Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-12-12
President Roosevelt's Message.


We regret that we cannot afford the
space to publish it in full
1t began by calling attention to the
prosperity which the county is now sup
posed to be enjoying, and included this
significant sentence: mo country has
ever occupied a higher plane of material
well being than ours at the present
moment"
Regarding trusts President Roosevelt
said
SIN curbug and regulating the combin-
ations of capital which are or may be-
come injurious to the public, we must be
careful not to stop the great enterprises
which have legitimately reduced the
cost of production, nor to abandon the
place which our country has won in the
leadership Of the international industrial
world, not to strike down wealth, with
the result of closing factories and mines,
of turning the wageworker idle in the
streets, and leaving the farmer without
a market for what he grows. Insistence
achieving the possible exactly as, on the
other hand, the stubborn defense alike
of what is good and what is bad in the
existing system, the resolute effort to
obstruct any attempt at betterment, be-
trays blindness to the historic truth that
wise evolution is the sure safeguard
against revolution.
mo more important subject can come
before the Congress than this of the reg
ulatlon of Interstate business. This
country cannot afford to sit supne on
the plea that under our peculiar system
of government we are helpless in the
presence of the new conditions and un-
able to grapple with them, or to cut out
whatever of evil has arisen in connection
with them. The power of the Congress
to regulate interstate commerce is an
absolute and unqualified grant and with
out limitations other than those pre-.
scribed by the constitution. The Con-
gress has constitutional authority to
make all laws necessary and proper for
executing this power, and | am satisfied
that this power has not been exhausted
by any legislation now on the statute
books. 1t is evident, therefore. that
evils restrictive of commercial freedom
and entailng restraint upon national
commerce, fall within the regulative
power of the Congress, ard that a wise
and reasonable law would be necessary
and proper exercise of Congressional
authority to the end that such evils
should be eradicated.
II believe that mOnopOlies, unjust dis
ordinations, which prevent or cripple
competition, fraudulent overcapltailza-
ton and other evils in trust organza-
lions and practices which injuriously
affect interstate trade, can be prevented
under the power of the Congress to reg
ulate commerce with foreign nations
and among the several states through
regulations and requirements operating
directly upon such commerce, the instru-
mentalities thereof, and those engaged
therein.
~ earnestly recommend this subject
to the consideration of the Congress with
a view to the passage of law reasonable
in its provisions and effective in its oper-
ations, upon which the questions can
be finally adjudcated that now raise
doubts as to the necessity of constitu-
tiOnal amendment. If it prove imposs-
bic to accomplish the purposes above
set forth by such a law, then assuredly
we should not shrink from amending
the constitution so as to secure beyond
perauventure the power sought"
Not less guarded than the above were
his utterances on the tariff, some of
which follow:
stability of economic policy must
always be the prime economic need of
this country. This stability should not
be fossilization. The country has acqui-
esced in the wisdom of the protective
tariff principle. 1t is exceedingly unde-
sirable that this system should be de-
stroyed or that there should be violent
and radical changes therein. Our past
experience shows that great prosperity
in this country has always come under
protective tariff, and that the country
cannot prosperIunder fitful tariff changes
at short intervals. Moreover, II the
tariff laws as whole work well and If
business has prOspered under them and
is prospecting, it is better to endure for a
time slight Inconvenience and ineauali-
ties in some schedules than to upset