progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

The Telmarc Group
PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC
INTELLECTUAL
local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring national
activities to a deadlock. This New Nationalism regards the executive power as the
steward of the public welfare. It demands of the judiciary that it shall be interested
primarily in human welfare rather than in property, just as it demands that the
representative body shall represent all the people rather than any one class or section
of the people.
It recognizes that the United States is now one country, united and not a collection of
sectional entities. It furthermore places "power" in the hands of the "executive". It
demands justice deal with people and not things. It demands that the legislature be of the
people, representing them, and not special interests. It puts the nation before the
individual.
In many ways it was the statement defining the Progressive movement. It placed many
stakes in the ground as regards to the strength of the Federal Government and especially
that of the President. It attempts to show that the individualism that the country was
founded upon and built upon was now thrown on the ash heap of history and that the new
nationalism made all subservient to the needs and goals of the nation. To those listening
to the speech, their ears may not yet have been attuned to this nuance. TR had gotten his,
and frankly he could care less by anyone else.
As Milkis states 100 :
"Roosevelt, Croly 101 claimed, "was the first political leader of the American people to
identify the national principle with the ideal of reform." TR hoped that his progressive
vision of industrial democracy would bury the issue of race, that it would reunify the
nation in a war against privilege."
Croly had written a book, The Promise of American Life, in which he states 102 :
"The triumph of Jefferson and the defeat of Hamilton enabled the natural individualism
of the American people free play. The democratic political system was considered
tantamount in practice to a species of vigorous, licensed, and purified selfishness. The
responsibilities of the government were negative; those of the individual were positive.
And it is no wonder that in the course of time his positive responsibilities began to look
100 Milkis, Roosevelt, p. 40.
101 Herbert Croly was the founder of The New Republic ("TNR") and a major Progressive thinker and writer. Croly
and TNR nourished many of the Progressives in their day and it has continued to be a bastion of neo-progressive
thought.
102 Croly, H., The Promise of American Life, MacMillan (New York) 1911. pp 48-49. See
http://books.google.com/books?id=3BASAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=croly+promise+of+american+life&ei
=qj7cSdS0BJ2UMbmsxOYO#v=onepage&q&f=false for the Google book. It should be noted that the dedication in
this book if to the Croly family from the Holmes family on Christmas 1912. Holmes of course being the famous Oliver
Wendell Holmes.
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