Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-08-25
TRUST PROBLEMS.
Pres. RooseveIt's Great Speech,
Saturday, at Providence.
q Much Has Been Done, and Much Re-
% mains to Be Done.
.Es5
Publicity First, Lest We Destroy In
stead of Remedying.

period is as sure as adversely itself TO
bring mrtteTings of discomfort. AT
time when most men prosper somewhat
ii always happens that few men
prosper greatly, and it is as true now
as it was when the tower of Sloan fell
upon all who were under it, that good
torture does NOT come only to the just,
nor bad fortune only to the unjust.
When the weather is good for crops
it is also good for weeds; moreover, not
only do the wicked flourish when the
times are such that most men fourlsh,
but what is worse, the spirit Of envy
g and peaIousy and hatred springs up IN
the breasts of those who, through they
may be doing fairly well themselves
yet see others who are no more de-
Serving doing far better.
Wise laws and upright administra-
ton of the laws cen give the Cppor-
tunity for such prosperity as that We
sec about us. But this is all that they
'i can do. When the conditions have been
created which makes prosperity posi-
bic, then each individual man must
achieve it for himself, by his own
thrift, intelligence energy, industry
and resol,te purpose.
-ty II when people wax fat they kick, as
q they have been prone to do since the
days of Jethurun, they viii speedily
destroy their own prosperity.
If they go into wild speculation and
lose their heads, they have lost that
(which no legislation can supply and
the business world will suffer in con-
sequence.
If in a spirit of sulen envy they in
sist upon pulling down those who have
.profted most by the years of fairness,
they will bury themselves in the crash
b., of the common disaster. 1t is difficult
to make our material condition better
by the best laws, but it is easy enough
by bad laws 10 throw the whole nation
into an abyss of misery.
,. Now, the upshot of all this is that it
"a. is peculiarly incumbent upon us in a
- time Of such material well-being. both
collectively as q nation and Individual
ly. each on his own account, to show
that we possess the qualities of pru
dcnce. sell knowledge and self
restraint
In our gov arnment we need above all
things stability. fiXity of economic pol
icy, while remembering that this fixity
must not be fossiIization, that there
must not be inability to shape our
course anew to meet the shifting needs
of the people as these needs arise,
There are real and great evils in our
social and economic life, and these evils
stand out with ugly badness during
good times, for the wicked who prosper
are never n pleasant sight. There os
every need of striving in all possible
ways. individually and collectively. By
combinations among ourselves in pri-
!
organs of government for the cutting
out of these evils. Only let us be sure
that we do not use the knife with an
ignorant zeal which would make it
more dangerous to the patient than to
the disease
One of the features of the tremendous
industrial growth of the last genera
ton has been the very great increase
in large private, and especially in large
corporate fortunes. We may like This
or not, Just as we please, but it is a
fact. nevertheless, and as far as we can
see it is an inevitable result of The
working of various causes, prominent
among which has been the immense
Importance steam and electricity have
assumed in modern life.
Urban population has grown in this
v, x,
much faster than the population as Il
whole dAring the last century, and
where men are gathered together in
great masses it inevitably results that
they must work far more largely by
means of combinations among them
selves than when they live isoa ted
from one another.
Now, | suppose that most Of us pre-
faf
of life under which the average man
lived more TO himself and by himself,
when the average community was more
seIt-dependent. and where. even though
the standard of comfort was lower on
the average. yet there was less of the
glazing inequality in worldly conditions
which we now see in our great cities
1t is not true that the poor have
grown poorer. but some of the rich
have grown so very much richer that.
d. where multitudes of men are herded
together in a limited space. the con-
- trast strikes the onlooker as more vio-
% lent than formerly.
On the whole. our people earn mora
and live better than ever before and
the progress of which we are so proud
could not have taken place had ii not
p'tH lul TIE great upDullulnE OF lnQOS-
trial centers such as our commercial
and manufacturing cities. But together
with the good there has come a meas
ure of evil. Life is not so simple as It
was. and surely. both for the individ-
ual and the community, the simple life
4, is normally the healthy life. There is
not in the cities the same sense of COM
mon underlying brotherhood which
there is still in country localities and
the lines of social cleavage are far
2 more clearly marked.
For some of the evils which have at
tended upon the good of the changed
conditions we can at present see no
complete remedy. For others the rem
~ edy must come by the action of men
e themselves in their private capacity,
whether merely as individuals or by
combinations one with another. For
yet Others some remedy can be found
H IN legislative and executive action. ma
tional state or municipal
Much of the complaint against COM
blnations is entirely unwarranted. I'm
der present day conditions itisas neces-
tSary to have cOrnora fiops in tba h,,e;