Five years ago, or when he was still in office and had the power, he would not have dared to make that statement.

But he finds it politically safe and expedient to make it now.

It is not at all a radical statement.

On the contrary, it is simply the echo of E.H.Gary, that is to say, John Pierpont Morgan, president of all the trusts.
"Mr.Roosevelt now proposes that Bismarck attempted in Germany forty years ago to thwart the Socialist movement, and that is State Socialism, so called, which is in fact the most despotic and degrading form of capitalism.
"President Roosevelt, who is popularly supposed to be hostile to the trusts, is in truth their best friend.

He would have the government, the capitalist government, of course, practically operate the trusts and turn the profits over to their idle owners.
This would mean release from responsibility and immunity of prosecution for the trust owners, _while at the same time the government would have to serve as strikebreaker for the trust owners_, and the armed forces of the government would be employed to keep the working class in subjection.
"If this were possible, it would mark the halfway ground between industrial despotism and industrial democracy.