"The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth"
About this Quote
Hayes is taking a swing at the Gilded Age fairy tale that markets are moral referees. In two tight sentences, he flips Social Darwinism on its head: if competition is truly "unrestricted", the trait being selected for is not excellence or innovation but a willingness to cheat. The line works because it steals the prestige of scientific language ("survival of the fittest") and exposes how quickly it turns into a cover story for predation. "Fittest" is revealed as a rhetorical costume the winners wear after the fact.
The phrase "so commonly advocated" is doing political work. Hayes is not arguing with an abstract theory; he's pointing at a loud coalition of industrialists, editorialists, and legislators who treated laissez-faire as patriotism and regulation as weakness. His subtext is that the rules are already being written - just not for the public. "Unrestricted" doesn't mean neutral; it means the absence of guardrails for those with leverage, information, and lawyers.
Coming from a president often associated with ending Reconstruction, this critique is also a window into the era's shifting moral crisis: the country is tired of sectional conflict and increasingly willing to accept economic oligarchy as the price of "progress". Hayes is trying to reattach governance to legitimacy. If wealth accumulation rewards the unscrupulous, then inequality isn't merely unfortunate; it's evidence that the game has been rigged. The warning isn't sentimental. It's institutional: a republic that confuses ruthless accumulation with merit will end up governed by the same ruthlessness.
The phrase "so commonly advocated" is doing political work. Hayes is not arguing with an abstract theory; he's pointing at a loud coalition of industrialists, editorialists, and legislators who treated laissez-faire as patriotism and regulation as weakness. His subtext is that the rules are already being written - just not for the public. "Unrestricted" doesn't mean neutral; it means the absence of guardrails for those with leverage, information, and lawyers.
Coming from a president often associated with ending Reconstruction, this critique is also a window into the era's shifting moral crisis: the country is tired of sectional conflict and increasingly willing to accept economic oligarchy as the price of "progress". Hayes is trying to reattach governance to legitimacy. If wealth accumulation rewards the unscrupulous, then inequality isn't merely unfortunate; it's evidence that the game has been rigged. The warning isn't sentimental. It's institutional: a republic that confuses ruthless accumulation with merit will end up governed by the same ruthlessness.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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