The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-12-06
ADVICE TO CONGRESS-
PRESIDENT RoosEvELTss FIRST AN
NAL MESSAGE.

In 1t He Deals with the Trusts, the
TariR, Reciprocity, Colonial Prob
Iems and Many Important Domes-
tie Questions.
President Rooseyelt's first annual
message has been delivered to con
gress. Its chief features are as fol
lows:
/ The message opens with a forceful comment
| on the assassination Of the late President Nc.
Binley This crime, it says, iustifes grave alarm
among all loyal American citizens because it is
/ of a sort heretofore unknown in this republic.
| President Lincoln fell victim to the terrible
passions aroused by four years of civil war and
President Garfield to the reYengeful vanity of a
| disappointed ofieeseeker. President Mckinley
was Killed by an utterly deprayed criminal be-
| longing to that body Of criminals who object to
| all governments, good and bad alike, who are
| as hostile to the upright exponent Of free peo-
| ple's sober will as to the tyrannical and ire
| sponsible despot.
| The president continues with a eulogy of Mr..
| Mckinley, then turns to the subject of anarchy,
denouncing its doctrines and preachers. He urges
the exclusion from the country Of all professors
| of anarchistic doctrines who may seek to come
| here. Those who are found here should be de-
|
| president says further that the federal courts
should be given jurisdiction any man who
| kills attempts to kill the president any
man who by the constitution or by law is in line
of succession for the presidency, while the pun
ishInent for unsuccessful attempt should be
proportional to the enormity Of the offense
against institutions
The president next considers business conditions,
which he finds highly satisfactory. He speaks
of the tremendous and hugely complex industrial
development which has been going on in the
past few years and says that the old laws and
customs which quite sufficient to regu-
late the accumulation and distribution of wealth
are so no longer. Great industrial fortunes have
increased in number to a startling degree. The
creation Of these vast corporate fortunes has not
been due, the president says to the tariff nor to
any other governmental action, but to natural
causes in the business world, operating in other
countries in own. The industrial combi
nations which these fortunes control not nee
essarily harmful to the country. 1t is only when
they managed in an unrighteous manner that
they work against the common interests.
The laws as they are now cannot check the
combinations if they seek to use their vast pow
ers to the detriment Of the common interests, but
there many reasons for caution in dealing with
corporations.
The mechanism of modern business is SO deli
cate that extreme care must be taken not to in
terfere with it in spirit of rashness igno-
rance In dealing with business interests, for the
government to undertake by crude and i'll
sidered legislation to do what may turn out to
be bad would be to incur the risk Of such far
reaching national disaster that it would be pref
cradle to undertake nothing at all. The men
who demand the impossible or the undesirable
serve the allies of the forces with which they
are nominally at war, for they hamper those vino
would endeayor to find out in rational fashion
what wrongs arising from the new conditions
really and to what extent and in what man
ner it is practicable to apply remedies
Publicity to Curb the Trusts.
The first essential in determining how to deal
with the great industrial combinations is knowl-
edge OF the facts-publicity. In the interest of
the public the government should have the right
to inspect and examine the workings OF the
great corporations engaged in interstate business
Publicity is the only sure remedy which we can
now invoke. What further remedies needed
IN the way Of governmental regulation taxa
tion can only be determined after publicity has
been obtained by process of law and in the course
OF administration. The first requisite is knowl-
edge, full and complete-knowledge which may
be made public to the world.
Artificial bodies, such as corporations and joint
stock or other associations, depending upon any
statutory law for their existence privileges
should be subject to proper governmental super
vision, and full and accurate information as to
their operations should be made public regularly
at reasonable intervals.
The large corporations, commonly called trusts,
though organized in state, always do business
in many states, often doing very little business
In the state where they are incorporated. There
is utter lack of uniformity in the state laws
about them, and, no state has any exclusive
interest in or power over their acts, it has in
practice proved impossible to get adequate regu-
lation through state action. Therefore, in the
interest of thp whole ppOpla the nation ghOuld
without interfering with the power Of the states
in the matter itself, also assume power of super
vision and regulation ever all corporations doing
an interstate business.
The president says he believes that law can
be framed which will enable the national gov
eminent to exercise control along the lines above
indicated, profting by the experience gained
through the passage and administration of the in.
terstate commerce act. IT, however, the judgment
of the congress is that it lacks the constitutional
power to pass such an act, then a constitutional
amendment should be submitted to confer the
power
There should be created a cabinet officer, to be
known as secretary OF commerce and industries
as provided in the bill introduced at the last
session of the congress. 1t should be his prov
nce to deal with commerce in its broadcast sense
including among many other things whatever
concerns labor and all matters affecting the great
business corporations and our merchant marine
necessary to re-enact the Chinese exclusion law
In regard to labor he says that the government
should provide in its contracts that all work
should be done under fair conditions and that
all night work should be forbidden for women
and children as we'll as excessive overtime.
He asserts that the immigration law is unsats-
factory and that law should be enacted to keep
out not only anarchists, but persons of a low
moral tendency or of unsavory reputation and
those who are below certain standard of eco
nomic fitness to enter our industrial field as COM
petitors with American labor.
The Tariff and Reciprocity.
The president declares that nothing could be
more unwise than to disturb the business interests
of the country by any general tariff change at
this time He adds:
Yet it is not only possible, but eminently de-
srable, to combine with the stability OF our eco
nomic system supplementary system of recipro-
cal benefit and obligation with other nations
Such reciprocity is an incident and result Of the
firm establishment and preservation OF our pres
ent economic policy. 1t was specially provided
for in the present tariff law.
Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden
OF protection. Our first duty is to see that the
protection granted by the tariff in every case
where it is needed is maintained and that reci-
procity be sought for so far as it can safely be
done without injury to our home industries
Subject to this proyiso Of the proper protection
necessary to our industrial well being at home,
the principle Of reciprocity must command our
hearty support. The phenomenal growth Of our
export trade emphasizes the urgency of the need
for wider markets and for a liberal policy in
dealing with foreign nations.
The condition OF the American merchant ma
rine is such as to call for immediate remedial ac-