The Dolores star., 1902-09-12
CONTROL OF TRUSTS
ROOSEVELT ON THE SITUATION

Cam INC mtbsiSStpPt-N0W NonStt-
tutionai Amendment May BE Neces-
sary for Their Control.
Wheeling, w. Va, Sept. 7.-Prcsident
Roosevelt and party arrived over the
baltimore & Ohio at $50 yesterday
morning from Washington. He was
A greeted by a 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 a military band. The Pres
ident addressed an enormous crowd
from the balcony of the hotel. He
spoke long beyond his scheduled time
which ncccssitated the curtailment of
the regular program. The President
said in part:
IN every governmental process the
aim that n people capable of self-gov-
ernment should steadfastly keep in
mind is to proceed by evolution rather
than by revolution.
NO one can dam the Mississippi. If
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 its direction.
| Now, 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 go out of business,
remember that You cannot put
stop to or reverse the industrial ten
dencies 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 day or n month. The man who
tells you that he has patent device
for which, in sixty days, he would
solve the whole questions of floods
along the great rivers would be Il wise
man, but lie would be 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 a good deal, but our accom-
piishing what ! expect to see accom-
plished is conditioned upon our setting
TO work in Il spirit as far removed as
possible from hysteria A spirit of
sober, stcadfast, kindly II want to en-
phasze the word kindly dctermina-
tion not to submit to wrong ourselves
and not to wrong others. Not to in
tcrfere with the great business devel-
opment of the country, but at the same
tine so to shape our legislation and
administration as to regulate. if we
cannot remedy, the vicious features
connected with that industrial devcl-
opment.
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.
fhere are Il good many things which,
If we do them. will. believe. make
very appreciable bettcrment of our
existing condition.
Now, the big corporations, al
though nominally the creatures of one
state, usually do business in other
states. and in n large number of cases
the wide variety of state laws on the
subject of corporations has brought
Hpout tuc IdCl that llt lS
made in one state, but 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 Il result we have system
OF divided cOntrol-where the nation
mas something to say, but 1t is a little
'iiflicuit to know exactly how much,
and where the different states have
each something to say, but where there
ps no supreme power that can speak
with authority.
1t is of course mere truiSm to
say that every corporation, the small
est as well as the largest, is the Great
IRE OF the state. Where the corpora
ION is small there Is little need of ex-
prcising much supervision over it.
But the stupendOus corporations Of
he present day certainly should be
ihder governmental supervision and
regulation.
The first effort to make is TO give
somebody the power to exercise that
Eupervlslon, that regulation. We have
ill.ready laws on the statute books.
hose laws will be enforced and are
,elhg enforced with all the power Of
ne national government and wholly
Without regard to persons.
But the power is very limited. Now,
want You to take my words at their
pNact value. think-I cannot say
III sure, because 1t has often happened
the past that Congress has passed
avs with given purpose in view and
men that law has been judlclally in
erpreted it has proved that the pur-
rose was not achieved-but l think
nat by legislation additional power in
ne way of regulation of at least
lumber Of those great corporations
Fan be conferred.
But, gentlemen, / firmly believe
llat IN the end power must be given,
robably through constitutional
1nendment. to the national govern
A.