The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-08
Will Not Recant.

President Roosevelt, in his speech at
Wheeling, w. Va, on Saturday, showed
that he had not been Influenced a particle
by the admonitions Of the trust magrates
to stop all agitation Of the subject of
trusts.
They pleaded that the reiteration Of a
policy Of federal regulation will bring
ruin upon great and important indus
trial enterprises, or, at least, destroy con-
fidence in railway and industrial securi-
ties. They charge the president with
making war on trusts and something
like distinct threat has been made that,
if the president does not drop the sub
ject, the trust magnates in New York will
see that he does not get any Endorsement
at the New York republican convention
for the presidential nomination in 1904.
The president, in reply, simply says to
these gentlemen that they err If they
think he advocates anything on the, stump
which he would not try to put into. effect
after election, and reiterates his advocacy
Of government regulation. The aim Of
people capable Of selfgovernment. says
the president, should be in every govern
mental process to proceed by evolution
rather than by revolution" and to beware
Of 1.-The fossilization Of mind which refuses
to allow any change as conditions
change" This is definite and easily under
stood.
The president has more lucidly than any
other public speaker explained to the pub
| and the present Industrial combination
| which is a corporation, and the difference
between making an attack on industrial
combinations or corporations as aggrega-
tons of industrial capital, and making an
attack on what is hurtful to the public in
terests in the construction and operation
of such combinations. The former assault
| is easily construable as assault upon cap
ital, merely because it is capital. IRA
| tional Organism proposes the destruction
Of trusts" The proposition to regulate
trusts" as the president deals with it,
| has no reference to the amount Of capital
put into corporation, for the size Of
the real capital is not an abuse to be rem
| edied.. It is the use Of such resources as
!
control which is to be- dealt with, and the
president makes the distinction very clear.
He has no idea of shooting men when he
goes cunning for bears and wolves in the
bush. He is very particular to call at
tention to the necessity of knowing exact
ly what are the evils to be attacked before
we attack them. Attacks upon capital
| Io Sjn Of
sibility upon capital for the way it uses
it's powers industrially or in transporta-
ton is a legitimate governmental function
A corporation composed Of number OF
purchased corporations under small re-
straint has enormous powers Of monopoly
making and of minimizing competition.
The president has referred in some OF
his speeches to a curious and reprehen-
sible phase of corporate responsibility
due to the changed conditions. This is
found in the creation of corporations to dc
business outside the state in which they
are created, while the state where they
do business cannot annul or amend their
charters and is helpless SO far as rem
edying abuses entailed by the foreign in
|
lief has been obtained from the federal
supreme court in the way of bringing non
resident corporations in subsection to the
courts of the states in which they have
imposed themselves. Thus New Jersey
and Delaware do thriving business writ
: ing charters Incorporating organization:
which do no business in those states, anc
have a merely technical existence in thu
states of their creation, the latter taking
no interest in their operations in othe
states after the fees of incorporation ar,
pocketed. This is a phase of the regula
ton process which presents peculiar diff
culties. |- @-'' -
This much is certain: The presiden
merits the support of every one who de
sires to see this. much discussed subjec
dealt with, not fanatically, but rationale
and intelligently. He is not deferred o
- to be deferred from the course he ha
y. taken by political hostility and threats. H
: will stand by his guns and the unprej
udiced public, who believe that this ma
" ton can solve in practical and bene
- ficent, manner, the problems of our com
: pick modern life, will stand by him.