemble them as you would an effective piece of machinery. The point of efficiency is overstepped in the natural process of development oftentimes, and it has been overstepped many times in the artificial and deliberate formation of trus~ ...