The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1902-08-27
PRESIDENT AT BOSTON.
Left Nahant, Mass Yesterday
Afternoon.

Spoke at Symphony Hall TO Grea
Gathering of Business Men-speect
Devoted Entirely to Consideration o
the Trust Question.
Boston, Aug. 26.-The weeks worl
for President Roosevelt in his triI
through New England began in earn
est yesterday afternoon when he de
parted from the beautiful summer
home of the junior senator of Massa
chusetts, Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, a
Nahant, and amid the enthusiasm O
the greatest number of people he has
faced since the Pittsburg visit on July
4, rode into Lynn under cavalry escort
and spoke from platform at City hall
Then he was taken to Boston by
special train and on arrival went t
Symphony hall, there addressing 6
great gathering of Boston business
men. His speech here was devoted al
most entirely to consideration of the
trust question.
From the hall the president went tc
Hotel Touraine where a little later il
the evening he was the guest of Gov
eror Crane at dinner
The president, in his speech at Sym
phony hall, spoke in part as follows:
want to take up this evening the
general question of our economic ant
social relations with specific reference
to that problem with which | thinl
our people are greatly concerning
themselves-the problem of our com
pleX social condition as intensified by
the existence of the great corporations
which we rather loosely designate as
trusts. But | wish to say one or two
things as preliminary. In the first
place ! have not come here to say that
| have discovered a patent cure-all foi
the trusts.
Majority Can Be Trusted.
We founded our republic on The
theory that the average man will as
a rule do the right thing; that in the
long run the majority are going &c
decide for what is sane and whole
some. If our fathers were mistaken
in that theory; if ever events become
such, not occasionally but perslstently
that the mass of the people do what
is unwholesome, what is wrong, then
the republic can not stand. Back OF
the law, back of the administration
back of our system OF government
lies the average manhood of our peo
pie. In the long run we are going &c
go up or go down according as the
average standard of our CITIZENSHIP
does or does not wax in growth and
grace.
There are very many and very diff
cult problems with which we are faced
as one of the results of the forces
which, taken all together, we speak oi
as progress. 1t is worse than useless
for any of us to rail at or regret the
great growth in industrial civiliza.
tion Of the last half century. Speaking
academically we can according to our
several temperaments regard that the
old lights have vanished or not as we
choose. Boston and the thriving
cities of Massachusetts have been
built up as a result of those forces.
There is but little use in regretting
that things have not shaped themselves
differently. The practical thing to dc
is to face the conditions as they are
and see if we can not get the best
there is in them out of them. We
are not going to get any complete OF
perfect solution for all of the evils
which come to our minds when we
think of the trusts by any single action
on our part. A good many actions in
good many different ways will be
required before we get many of those
evils even partially remedied. We
have got to first of all think clearly
we have got to probably experiment
somewhat
Wise to Recognize the Evils.
It is a little difficult to set clearly
before us all of the evils, but think
that those gentlemen, and especially
those gentlemen of large means, who
deny that the evils exist are acting
with great folly. | am far from he
ing against property when I ask that
the question of trusts be taken up
I am acting in the most conservative
sense in property's interest
When a great corporation is sued
for violating the antitrust law II
is not a move against property; II is q
move in favor of property because
when you can make it evident that
all men. big and small. have to obey
rhe law you are putting the safeguard
of law around all men.
1t would be very difficult for any sci
Of laws on our part to deal completely
with a problem which becomes inter
national in its bearings, but a great
deal can be done in various ways
now. A great deal is being done and
great deal more can be done If We
can see that the power is put some
where TO do it. On the whole our
system of government has worked mar
velously well.
When this government was founded |
there were no great individual or cor |
porate fortunes, and commerce and in.
dustry were being carried on very
much as they had been from the days .
when Ninevah and Babylon stood in /
the MesopOtamian valley. The wagon I
train and the pack train and the sail /
ing craft-those we're the methods of
Everything has been rev.
In the business world ever
since and the progress Of civilization