Teddy Roosevelt Visits Kennedy Plaza
“When the weather is good for the crops, it is good for the weeds...”
Theodore Roosevelt speaking on the steps of Providence City Hall (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
.jpg){kind=link}
August 23rd, 1902: President Theodore Roosevelt arrived in downtown Providence with something on his mind. Earlier in the year he had instructed his Attorney General to file an anti-trust suit against Northern Security Companies, a conglomerate of railroads in the Northwestern US. This was an unprecedented move that sent chills through the corporate world and quickly got the attention of industrialist like J.P. Morgan who tried to dissuade Roosevelt. At their meeting, Roosevelt would explain that while he believed there were “good” trusts and monopolies there were also bad ones that “existed to exploit consumers by driving up prices and depriving people of choice by monopolizing markets and driving rivals out of business” issuing a warning to business to pull back their abusive tactics or else face government intervention - a debate as relevant today as it was back then. On that late summer day he arrived in Providence, Roosevelt was embarking on the start of his legendary “trustbusting” days.
Standing on the steps of City Hall facing Exchange Place (known today as Kennedy Plaza) Roosevelt stared out at a crowd of 20,000 gathered before him with more and more packing in as he spoke.
Source: Library of Congress
He opened with gentle remarks and analogies (see starting quote), but before long Roosevelt worked up both himself and the crowd into a roar - “The great corporations…are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is in duty bound to control them wherever need of such control is shown…” According to the book Theodore Rex, “By now he was punching his left palm so hard the blows echoed like ricochets. Once he surprised the people behind him by spinning on his heel and pointing directly at them. Nobody laughed; the President’s face was hard and stern.” The speech made headlines across the country, exclaiming “President would regulate trusts…says Government should control captial.” While his stay in Providence was over and the President left to travel onward to Boston, his journey was far from over.
One last bit of note, the policies he built upon following this speech (and after his reelection in 1904), Roosevelt was so committed to the idea of limiting corporate influence in politics that he sought to make corporate campaign contributions illegal - a century later, the issue is still hotly debated.
Providence City Hall
25 Dorrance Street
Providence, RI 02903