The Elbert County tribune., 1902-09-11
CONTROL OF TRUSTS
ROOSEVELT ON THE SITUATION


tutionai Amendment May Be Neees-
sary for Their Control.
Wheeling. W. Va. Sept President
Roosevelt and party arrived over the
Baltimore & Ohio at $50 yesterday
morning from Washington He was
greeted by vast crowd at the depot
and smiled his appreciation, despite
his badly dlscolored face. His right
cheek was rather badly swollen and
confused. and his left eye showed
slgrfs Of discolorntion.
The entire party entered vehicles
and were driven TO the Mcclure house.
headed by a military hnnd The Pres
ident addressed an enormous crowd
from the balcony OF the hotel. He
spoke long beyond his scheduled time
which necessltated the curtailment OF
the regular program. The President
said In part:
In every governmental process the
aim that people capable OF self gov
ernment should steadfastly keep in
mind is 10 proceed by evolution rather
than by revolution.
NO one can dam the Mississippi. If
the milton started to dam It Its time
would be wasted. 1t would not hurt
Aht -hirSlNSlfItis II MDuiu Only
the population along the banks. You
cannot dam the current; but you can
build leyees 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 IL you succeed
In doing 1t, 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 viii do no harm. Another
thing, you do not build these levees
in n day or month. The man who
tells you that he has patent device
for which. in sixty days, lie 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
wlsTtells you that by another patent
remedy he can bring The millennium in
our Industrial anil social affairs.
1--WE can do something. L believe we
cap do "A good deal, but our accom-
plishing what / expect to see accom-
plished Is conditioned upon our setting
10 work in spirit as far removed as
possible from hysteria. y spirit of
sober steadfast. kindly Il want to EN-
phasize the word kindly. determina-
ton not TO submit TO wrong ourselves
and not to wrong Others. Not 10 in
tcrfere with the great business devel-
oIqiient of the country, hut nj the same
t.me so to shape our legislation and
administration as TO regulaies II we
caiinot remedy, the vicious features
II
opment
Nov, | 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 good many things which,
IL we do them. Will. believe. make
n very apprecinble betterment OF our
existing condition
-Now. the big corporations, al
though nominaliy 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 inf one state. but does almost all
Its work In entirely different states. It
has proved utterly impossible TO get
anything like uniformity OF registra-
tlon among the states. Some states
have passed laws about corporations
which. If they had not been ineffective
would have totally prevented any im-
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 II result we have n system
OF divided cnntrol-w where the nation
has sOmething-to- say. but II is a 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.
1T is of course mere truism to
say that every corporation. the small
est as well as the largest Is the Great
ure of the state Where The corpora
tiou is small there is little need of ex-
crcising much supervision over it.
But the stupendous corporations of
the present day certainly should be
under governmental supervision and
regulation. .-~
''The first effort TO make is TO give
somebody the power TO exercise that
supervision, that regulation. We have
already laws on the statute books
Those laws will he 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
exact value. / think--I cannot say ]
am sure. because It has often happened
in the past that Congress has passed
laws with a given, purpose in view and
when that law has been judlclally in
terpreted 1t has proved that the pur
pose was-Bet achieved-but l think
that by legislation additional power in
the way Of regulation OF at least n
number of those great corporations
Gamble conferred 80