The Search for Truth in a Reverent Spirit (Part Three)

(Editors note:  This is the third segment in a continuing series featuring the clash between reason and matters of the spirit which defy rigid limitations of scientific calculation.  The previous segment - Part Two - identifies Theodore Roosevelt’s political transformation as one which neatly highlights this distinction.)

What is the essence of any struggle for healthy liberty and human betterment?  How can we measure the central condition of progress?

Try as he will, Theodore Roosevelt is unable to deny the spiritual qualities inherent in all materialistic pursuits, from science to business to politics.  With the ink barely dry on his 1908 Special Message to Congress, by 1910 T.R. boldly envisions a New Nationalism.  Some label his words “Communistic,” “Socialistic” and “Anarchistic” in various quarters.  Others hail “the greatest oration ever given on American soil.”

T.R. reflects that there have been “two great crises in our country’s history: first, when it was formed, and then, again, when it was perpetuated … .”  The third great crisis is upon us, the struggle “to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity.”

In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity.  In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next.  One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege.  The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows.  …

At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress.  In our day it appears as the struggle of freeman to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will.  At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth.  That is nothing new.

New Nationalism envisions “practical equality of opportunity for all citizens” as the socially desirable result.  This will permit every man to

have a fair chance to make of himself all that lies in him; to reach the highest point to which his capacities, unassisted by special privilege of his own and unhampered by the special privilege of others, can carry him, and to get for himself and his family substantially what he has earned.  Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable.  No man who carries the burden of the special privileges of another can give to the commonwealth that service to which it is fairly entitled.

Its central tenet is government protection of property rights, the traditional approach.  But New Nationalism elevates human welfare, the second critical component, to a higher priority and the critical measure of any presidential administration.

T.R. insists that only a powerful federal government can regulate the economy and guarantee social justice, to protect the laboring men, women and children from exploitation.  He supports graduated income and inheritance taxes, a social security system, a national health service, a federal securities commission and the direct election of US senators.  The platform also supports the democratic principles of initiative, referendum and recall as means for the people to exert more direct control over government.  In short, it is a platform which inspires much of the social agenda of the future New Deal a generation later:

The man who wrongly holds that every human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the advocate of human welfare, who rightly maintains that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.

New Nationalism further admits “the right to regulate the terms and conditions of labor, which is the chief element of wealth, directly in the interest of the common good.”  Wages must be “more than sufficient” to cover the cost of living and hours “short enough” to permit the worker the “time and energy to … help in carrying the general load.”

Moreover, New Nationalism prohibits the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes and strictly regulates political lobbyists which is to be “thoroughly enforced.”  Sentiments of this nature will tend to put the political world on notice, if not take it by storm.

 (Editor’s note:  To be continued.  Part Four in the series arrives at the heart of T.R.’s political transformation to spiritual icon …)


 -Michael D'Angelo

The Search for Truth in a Reverent Spirit (Part Two)

(Editors note:  This is the second segment in a new series.  The first segment introduces readers to the fork in the road caused by the clash between proven scientific principles with matters of the spirit which defy the rigid limitations of scientific calculation ...)

In a land of plenty, something still appears to be missing?  What is it?

Thomas Jefferson aims at the pursuit of happiness, with virtue as its foundation.  Alexander Hamilton, by contrast, envisions the physical greatness of the state as being above the happiness of its citizens.  To the extent that the two are at odds, Hamilton would choose the former, and happiness will follow.  Resolving the dispute among his two top cabinet members, President George Washington decides in Hamilton’s favor.  For better or worse, the course is set.  America is constructed on this foundation. 

But although physical greatness does expand to levels unprecedented, the ordinary citizen’s “something is missing from life” experience continues to gather its own inexorable momentum.  The elusive ingredient involves a search for Truth.  Scientists reject any “new” principle which cannot be scientifically proven.  Spirit guided intuition, on the other hand, allows for the potential of a broader understanding and a higher trajectory.

In American History, a study of Theodore Roosevelt’s political transformation typically flies under the radar.  But it neatly highlights the above distinction.  T.R. has spent a lifetime of rejecting spiritual speculation, in favor of the body electric and the physics of (military) power --- from the land prizes of the Spanish American War --- to the construction of the Panama Canal --- to re-building the US Navy, almost from scratch, to a military size befitting the ability to successfully prosecute a two ocean war --- which he foresees 40 years in advance.  At the dawn of the 20^th century, his presidency cements his reputation as the Republican heir to Abraham Lincoln’s grand old party and as the champion of Progressive Era domestic reform.

But T.R., too, feels the hunger pangs of the something that’s missing phenomenon.  With his successor botching T..R.’s progressive agenda and becoming the nation’s top reactionary, T.R. contemplates a return to political life as the calendar turns to 1912.  At the same time a political transformation is taking place within him.  He would begin to argue for wider recognition of the spiritual qualities inherent in all materialistic pursuits, from science to business to politics.

The roots of this transformation can be traced to several sources.  The first dates back to T.R.’s presidency (1901-1908), specifically the delivery of a Special Message to Congress in January 1908, his last year in office.  It argues for automatic compensation for job-related (industrial) accidents and federal scrutiny of corporate boardroom operations.  It campaigns “against privilege, part of the campaign to make the great class of property holders realize that property has its duties no less than its rights.”  It also campaigns against “predatory wealth --- of the wealth accumulated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity.”  It is to be a war “against successful dishonesty.”

The issue T.R. raises in this message, perhaps more than any other utterance in his career, convinces Wall Street that “Theodore the Sudden” is a dangerous man.

But T.R. scoffs at this criticism, stating that it is “fundamentally an ethical movement:”

The opponents of the measures we champion single out now one, and now another measure for especial attack, and speak as if the movement in which we are engaged was purely economic.  It has a large economic side, but it is fundamentally an ethical movement.  It is not a movement to be completed in one year, or two or three years; it is a movement which must be persevered in until the spirit which lies behind it sinks deep into the heart and the conscience of the whole people.

Followed quickly on its heels is the publication of Herbert Croly’s The Promise of American Life, which becomes the bible of the new social movement.  The book argues the need for a strong central government (Hamiltonian), calling for a war on indiscriminate individualism (Jefferson) and unearned privilege (Jacksonian).  And it also calls for T.R. as the only leader in America capable of encompassing both aims.

But after completing two presidential terms featuring a progressive agenda of activist reform, T.R. upholds the tradition of George Washington and declines to run for a third term.  By 1909, T.R. is now a former president --- still relatively young by historical standards at age 51 --- but nonetheless outside the political power structure looking in.  With his spiritual evolution continuing, T.R. begins to plot his future course.

(Editor’s note:  To be continued.  The next segment (Part Three) will continue to explore the underpinnings of T.R.’s political transformation to spiritual icon …)

-Michael D’Angelo