The Globe-republican., 1902-12-11

To the Senate and House of Represen- 7
tatives: We still continue in period o.
unbounded prosperity. This prosperity
is not the creature of law, but undoupt-
-edIys the laws under which work have
been instrumental in creating the condf- |
tions which made it possible, and by un-
wise legislation it would be easy enough |
to destroy it There will undoubtedly |
be periods of depression The wave viii |
recede: but the tide will advance This |
na ton seated on a continent ianked |
by two great oceans 1t is composed |
of men the descendants of pioneers, or |
in sense. pioneers themselves; of men |
winnowed out from among the nations |
of the old world by the energy, boldness.
and love of adventure found in their own
eager hearts Such a nation. so placed
will surely wrest success from fortune
. AS people have played large
part in the world and we are bent upon
making our future even larger than the
past In particular. the events of the last
four years have definitely decided that
for woe or for veal, our place must De
great among the nations We may either
fail greatly or succeed greatly; but we
cannot avoid the endeavor from Whlch
either great failure or great success
must come Even if we would: we can
all that would follow would be that we
should play a large part ignobly and
.shamefully-
No country has ever occupied higher
plane of material well-being than ours
at the present moment. This welI-being
is due to sudden or accidental causes,
but to the play of the economic forces
in this country for over century; to
our laws. our sustained and continuous
policies: above all. to the high individ-
nal average of citizenship Great
fortunes have been by those who
have taken the lead in this phenomenal
industrial development, and most of these
fortunes have been won not by doing
evil. but as an incident to action which
mas benehted the community as Whole-
Never before has material well-being
been so widely difrused among our peo-
pie Great fortunes nave oeen accuh-
.ulated and yet in the aggregate these
sortunes are small indeed when com
pared to the wealth of the people as
whole The plain people are better on
Insurance companies. which are Prac-
;tically mutual benefit societies-especfally
helpful of moderate means-rep-
resent accumulat1ons of capital Whlcn are
among the largest in this country. There
are more deposits in the savings banks
more owners of farms. more weH-Pa1d
wage workers in this country now than
ever before in our history OF course,
when the conditions nave favored the
growth of much that was good, they
nave also 1aVorSd some SO H I ne 49, " 81
sof what was evil 1t IS ernlnerlIy neces-
Bary that should endeavOr to cut out
proportion; let us not In hxing our gaze
Tlpon the lesser evil forget the greater
good The evils real and some of
them are menacing, but they are the
outgrowth. not of misery or decadence,
gigantic industrial development rms
Industrial development must not be
go such progressive regulation as VIII ~
diminish the evils. We should fail in
our duty if we did not try to remedy the
evils, but we shall succeed only if We
proceed PATIENTLY with practical common
ne good from the bad and holding on to
efs@ former while endeaVorIng TO get ria
.-5 Of the latter
National Action to Control Trusts
In my message to the present Congress
at its first session L discussed at length
the question of the regulation of those
SAsSsE corporafi fions commonly doing an in
terstate business. often with some ten
+tsgnov to monopoly. which are popularity
s[noxu as trusts. The experience of the
past year has emphasized, in my opin-
ION the desirability of the steps then
nrooosed A , fundamental base of civil
sza tion is the inviolability of property
z,ut this is in wise inconsistent with
<he right of society to regulate the eS-
eercise of the artificial powers which 1t
-confers upon the owners of property un-
der the name of corporate franchises in
such a way as to prevent the misuse
of these powers Corporation ana espe-
ciaIly combinations of corporations
should be managed under public reguIa-
xion. Experience has shown that under
o,1r system of government the necessary
supervision cannot be obtained by state
action. must therefore be achieved
F,v national action Our aim is not to dc
away with corporations; on the contrary
these big aggregations are an 1neVltaoit
<5evelopment of modern indus strialisIn, and
the effort to destroy them would be futile
unless accomplished in ways that woule
work the utmost mischief to the entir'
body polite We can do nothing OF gooe
in the way of regulating ana suPerVlslnt
these corporations until we fix clearly il
our minds that We are not attacking tn
corporations. but endeaEorlng TO 90 ava!
with any evil in them We are not hos
ere to them we are merely determine
that they shall be SO fiaEoieu as 10 SUP
serve the public good We draw the lin
The capitalist who alone or IN conJunc
1ion with his fellows performs som
Industrial feat by which he win
Enoney is a welldoer. not a wrongdoel
provided only he works in proper an
lines We wish to favor sue
a man when he does we'll We wish [
supervise and control his actions only
prevent him from doing ILL., Pub1icit
can do no harm to the honest corpora
tion; and we need not be overtende
about sparing the dishonest corporal tiol
The Necessity for Care
In curbine and regulating the cornbina
tions of capital which are or may beeom
injurious to the public must be carefi
not stop the great enterprises wflic
have 1egftirna tely reduced the cost of prS
fiuction. not to abandon the place whic
our country has won in the leadership
the international Industrial world, not
strike down wealth with the result
closing factories and mines, of turnir
the wage-worker idle the streets ar
leaving the farmer without market 4
what he grows Insistence upon the in
possible means delay in achieving Il