The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-24
THEY NEED The CURB
CORPORATE AGGRESSIoNs MUST
BE RESTRAINED.
PRESIDENT AT PROVIDENCE.
ROOSEVELT SPEAKS IN RHODE
ISLANDS CAPITAL CITY.

May BE Welded to Help or Hurt.
Government Alone Fitted to Exer-
else Supervision Constitutional
Amendment If Necessary-Pubiic-
ity the First Need-PubIicity, Pow
erfuI to Aid, the First Step-WOuIG
Cure Existing Evils.
Providence, r. L., Aug. 23.-Not since
the visit here of President Hayes,
twenty-five years ago, has a chief ex-
ecutive been accorded so brilliant and
thoroughly general a reception as that
rendered to-day to President Roose-
welt on the occasion of his tour
through this state.
Men and women came from every
part of the state and gathered $4,000
strong, about the platform at City
Hall, from which the President de-
livered an address. An ovation that
lasted five minutes was the greeting
given the President when he arose to
speak. He devoted his attention to in
dustrial conditions growing out of
prosperity, especially the increase eff
corporate wealth. He said:
For some of the evils which have
attended upon the good of the changed
conditions we can at present see no
complete remedy. For others the rem
edy must come by the action of men
themselves in their private capacity,
whether merely as individuals or by
h
yet others some remedy can be found
in legislative and executive action, ma
ton, state or municipal
Corporations Must Exist.
Much of the complaint against
combinations is entirely unwarranted.
Under present-day conditions it is as
necessary to have corporations in the
business world as it is to have organi-
cation among wageworkers. But we
have right to ask in each case that
they shall do good and not harm.
Exactly as labor organizations, when
managed intelligently and in spirit
of justice and fair play, are of very
great service not only to the wage
workers. but to the whole community,
as the history of many labor organ
izations has conclusively shown, so
wealth, not merely individual, but cor
porate, when used Alright is not merely
benefit to the community as whole,
but Indispensable to the upbuilding of
the country, under the conditions,
which at present the county has grown
not only to accept but to demand as
normal.
This is so obvious that it seems
trite even to state it, and yet if we
are to judge from some of the argu-
ments advanced against, and attacks
made upon wealth as such, it is a
fact worth keeping in mind.
Great Fortune May he a Menace.
"A great fortune, if not used Alright,
a menace to the community as a whole,
just as a great intellect does if it is
unaccompanied by developed con-
science, by character But obviously
this no more affords grounds for con-
demning wealth than it does for con-
demning intellect. Every man of
power by the best fact of the power,
is capable of doing damage to his
neighbors, but we cannot afford to
discourage the development of such
men merely because it is possible
they may use their power to wrong
ends. If we did so we should leave
our history a blank, for we should
have no great statesmen, soldiers, or
merchants, no great men of arts. of
letters or of science
Doubtless the most useful man to
his fellow citizens is apt to be he to
whom has been given what the Psalm
list prayed for, neither poverty nor
riches, but the great captain of indus
try, the man of wealth who alone or
in combination with his fellows, drives
fhr0lIph hue
is factor without which this country
could not possibly maintain it's pres
ent industrial position in the world
Good Should Come From Wealth.
Good, not harm, normally comes
from the piling up of wealth through
business enterprises. Probably the
most serious harm resulting to us, the
people of moderate means, is when we
harm ourselves by letting the evil vices
of envy and hatred towards our fell
lows eat into our natures.
Still, there is other harm of a more
evident kind, and such harm it is
our duty to try to eradicate if posi-
BILE, and in any event to minimize. The
corporations, and therefore those great
corporations containing some tendency
to monopoly, which we have grown to
speak of rather loosely as trusts, are
and the state not only has
the right to control them, but is in duty
bound to control them wherever the
need for such control is shown.
There is clearly a need of super
vision, need to exercise the power Of
regulation on the part of the represen-
tatives of the public, where
ever, as in our own coun-
try at the present time
business corporations become so very
strong, both for beneficent work and
for work that is not always beneficent
1t is idle to say that there is no need
for supervision. A sufficient warrant
for it is to be found over and over
again in any of the various evils re-
sulting from the present system, or
rather lack of system.
States Can't Deal With Trusts.
There is in our country a peculiar
difficulty in the way of exercising SUI
pervision and control because of the
peculiar division of governmental pow
er. When the industrial conditions
were simple, very little control was
needed, and no trouble was caused lby
the doubt as to where the power was
lodged under the constitution Now.
the conditions are complicated, and we
find 1t difficult to frame nation
al legislation which shall be
adequate. while as matter Of
practical experience, state action has
proved entirely insufficient and In all
human probability cannot or VIII not
be made sufficient TO meet the needs
Of the case.
Some OF our states have excellent
laws, laws which II would be well in