The Lamar register., 1902-09-10
CONTROL OF TRUSTS
ROOSEVELT ON THE SITUATION


Destroy Them as It Would Be to
Dam the Mssissippi-New consti-
tutionaI Amendment May Be Neees-
sary for Their Control.
Wheeling, w. Va, Sept. president
Roosevelt and party arrived over the
Baltimore II Ohio at $50 yesterday
morning from Washington. He was
greeted by n vast crowd at the depot
and smiled his appreciation. despite
his badly discolored face. His right
cheek was rather badly swollen and
confused, and his left eye showed
signs of discoloration.
The entire party entered vehicles
and We're driven to the Mcclure house,
headed by military band. The Pres
ident addressed an enormous crowd
from the balcony of the hotel. lie
spoke long beyond his scheduled time
which necessitated the curtailment of
the regular program. The President
said in part:
In every governmental process the
aim that ii people capable of self-gov-
ernment should steadfastly keep in
mind is to proceed by evolution rather
than by revolution.
mo one can dam the Mississippi. If
, the nation started to dam 1t Its time
! would be wasted. 1t would not hurt
the Mississippi. it would only damage
the population along the banks. You
cannot dam the current; but you can
build levees and keep the current
within bounds and shape its direction.
Now, L think that is exactly what we
can do with the great, corporations,
known as trusts. We cannot dam
hn
tendencies of the age. If you succeed
in doing it, then the cities like Wheel
ing will have to go out of business,
remember that. You cannot put Il
stop to or reverse the industrial ten
denotes of the age.
You can control and regulate them
so that they will do no harm. Another
thing. you do not build these levees
in day or n month. The man who
tells you that he has n patent device
for which, in sixty days, he would
solve the whole questions of Hoods
along the great rivers would be Il wise
man, but he would be a perfect mir
acle of wisdom compared to the man
who tells you that by another patent
remedy he can bring the millennium in
our industrial and social affairs.
I'VE can do something. | believe we
can do n good deal, but our accom-
plishing what expect to see accom-
plished is conditioned upon our setting
to work in n spirit as far removed as
possible from hysteria. spirit of
sober, steadfast, kindly II want to EN-
phasize the word kindly. determine
ton not to submit to wrong ourselves
and not to wrong others. Not 10 in
terfere with the great business devel-
opment of the country, but ut the same
time so to shape our Legislation and
administration as TO regulate. If we
- cannot remedy, the vicious features
connected with that industrial derel-
opment.
Now, i have said that there can
he no patent remedy offered. There
is not any one thing which can be
done to remedy all the existing evils.
There are Il good many things which,
if we do them. will, ] believe. make
n very appreciable bettermcnt of our
existing condition.
Now, the big corporations, al
though nominally the creatures of one
state usually do business in other
states, and in Il large number of cases
the wide variety of state laws on the
subject of corporations has brought
about the fact that the corporation is
made in one state, but does almost all
It's work in entirely different states. II
has proved utterly impossible to get
anything like uniformity of registra-
tion among the states. Some states
have passed laws about corporations
which, if they had not been ineffective
would have totally prevented any I'M
portant corporate work being done
within their limits. Other states have
such lax laws that there is no effect
i've effort made to control any of the
abuses. As result we have n system
q Ii, I,1 .,-I,a ; I,a tipv,
has something to say. but ii is II little
difficult to know exactly how much,
and where the different states have
each something to say, but where there
is no supreme power that cal speak
with authority.
at is of course n mere truiSm to
say that every corporation, tho small
est as well as the largest, is the Great
ure of the state. Where the corpora
tion is small there is little need of ca
ercising much supervision over it.
But the stupendous corporations of
the present day certainly should be
under governmental supervision and
regulation.
1.-THE first effort TO make is 10 give
somebody the power to exercise that
supervision, that regulation. We have
already laws on the statute books.
Those laws will be enforced and are
being enforced with all the power of
the national government and wholly
without regard to persons.
But the power is very limited. Now.
I want you to take my words at their
exact value. l think-I cannot say l
am sure, because it has often happened
in the past that Congress has passed
laws with n given purpose in view and
when that law has been judicially in
terpreted it has proved that the pur-
pose was not achieved--but l think
that by legislation additional power in