The evening Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1902-1902, 1902-08-26

"That is a BAD thing. When any body

! "rhat is a BAD thing. When any bod,
] Of lawmakers passes law not solel.
| with reference 10 whether that Law
| will do good or i'll. hut with the knovl
edge that not much will come OF
and yet that perhaps the people as
/ whole will likely think was good OF
| the statute books. it does not speal
well for the lawmakers. and it doe
not speak very well for the people
either.
Nov, what | hope to see is powe
given to the national legislature whcl
shall make the control real. 1t woul,
be an excellent thing if we could have
all the states ACT on somewhat similar
lines, so that it would be Unnecessary
for the national government to act
but all Of you know perfectly well
the states will not act on somewhat
similar lines.
"1h" first thing we want is the pub,
LEFTY, and | don't mean publicity as a
favor by some corporations, | mean
it as right from all corporations at
fccted by the law. | want publicity as
to the essential facts in which the pub
lie has an interest. | want the knowl-
edge given to the accredited repre-
senta!iyes of the people of facts on
which those representatives can, if
they see fit. base their actions later.
The publicity itself would cure many
evils. The light Of Gay is a great de-
tcrl'ent to wrongdoing. If the mere
fact of being able to put out markedly
statements which would show the con-
dition of things to he wrong, it would
60 a long distance toward curing that
wrong, and even where 1t did not cure
it it would make the path evident by
which to cure it.
I'VE want to be striving to see what
is good and what is bad, to know what
the facts are and to be able to shape
our course accordingly. Some of these
things ! have said can be done now.
A good deal is being done now. AS
far as the antitrust laws 60 they will
be enforced. Now, no suit will be
undertaken for the sake of seeming to
undertake it.
Every suit that Is undertaken will
be begun because the great lawyer and
upright man whom we are SO fortu-
nate as to have as attorney general,
Mr.. Knox, believes that there is a vio-
lation of the law which we can get at,
and when the suit is undertaken it
won't be compromised, excepting on
the basis that the government wins.
"Of course, gentlemen, no laws
amount to anything unless they are
administered honestly and fearlessly.
You have got to have the administru-
ton before the law amounts to any
thing.
"Thcn | believe, l am not going to
say am sure of it. but | believe it is
possible to frame national legislation
which shall give us more power than
we have now, at any rate over corpo-
rations doing an Interstate business. l
cannot guarantee that, because in the
past it has more than once happened
that we have got laws on the statute
books which those who made them in
tended to mean one thing and when
they came up for decision it was found
that the intention had not been sue
cessfully put into effect. But | believe
that additional legislation can be had.
think we have got to make up our
minds to the tnct that if it proves on
effort that we have not under the con-
as it Is given the national ad-
sufficient power in deal
ing with these great corporations then
no matter what our reverence to the
past may be our duty to the present
and to the future will force us to see
that more power is conferred upon the
national administration.
and when the power has been con
fcrrcd it will rest with the national
government to exercise it. At present
We are going to do the best we can
with strawloss bricks, but remember
hey are bound to be stra wless.
And finally, gentlemen and women
| state that represents so much, that
las always represented SO much that !
$ highest and best in the spirit of true
Americanism, | ask you to remember
hat after all that has been done, that
an be done by governmental action,
fter you have exercised your best
wisdom and exercised it in the most
csolute and lofty spirit, after you
ave given all the needed power to the
atonal government and after that
over has been exercised in the wisest
nd most resolute fashion, ii will still
lean that what has been done is not
, make everything smooth for each
IAN, but simply to give better op-
ortunity for each man to work out
is own future on good terms for HIM
Elf"