The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-12-04

House and Senate at noon today. The
reading occupied an hour, and was as
follows:
To the Senate and House of Representa-
We still continue in a period of I'M
bounded prosperity. This prosperity is
not the creature of law, but undoubt-
eddy the laws under which we work have
been instrumental in creating the con-
ditions which made it possible, and by
unwise legislation it would be easy
enough to destroy it. There will I'M
doubtedly be periods of depression. Inc
wave will recede; but the tide will ad-
vance. This Nation is seated on
continent fianked by two great oceans.
1t is composed of men the descendants
of pioneers or, in a sense, pioneers
themselves; of men winnowed out from
among the nations of the Old World by
the energy, boldness and love OF ad-
venture found in their own eager hearts.
Such nation, so placed, will surely
wrest success from fortune.
AS people we have played large part
in the world, and we are bent upon max
ing 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 be great
among the nations. We may either fail
greatly or succeed greatly; but we can
not avoid the endeavor from which either
come. Even if we would, We cannot play
a small part. If we should try, all that
would follow would be that we should
play large part ignobly and shamefully.
But our people, the sons of the men
of the Civil War, the sons of the men
who had iron in their blood, rejoice in
the present and face the future high or
heart and resolute of will. Ours is not
the creed of the weaklng and the cow
ard; ours is the gospel of hope and of
triumphant endeavor. We do not shrink
from the struggle before us. There are
many problems for us to face at the out
set of the twentieth century-grave
problems abroad and still graver at
home but we know that we can solve
them and solve them well, provided only
that we bring to the solution the quail
ties OF head and heart which were SHOWN
by the men who, in the days of Washing
ton, founded this Government, and, in the
days of Lincoln, preserved it.
No country has ever occupied higher
plane of material well-being than ours
at the present moment. This well being
is due to no sudden or accidental causes,
but to the play of the economic forces
in this country for over a century; TO
our laws, our sustained and continuous
policies above all, to the high individual
average of our citizenship. Great for
tunes have been won by those who have
taken the lead in this phenomenal in
dustrial development, and most OF these
fortunes have been won not by doing
evil, but as an incident to action which
has benefited the community as a whole.
Never before has material well being
been so widely diffused among our peo-
pie. Great fortunes have been accumu-
lated and yet in the aggregate these
fortunes are small indeed when COM
pared to the wealth of the people as
whole. The plain people are better off
than they have ever been before. The
insurance companies, which are practic-
ally mutual benefit societies-especiaily
helpful to men of moderate means-rep-
resent accumulations of capital which
are among the largest in this country
There are more deposits in the savings
banks, more owners of farms, more we'll
paid wage earners in this country now
than ever before in our history. OF
course. when the conditions have favored
the growth of so much that was good,
they have also favored somewhat the
growth of what was evil. 1t is eminently
necessary that we should endeavor to
cut out this evil, but let us keep due
sense CT proportion; let us not in fixing
our gaze upon the lesser evil forget the
greater good. The evils are zeal and
some of them are menacing, but they
are the outgrowth, not of misery or de-
cadence, but of prosperity-of the pro-
gress OF our gigantic industrial develop
ment. This Industrial development must
not be checked, but side by side with it
should go such progressive regulation as
will 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 COM
mon sense as well as resolution, sepa-
rating the good from the bad and holding
on to the former while endeavoring to
get rid OF the latter
The Trusts.
In my message to the present Congress
at its first session / discussed at length
the question of the regulation of those
big corporations commonly doing an in
terstate business often with some ten
dency to monopoly, which are popularity
known as trusts. The experience of the
past year has emphasized, in my opinion,
the desirabilty of the steps l then pro-
posed. fundamental requisite of social
efficiency is a high standard of individual
energy and excellence; but this is in no
wise inconsistent with power to act in
combination for aims which can not so
we'll be achieved by the individual acting
alone.
A fundamental base of civilization is
the inviolability of property; but this is
in no wise inconsistent with the right of
society TO regulate the exercise of the
artificial powers which it confers upon
the owners of property. under the name
of corporate franchises, in such way as
TO prevent the misuse of these powers.
Corporations. and especially combina-
tions of corporations, should be managed
under public regulation. Experience has
shown that under our system OF govern
ment the necessary supervision can not
be obtained by state action. II must
therefore be achieved by national action.
Our aim is not to do away with cor
porations; on the contrary, these big ag-