Cuban Relations.Within the sphere of colonial affairs,Cuba,though nominally independent ,alsopresented problems to the government at Washington.In the fine enthusiasm that accompanied the declaration of war on Spain,W.H.Taft third from right in the PhilippinesCongress,unmindful of practical considerations,recognized the independence of Cuba and disclaimed "any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty,jurisdiction,or control over said island except for the pacification thereof."In the settlement that followed the war,however,it was deemed undesirable to set the young republic adrift upon the stormy sea of international politics without a guiding hand.Before withdrawing American troops from the island,Congress,in March,1901,enacted,and required Cuba to approve,a series of restrictions known as the Platt amendment,limiting her power to incur indebtedness,securing the right of the United States to intervene whenever necessary to protect life and property,and reserving to the United States coaling stations at certain points to be agreed upon.The Cubans made strong protests against what they deemed "infringements of their sovereignty";but finally with good grace accepted their fate.Even when in 1906President Roosevelt landed American troops in the island to quell a domestic dissension,they acquiesced in the action,evidently regarding it as a distinct warning that they should learn to manage their elections in an orderly manner.
The Roosevelt Domestic Policies
Social Questions to the Front.From the day of his inauguration to the close of his service in 1909,President Roosevelt,in messages,speeches,andinterviews,kept up a lively and interesting discussion of trusts,capital,labor,poverty,riches,lawbreaking,good citizenship,and kindred themes.Many a subject previously touched upon only by representatives of the minor and dissenting parties,he dignified by a careful examination.That he did this with any fixed design or policy in mind does not seem to be the case.He admitted himself that when he became President he did not have in hand any settled or farreaching plan of social betterment.He did have,however,serious convictions on general principles."I was bent upon ****** the government,"he wrote,"the most efficient possible instrument in helping the people of the United States to better themselves in every way,politically,socially,and industrially.I believed with all my heart in real and thoroughgoing democracy and I wished to make the democracy industrial as well as political,although I had only partially formulated the method I believed we should follow."It is thus evident at least that he had departed a long way from the old idea of the government as nothing but a great policeman keeping order among the people in a struggle over the distribution of the nation's wealth and resources.
Roosevelt's View of the Constitution.Equally significant was Roosevelt's attitude toward the Constitution and the office of President.He utterly repudiated the narrow construction of our national charter.He held that the Constitution "should be treated as the greatest document ever devised by the wit of man to aid a people in exercising every power necessary for its own betterment,not as a straitjacket cunningly fashioned to strangle growth."He viewed the presidency as he did the Constitution.Strict constructionists of the Jeffersonian school,of whom there were many on occasion even in the Republican party,had taken a view that the President could do nothing that he was not specifically authorized by the Constitution to do.Roosevelt took exactly the opposite position.It was his opinion that it was not only the President's right but his duty "to do anything that the needs of the nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or the laws."He went on to say that he acted "for the common wellbeing of all our people whenever and in whatever manner was necessary,unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition."
The Trusts and Railways.To the trust question,Roosevelt devoted especial attention.This was unavoidable.By far the larger part of the business of the country was done by corporations as distinguished from partnerships and individual owners.The growth of these gigantic aggregations of capital had been the leading feature in American industrial development during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.In the conquest of business by trusts and "the resulting private fortunes of great magnitude,"the Populists and the Democrats had seen a grievous danger to the republic."Plutocracy has taken the place ofdemocracy;the tariff breeds trusts;let us destroy therefore the tariff and the trusts"such was the battle cry which had been taken up by Bryan and his followers.
President Roosevelt countered vigorously.He rejected the idea that the trusts were the product of the tariff or of governmental action of any kind.He insisted that they were the outcome of "natural economic forces":
（1）destructive competition among business men compelling them to avoid ruin by co?peration in fixing prices;
（2）the growth of markets on a national scale and even international scale calling for vast accumulations of capital to carry on such business;
（3）the possibility of immense savings by the union of many plants under one management.In the corporation he saw a new stage in the development of American industry.
Unregulated competition he regarded as "the source of evils which all men concede must be remedied if this civilization of ours is to survive."The notion,therefore,that these immense business concerns should be or could be broken up by a decree of law,Roosevelt considered absurd.
