Oh, good. We can go back to the standard of living of the late victorian era.
Craig, did you know that much of the growth of the US during that time was dependent on cheap immigrant labor?
Yes, very prosperous time for rail Barons, tobacco kings, steel magnates, and the mother of all trusts, JP Morgan's banking empire, Teddy felt such a need to bust up. Great advances in industry and transportation, but also a time of social turmoil as workers sought better working conditions.
Did you know that in the ten years from the end of the Spanish-American War (now there's a war even an isolationist could get behind, one fought solely out of self-defense - NOT!), the US economy was in recession for almost 5 years? The stock market also suffered from two significant panics during Teddy's time as President.
But Teddy did get us a good deal on a canal in Panama. I guess he wanted that so that East coast textiles could more easily be shipped to California. You know, 'cause the railroads were so unreliable. Couldn't have had anything to do with trade with other countries or his expansionist, hegemonistic tendencies and the increased mobility of the military that resulted from its construction. Nah. Must have been to get Mr. Duke's tobacco to San Francisco.
Gee, craig. You keep swinging and missing. The pitcher's getting bored.
PS: Here's another TR quote you might like - "We cannot sit huddled within our borders and avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond. Such a policy would defeat even its own end; for as the nations grow to have ever wider and wider interests and are brought into closer and closer contact, if we are to hold our own in the struggle for naval and commercial supremacy, we must build up our power without our own borders. We must build the isthmian canal, and we must grasp the points of vantage which will enable us to have our say in deciding the destiny of the oceans of the East and the West."
"The twentieth century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word, resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the Nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified; for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness." (April 10, 1899)
PPS: He must have been a commie, too, since he worked so hard against the "wealthy criminal class", as he called them. He also threatened to send in Federal troops to take charge of Pennsylvania coal mines when the mine owners wouldn't submit to Federal arbitration to resolve a miners' strike in 1902. His threat won the workers a cut from 12 hour shifts to 9 hours a day, a 10% pay hike and other concessions. |
