AP Success - AP US History: Theodore Roosevelt's Stance on Labor by Hofstadter

By 1899 Roosevelt had learned that he could assimilate some of the political strength of the labor movement (or other popular movements) by yielding to it in many practical details. As governor he showed increasing flexibility in dealing with labor. He worked hard to get the legislature to pass a law against sweatshops; he was the first governor ever to make a tour of the sweatshop districts; he consulted labor leaders regularly on matters affecting labor’s interests; and, as though to measure the change in his philosophy, put his signature to just such a bill as he had fought most bitterly while in the Assembly, an eight-hour law for workers on government contracts. Although he identified himself closely with the authority of the State and the defense of property, he saw the justice and necessity of making authority benevolent and improving the condition of the people through social legislation. But any display of independent power by the masses, especially in the form of a strike, set off a violent reflex. He epitomized his philosophy during his governorship when he remarked of a current dispute: “If there should be a disaster at the Croton Dam strike, I’d order out the militia in a minute. But I’d sign an employer’s liability law, too.” He still displayed, as Howard L. Hurwitz describes it, “a trigger-like willingness to use troops...His mind was a single track when it came to strikes, and that track always carried troops to the scene of the dispute.”