Gopher, Teddy was the last of the good ones.
THE ROUGH RIDER TAKES ON THE ROBBER BARONS
"We Republicans [must] hold the just balance and set ourselves as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other."
—Theodore Roosevelt
The former president began to speak with a bullet lodged in his chest.
Less than five minutes before, a deranged gunman had shot Theodore Roosevelt at close range as he walked to give a speech on behalf of his bid to recapture the White House in 1912 as a Progressive. Aides insisted that Roosevelt head straight to the hospital, but flush with a sense of destiny, the old lion refused. He would not retreat; he would give this speech if it killed him. With the blood spreading against his white shirt, he began:
I have altogether too important things to think of to feel any concern over my own death. . . . I am ahead of the game anyway. No man has had a happier life than I have led. . . .
This effort to assassinate me emphasizes to a peculiar degree the need for the Progressive movement . . . every good citizen ought to do everything in his or her power to prevent the coming of the day when we shall see in this country two recognized creeds fighting one another, when we shall see the creed of the "Have-nots" arraigned against the creed of the "Haves" . . .
My appeal for organized labor is two-fold; to the outsider and the capitalist I make my appeal to treat the laborer fairly . . . That is one-half appeal that I make. Now, the other half is to the labor man himself. My appeal to him is to remember that as he wants justice, so he must do justice.
The rest of the article here http://www.independentnation.org/theodore_roosevelt.htm