The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-12-09
PRESIDENT ROosEvELT's MESSAGE TO
CONGRESS-.


President Roosevelt's annual message to Con-
gress would fill four or five pages of The Pro-
gressive Farmer. We haven't space to print in
full, and we suppose our readers wouldn't have
time to read it in full.
The President begins his message without any
f~ormality whatever, referring in the first SEN
tence to "the unbounded prosperity of the coun-
try"
"This prosperity" he says, lis not the creature
of law, but undoubtedly the laws under which
we work have been instrumental in creating the
conditions which made it possible, and by unwise
legislation it would be easy enough to destroy it."
This is a very sensible summing up Of the rela-
ton of laws to prosperity-the statement of a
principle that deserves a wider recognition than
it has yet had.
And America is not only prosperous; it is
powerful in the family OF nations. This great
power means great responsibility. Given if we
would, we cannot play a small part. If we should
try, all that would follow would be that we should
play a large part ignobly and shamefully."
The trust question is the first to engage the
attention of the President. Of the need of reg1-
lating the great combinations, he says:
"Corporations, and especially combinations of
corporations, should be managed under public
regulation. Experience has shown that under our
system of government the necessary supervision
cannot be obtained by State action. It must
therefore be achieved by National action. Our
aim is not to do ava" with corporations; on +he
contrary, these big aggregations are an inevjts-
bic development of modern industrialism, and
the effort to destroy them would be futile unless
accomplished in ways that would work the utmost
mischief to the entire body polite. We can do
nothing of good in the way of regulating and
supervising these corporations until we fix clearly
in our minds that we are not attacking the cor
porations, but attempting to do away with the
evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we
are merely determined that they shall be so han
died as to subserve the public good. We draw
the line against misconduct, not against wealth.
The capitalist who, alone or in conjunction with
his fellows, performs some great industrial feat
by which he wins money, is a well-doer. not a
wrong-doer, provided only he works in proper and
legitimate lines. We wish to favor such a man
when he does we'll. We wish to supervise and
control his actions only to prevent him from
doing i'll. Publicity can do no harm to the honest
corporation; and we need not be over-tender
about sparing the dishonest corporation"
No more important subject than this can come
before Congress, says the President. But the
legislation must be moderate, sensible, just. SIN
~sistence2 upon the impossible means delay in
achieving the possible, exactly as, on the other
hand, the stubborn defence alike of what is good
and what is bad in the existing system, the reso-
lutte effort to obstruct any attempt at betterment,
betrays blindness to the historic truth that wise
evolution is the sure safeguard against revolu-
ton"
Mr.. Roosevelt then ridicules the plea that Con-
gress can do nothing. "The power of the Con
gress to regulate interstate commerce is an abb