Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1902-12-11
Document Deals with Questions of Vast
Importance to the Nation
TRUSTS AND THE TARIFF DEALT WITH
Fful Changes of Import Duties Menace to the Business
Interests of the Country Reciprocity Treaties
Desirable Monetary legislation
lions of Labor and Capital

10 the senate ana House OF hepresen'
tatives: We still continue in a period OF
unbounded prosperity. This prosperity
is not the creature Of law, but undoubt-
edly the laws under which we work have
been instrumental in creating the condi-
lions which made it possible, and by I'M
wise legislation 1t would be easy enough
TO destroy it. There will undoubtedly
be periods OF depression. The wave will
recede; but the tide will advance. This
nation is seated on a continent fianked
by two great oceans. II 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. holiness
and love Of adventure found in their own
eager hearts. Such a nation, so placed.
will surely wrest success from fortune.
AS people we have played q large
part In the world, and we are bent upon
making eur 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
cannet avoid the endeavor from which
either great failure or great success
must come. Even IL we would, we can
not play a sinai! part. If we should try,
all that would follcv 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 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 individ-
ual average of our citizenship, Great
fortunes have been won 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
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 accum-
ulated 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 of
than they have ever been before. The
insurance companies, which are prac-
tieally mutual benefit societies-especially
helpful to men of moderate means-fep-
resent accumulatlons of capital which are
among the largest in this country. There
are more deposits in the savings banks,
more owners OF farms. more well-paid
wage workers 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 neces-
sary that we should endeavor to cut out
this evil but let us keep due sense of
proportion; let us not in fixing our gaze
upon the lesser evil forget the greater
good The evils are real and some OF
them are menacing. but they are the
outgrowth, not of misery or decadence'
but of prosperity-of the progress OF our
gigantic Industrial development. This
nnSt not be
checked, but side by side with II should
go such progressive regulation as Will
diminish the evils. We should ran IN
ovr duty IL we did not try to remedy the
evils but we shall succeed only II we
proceed patiently, with practical common
sense as well as resolution, separating
the good from the bad and holding On 10
the former while qndeavoring to get RID
Of the latter.
; National Action to Control Trusts.
In NV message to the present Congress
Al 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 popularly
known as trusts The experience OF the
mast year has emphasized in my opin-
ion, the desirability of the steps l then
proposed. A fundamental base OF civil
ization is the inyiolahiity OF property;
but this Is in no wise inconsistent with
the right of society to regulate the ex-
ercise 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. Corporations, and espe-
cially combinations of corporations,
should be managed under public regula-
ton. Experience has shown that under
our system of government the necessary
supervision cannot be obtained by state
action. II must therefore be achieved
by national action. Our aim is not to do
away with corporations; on the contrary
these big aggregations are an inevitable
development Of modern industrialism. and
the effort to destroy them would be futile
unless accomplished in ways that would
work the utmost mischief to the entire
body polite. We can do nothing Of good
in the way of regulating and supervising
these corporations until we fix clearly IN
our minds that we are not attacking the
corporations, but endeaYoring to do away
with any evil In them. We are not hos
tile to them; we are merely determined
that they shall be so handled as to sub
serve the public good. We draw the line
against misconduct, not against wealth.
The capitalist who. alone or in conjunc-
tion with his fellows, performs some
great Industrial feat by which he wins
money is a welldoer. not a wrongdoer,
provided only he works in proper and
legitimate lines. We wish to favor such
a man when he does well. We wish to
supervise and control his actions only to
prevent him from doing ILL., Publicity
can do no harm to the honest corpora
ton: and we need not be overtender
about sparlng the dishonest corporation.
The Necessity for Care.
In curbing and regulating the combina-
lions OF capital which are or may become
Injurious to the public we must be careful
not to stop the great enterprises which
have legitimately reduced the cost OF pro-
duction, not to abandon the place which
our country has won in the leadership OF
the international Industrial world not to
strike down wealth with the result OF
closing factories and mines, of turning
the wage-worker idle in the streets and
leaving the farmer without market for
what he grows. Insistence upon the i'm
possible means delay in achieving the
possible. exactly as. on the other hand,
the stubborn defense alike OF what is
good and what is bad in the existing sys-
TEN. the resolute effort to obstruct any
attempt at betterment. betrays blind
ness to the historic truth that wise evolu-
ton is the sure safeguard against revo-
luton.
Importance Of the Subject.
No more important subject can come
before the Congress than this Of the
regulation Of interstate business. The
country cannot afford to sit supine on
the plea that under OTIS peculiar system
Of government We are helpless in the
presence OF the new conditions and I'M
able to grapple with them or to cut out
whatever OF evil has arisen in conhec-
tion with them. The power OF the Con-
Kress to regulate interstate commerce a