Speech 46
THE SQUARE DEAL

FROM   AN   ADDRESS DELIVERED AT A   BANQUET IN DALLAS, TEXAS, APRIL 5,   1905
WHEN I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean, and nobody who speaks the truth can mean, that he believes it possible to give every man the best hand.  If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair.  All I mean is that there shall not be any crookedness in the dealing.  In other words, it is not in the power of any human being to devise legislation or administration by which each man shall achieve success and have happiness; it not only is not in the power of any man to do that, but if any man says that he can do it, distrust him as a quack.  If the hand of the Lord is heavy upon any man, if misfortune comes upon him, he may be unable to win; or even if fortune favors him and he lacks the courage, the nerve, the common sense, the ability, to do the best with the chance given him, then he will fail.  All any of us can pretend to do is to come as near as our imperfect abilities will allow to securing through governmental agencies an equal opportunity for each man to show the stuff that is in him; and that must be done with no more intention of discrimination against the rich man than the poor man, or against the poor man than the rich man; with the intention of safeguarding each man, rich or poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and giving him as nearly as may be a fair chance to do what his powers permit him to do; always provided he does not wrong his neighbor.

This is not in the least a partisan question.  It is one of those questions that affect all our citizens, a question that goes to the root of our citizenship; and when it comes to a question like that you citizens of this country have the right to expect your representatives in public life to join hands and work for the common good and without regard to any mere party differences.  As to the details of carrying out those general principles we can not expect everybody to agree.  My own views are pretty definite, both about foreign and domestic policies.  In foreign policies, for instance, I have this strong belief, which I am sure will appeal to every cowman present — never draw, unless you mean to shoot; and that implies, of course, that when you draw it shall not be an empty gun.  .  .  .

In the same way when you come to internal affairs; I have advocated giving the Interstate Commerce Commission increased power; power that will enable it to work effectively and quickly.  I should not do that for one moment if I believed that there would be injustice done to the railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission.  I wish it understood definitely that if I find any subordinate of mine doing an injustice against a railroad, or doing an injustice for it, I will cinch him just as quickly in one case as in the other.  I shall expect him to do the square thing, both by the railroad and by the public.  If the railroad wants more than it is entitled to have, then he must decide against it; if the public ignorantly demands that the railroad shall do more than it can with propriety do, then just as fearlessly he must antagonize public sentiment, even if the public sentiment is unanimous.

These are the general principles.  It is much easier to lay down general principles than it is to work out those principles in detail.  But I have told you substantially what are, as I regard them, the main features of the platform upon which I stand, and I think that you agree with me that it is a pretty straight American platform.