The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1902-08-28
THE TRUST QUESTION
Discussed by President In His
Boston Speech.
HE WANTS FEDERAL CONTROL.
Says That with Present Laws Cor
porations Cannot BE Dealt with
ns the situation Demands
They should be.


BOSTON. Aug. 2G-The weeks work
for President Roosevelt in his trip
through New England began in earnest
when he departed from the beautiful
Massachusetts, Hon. Henry Cabot
Lodge. at Nahant. and amid the ell
thusiasm of the greatest number of
people he has faced since the Pitts
burg visit on July rode into Lynn
under cavalry escort and spoke from
platform Mt city hail. Then he was
taken to Boston by special train and
vi arrival went to Symphony hall,
there addressing a great gathering of
Boston business men. His speech here
was devoted almost entirely TO con
eideration of the trust question.
From the hall the president went to
Hotel Tourainc.' where little later in
the evening he was the guest of Gov
ernor Crane at dinner.
This morning bright ;hld early the
presidential party started for Maine.
The president said in part:
Everything has been revolutiOnized
in the business world since the govern
ment was founded. and the progress of
civilization from being tIickle has
become torrent There was no par
ticular thing Mt that time to bother as
TO whether the nation or the state had
control of the corporations. They were
easy to control. Now. however. the
exact reverse is the case, and remcm-
Der | say corporations | do not
say merely trusts, merely combna-
tions of corporations or corporations
under certain peculiar conditions. For
instance. some time ago the attorney
general took action against certain
trust. There has been considerable
discussion as to whether the trust
aimed at would not seek to get out
from under the law by becoming a
single corporation. Now, want laws
TO enable us to deal with it no matter
what shape it takes. l want to see the
government to be able to get mt it def
nitely, so that the action of the govern
ment cannot be evaded by any turn
ing within or without federal or state
statutes.
"At present we have really no eff
cient control over big corporation
which does business in more than one
state. Frequently the corporation has
nothing whatever to do with the state
in which it is Incorporated except to
get Incorporated, and its actions may
be taken in entirely different communi-
ties, communities which may object
60. 80;
ration in the state named. | do not
think you can get action by any state.
action by all the states, that will give
us satisfactory control of the trusts or
big corporations, and the result is at
present that we have a great, power
full artificial creation which has no
creator to which it is responsible
THE creator creates ii, and then it
goes and operates somewhere else. and
there is no interest to the creator to
deal with it. 1t does not do anything
in that state. 1t operates outside en-
tirely. OF course it is a mere truism
that the corporation is the creature of
the state, that the state is sovereign.
Now, l want TO make real and not a
sovereign TO which the corporation
shall be really, really and not nominal
ly, responsible.
The first thing we want is the pub
1icity, and | don't mean publicity as
favor by some corporations, | mean
1t as right from all corporations af-
fected by the law. l want publicity as
fo nfS in MI i.I bn
lie has an interest. / want the knowl-
edge given to the accredited repre-
sentatives 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 day is great de-
terrent to wrongdoing. If the mere
fact Of being able to put out nakedly
statements which would show the con
dition of things to be wrong, it would
go a long distance toward curing that
wrong, and even where it did not cure
It it would make the path evident by
which to cure it.
I'VE want to he 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 go 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 Il 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 hosnestly and fearlessly
You have got to have the administers
ton before the law amounts to any
thing.
"Then / believe, | am not going to
say | am sure of II, but | believe it Is
possible to frame national legislation
which shall give us more power than
we have now, at any rate over corpO-
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