The Myth of Teddy Roosevelt

In an otherwise excellent article, Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., we are reminded of Roosevelt, "the trust buster", who set out to save us from "the money interests". Would that that were true.

Roosevelt (as did his cousin, who followed, uncannily, his path to the Presidency), came from "the money interests". His well-heeled family was a part of the "upper crust" of New York society, and had been since his grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt was a contemporary of Astor, and "Commodore" Vanderbilt. Rather than "crippling" the railroads and other industries with regulations and bureaucracy, he created the means by which those interests would infiltrate the federal government, and ultimately, transfer the liabilities of industry to the People, a process that has continued unabated to this day.

His Attorney General, Philander Knox, had been the attorney for a number of the "Captains of Industry", and indeed, instituted approximately half as many antitrust suits (in Roosevelt's 2 terms) as Taft's did (in one), resulting in Roosevelt's disfavor, and his candidacy in the "progressive" Bull Moose Party, throwing the election of 1912 to Wilson.

Wilson, upon entering office, appointed Philander Knox as Secretary of State, and Knox shepherded the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act (1913), and "certified" the ratification of the 16th Amendment, by which the liabilites of private industry would be steadily and increasingly shifted to the People.

Nevertheless, Woods' article does have a considerable amount of information, and is worth a read.