The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-12-03
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

addresses the people of the United
States, through their representatives
in Congress.
After few patriotic paragraphs
whose rhetoric has the clarion's ring,
the President takes vigorously in hand
the related matters of the trusts and
the tariff, and explains his views on
the mooted question of tariff revision.
Excluding the class Of people whose
selfish interests are Immediately in
volved and with whom selfshness is
the domi mating trait, there can hard
ly be a reader who will not yield to
the President ready and cordial assent
o his propositions, his reasoning and
his conclusions.
In the matter of the trusts the Pres
ident distinguishes between corpora
tions which are the inevitable out
growth of business development, which
are employing Legitimate methods, and
those which foster monopolies, which
make unjust determinations, which
prevent or cripple competition, which
permit fraudulent overcapitalization
and other evils in trust organizations
and pr lctices which injuriously affect
the public welfare. ave are not
hostile to trusts; we are merely de-
termined that they shall be so handled
as to subserve the public good. We
draw the line against misconduct, not
against wealth" Congress has ample
authority to regulate trusts under the
power the Constitution gives that
body "to regulate commerce with for
eign nations and among the several
States' If it proves impossible to
keep combinations of capital within
their reasonable bounds by law,
"then, assuredly, we should not
shrink from amending the Constitu-
ton so as to secure beyond peradven-
ture the power sought "
In respect of the proposition to reach
the misconducting trusts through
tariff reduction, the President thinks
this would not merely be "wholly in
effective but the diversion of all our
efforts in such direction would mean
the abandonment of all intelligent at
tempt to do away with these evils.
Many of the largest and worst offend
ing corporations would not be affected
in the slightest degree by change
in the tariff, except as the change
interfered with the general pros
perity of the country. To remove the
tariff as punitive measure would be
to punish the guilty and the innocent
alike, to ruin the weaker competitors
who are struggling against the trusts.
BY proper regulation, not by unwise
tariff changes which would give the
foreign products the advantage over
domestic products, the President
would give domestic competition a
fair chance and this end cannot be
reached by any tariff changes which
would affect unfavorably all dor este
competitors, good and bad alike. The
question of the regulation of the
trusts stands apart from the question
of tariff revision. So reasons the
President, and he seems to make this
matter quite clear.
In the matter of tariff revision the
President understands that stability
of economic policy must always be
the prime economic need of this coun-
try" But this stability "should not
be fossilization. Possibly this is
quite as trenchant statement as
could be made of the difference be-
tween real conservatism and the do
nothing policy that often st ands for
stability. 1t is the incarnate Roose-
welt. He believes that, if tariff laws
as a whole work we'll, if business has
prospered and is prospecting under
them, it is better to endure for a time
slight incoveniences and inequalities
in some schedules than to upset bust
ness by too quick and too radical
changes. - Partisanship, in this
matter, should be made secondary to
the business interests of the country
that is, to the interests of the people
as a whole; but in the following par
agraph the President recognizes the
need of rational tariff amendment or
revision: Unquestionably these bust
ness interests will best be served if to-
gether with fixity of principle as re-
CARDS the tariff we combine a system
which will permit us from time to
time to make the necessary reapplica-
ton of the principle to the shifting
national needs. "
The President favors reciprocity
treaties, when they are desirable, as
one of the means of tariff readjust-
ment.
The discussions of the message
throughout, in form and matter, are
of high order of craftsmanship and
must enhance Mr.. Roosevelts already
high distinction, in literature as well
as man of very unusual capacity for
great and difficult affairs.