The Springfield herald. (Springfield, Baca County, Colo.) 1887-1919, 1902-09-12
CONTROL OF TRUSTS
ROOSEVELT ON THE SITUATION

Tendency of the Age Is Toward Large
Combinations-As Impossible to
Destroy Them as It Would Be to
Dam the MissIssippi-New consti-
tutionai Amendment May Be Neces-
ssry for Their Control. ,-
Wheeling, w. Va Sept. 1.-President
Roosevelt and party arrived over the
Baltimore X Ohio at $50 yesterday
morning from Washington. He was
greeted by vast crowd at the depot
and smiled his appreciation, despite
his badly discolored face. His right
cheek was rather badly swollen and
confused. and his left eye showed
signs of discoloration.
The entire party entered vehicles
and were driven to the Mcclure house.
headed by military band. The Pres
ident addressed an enormous crowd
from the balcony of the hotel. He
spoke long beyond his scheduled time
which necessitated the curtailiuent of
the regular program. The President
said in part:
In every governmental process the
aim that a people capable of self-gov-
eminent should steadfastly keep in
mind is to proceed by evolution rather
than by revolution.
No one can dam the Mississippi. If
he nation started to dam 1t its time
would be wasted 1t would not hurt
the mississippi: it would only damage
the population along the banks. You
cannot dam the current; but you can
build levees and keep the current
within bounds and shape It's direction.
Now, l think that is exactly what we
can do with the great corporations,
known as trusts. We cannot dam
them, we cannot reverse the Industrial
tendencies of the age. If you succeed
in doing it, then the cities like Wheel
ing will have to 20 out of business,
remember that. You cannot put a
stop to or reverse the Industrial ten
denotes of the age.
You can control and regulate them
so that they will do no harm. Another
thing, you do not build these levees
in IA day or II month. The man who
tells you that he has n patent device
for which, in sixty days, he would
solve the whole questions of floods
along the great rivers would be wise
man, but he would be a perfect mir
acle of wisdom compared to the man
who tells you that by another patent
remedy he can bring the millennium in
our industrial and social affairs.
We can do something. l believe we
can do good deal, but our accom-
plishing what / expect to see accom-
plished is conditioned upon our setting
TO work in spirit as far removed as
possible from hysteria. y spirit of
sober, steadfast, kindly Il want TO en-
phasze the word kindly. determine
ri, to tn al -aS
and not to wrong others. Not to in
terfcre with the great business dcvel-
opment of the country, but ut the same
tine so to shape our legislation and
administration rs 10 regulate. If we
| annot remedy. the vicious features
connected with that industrial devel-
opmcnt.
Now, l have said that there can
be no patent remedy offered There
is not any one thing which can be
done to remedy all the existing evils
There are Il good many things which,
if we do them. will, | believe, make
n very appreciate bettermcnt of our
existing condition.
Now, the big corporations. al
though nominally the creatures of one
state, usually do business in other
states, and in II large number of cases
the wide variety of state laws on the
subject of corporations has brought
about the fact that the corporation is
made in one state. hut does almost all
its work in entirely different states. It
has proved utterly impossible to get
anything like uniformity of registra
ton among the states. Some states
have passed laws about corporations
which, if they had not been ineffective
would have totally prevented any I'M
portant corporate work being done
within. their limits. Other states have
such lax laws that there is no effect
i've effort made to control any of the
abuses. AS a result we have Il system
of divided c0ntrol-where the nation
has something to say, but it is II little
difficult TO know exactly how much,
and where the different states have
each something to say. but where there
is no supreme power that can speak
with authority. tf.
1T is of course n mere truism to
say that every corporation. the small
est as well as the largest, is the Great
lire of the state. Where the corpora
Jon is small there is little need of cx-
ercising much supervision over it.
But the stupendous corporations of
the present day certainly should be
under governmental supervision and
regulation
1.-THE first effort to make is 10 give
somebody the power to exercise that
supervision, that regulation. We have
already laws on the statute books.
Those laws will be enforced and are
being enforced with all the power of
the national government and wholly
without regard to persons.
But the power is very limited Now,
] want you to take my words at their