Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1901-12-07
THE MESSAGE
Presidents Review Of National
Affairs Read to Congress.
URGES WAR ON ANARCHISTS
Believes No Changes Should Be Made
in the Tariff and Advocates
Reciprocity.
PUBLICITY A CHECK ON TRUSTS

The President Favors National Supervision
and Control of Industrial Combinations
Urges tho Re-snactment OF tho Chi
Amendment of tho Immigration Laws
Pleads For the Up-Building of the
Merchant Marine and tho Expansion
of the Navy - Tho Isthn,ian Canal
Treaty-The Monroe Doctrine-RecoIn
lnendations About Cuba, Hawaii, Porto
Rico and tho Philippines-The Army
Tho Other Topics Discussed.
Washington, d. C.-President Roose
velts first annual message, which was read
before the Senate and House of Represen
tatlyes, Is, III part, as follows:
The Congress assemblies this year under
the shadow OF great calamity. On the
9th OF September President Mckinley was
Pan American Exposition at Buffalo, and
died in that city OH the l4th OF that
month.
Of the last seven elected Presidents he
is the third who has been murdered, and
the bare recital of this TACT is sufficient to
justify grave alarm among all loyal Amer
lean citizens. Moreover, the circumstances
OF this, the third assassination OF an Amer
lean President have u peculiarly sinister
significance. Both President Lincoln and
President Garfield were killed by assass
ins of types unfortunately not uncommon
in history; President Lincoln falling the
victim to the terrible passions aroused by
four years Of Civil War, and President
Garfield to the revengeIul vanity of a dis
QnnnlntnI 'rpSIHpnt
ley was killed by an utterly depraved Grim
inal belonging to that body of criminals
who object to all governments, good and
bad alike. who are against any form OF
popular npeiIy II ~ Is guaranteed ny even
the most just and liberal laws, and who
a free peoples sober will as to the tyran
nical and irresponsible despot.
President Roosevelt then pays a nigh
tribute to the late President as man, a
citizen and statesman. In concluding
his eulogy the President said: I'VE mourn,
a good and great President who is dead
but while we mourn we are lifted up by
the splendid achievements OF his life and
the grand herosm with which he met his
DEATH
The President, in referring to the crime
which 40 shocked the community said
that the blow was aimed not at the Prcsi'
dent, but at every symbol of government.
1t was the bold defiance of anarchy, of all
law and order The Anarchist is Grim
inal whose perverted instincts lead him
to prefer confusion and chaos to the most
beneticent form of social order.
President Roosevelt then declares that
anarchistic speeches, writings and meet
ings are essentially seditous and treason.
able. He urges Congress to enact such
legislation as will bar all Anarchists or
persons justifying the murder of those
placed i'll authority from entering the
country The President continues: The
Federal courts should be given jurisdiction
over any man who kills or attempts to
kill the President or any man who, by the
cession for the Presidency, while the pun
ishment for an unsuccessful attempt
should be proportioned to the enormity OF
the offence against our institutions.
Anarchy is a crime against the whole
human race, and all mankind should band
against the Anarchist. His crime should
be made an offence against the law OF ma
tiqns, like piracy and that form of man
stealing known as the slave trade, for it
is of far 'blacker infamy than either. 1t
should be so declared by treaties among
all civilized powers. Such treaties would
give to the Federal Government the pow
er of dealing with the crime. -
President Roosevelt refers in congratua-
tory terms to the prosperity OF the nation,
. but utters warning to the men who seek
to add to their possessions by gambling IN
any form and unwise speculation, as they
are n source of; menace not only to them
selves, but to others. If the business
world loses its head it loses what legisla'
tion' cannot supply.
The President then considers the great
accamuations of wealth and large indus
trial corporations. He says that the Gre
alton of great corporate fortunes has not
been due to the tariff nor to any other
governmental action, but to natural causes
in the business world operating in other
countries as they operate in our own.
The process has aroused much antagonism,
the President observes, great part OF
which is wholly without warrant. There
have been abuses connected with the ac-
emulation of wealth. yet it remains true
that fortune accumulated in legitimate
business can be accumulated by the person
specially benefited only on condition of
upon others. Successful enterprise, of
the tyne which benefits all mankind, can
only exist if the conditions are such as to
offer great prizes as the rewards OF sue
cess.
dealing with the abuses involved in the
question of industrial combinations. He
remarks It cannot too often he pointed
out that to strike with ignorant violence
at the interests of one set of men almost
inevitably endangers the interests of all.
President Roosevelt says that there are
real and grave evils connected with trusts,
one of the chief being overca capitalization
because of its many baleful consequences,
and resolute and practical effort must be
made to correct these evils. He continues:
There is widespread conviction in
the minds of the American people that the
great corporations known as trusts are in
certain Of their features and tendencies
hurtful to the general welfare. This
springs from no spirit of envy or uncharlt.
ableness. 1t does not rest upon lack of
intelligent appreciation of the necessity of
meeting changing and changed conditions
of trade with new methods, nor upon ig.
norance of the fact that combination OF
capital in the effort to accomplish great
things is necessary when the worlds pro
gress demands that great things be done.
The President believes that the first es-
sent,a III determining how to deal with
the great industrial combinations is knowl-
edge OF the facts Publicity is the only
sure remedy that can be invoked. The
Government, he declares. should have the
right to inspect and examine the workings
of the large corporations engaged in inter
state business. Continuing he says: