The National tribune., 1902-12-04
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Vigorous and Masterful Discussonioi Public Affairs

been double that length. Bur il is full of
meat from first 10 last. and every line
! h,eathes the Presidents own vigorous per-
sonality. After Il brief alitlsion TO our
aborn1ns prosperity, he starts off in this
willie American fashion:
AS IL people we have played Il large
| part III the world. and eve are bent upon
making our future even larger than the
| past. In particular. the events of the last
| Iour 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
| great failure or great success must come.
Even if we wouid, we canOnt play small
part. IL we should Try, all that would fol-
! low would be that we should play large
part ignobly .,nd 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 pres
| ent and face the future high of heart and
| rcsoutc OF will. Ours is not the creed of
the weakling and the coward; ours is the
gospel of hope and of triumphant -en-
deavor. We do not shrink from the struS-
| gle before us. There are MANY problems
for us to face at the outset of the twen-
tieth century-srave problems abroad aud
still Sraver at home; but we know that we
can solve them and solve them well, pro-
vided only that we bring to the solution
| the qualities of head and heart which were
| shown by the men who, in the days of
Washington. founded this Government
| and. in the days of Lincoln. preserved 1t.
No country has ever occupied a higher
plane of material well-bcing than ours at
| the present moment. This weil-belnS IS
due to no sudden or accidental causes, but
fN tI,, nj nf thp pronpJuIc forces tins
| country for over u century: to our laws,
our sustained and continuous. policies;
above ALL to the high individual average
of our citizenship. Great fortunes have
been won by those who have taken the
lead in this phenomenal industrial develop
ment. and NEST of these fortunes nave
been won not by doing evil. but as an In
cident to action which has benefited the
community as a whole. Never before has
material welI-being been so widely diffused
| among our people. Great fortunes have
been accumulated, and yet in the aggre-
gate these fortunes are small indeed wnen
compared to the wealth of the people rs
a whole. The plain people are better OIL
than they have ever been before. The IN
surdnce companies, which are practically
mutual benefit Societies-especially help
full to men of moderate means-represent
accumulatiOns of capital which are among
the largest in this country. There are
more deposits in the savings banks. more
owners of farms, more well-pam wage
workers in this country now than ever
before in our history. or 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 of proportion; let
us not in fixing our gaze upon the lesser
tt. atnr
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 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 pro-
coed patiently, with practical common
sense as well as resolution, separating the
good from the bad and holding on to the
former endeavOring to get rid of the lat
ter"
This is a concise, forceful statement of
absolute truths which all reasoning men
recognize. 1t would be exceedingly
strange if such phenomenal development
as this country has known were moi ac-
companied by some evils. 1t is astonish-
ing that there are not more. The remedy,
as the President points out, is not by ar
resting or reversing the development, but
by distinguishing the evils, and suggest
ing remedies-a thing which no assailant
of the Trusts has yet done. With this
preliminary, the President goes squarely
at the Trusts, in the healthiest, sanest ut
terance we have yet had from any public
man:
.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 interstate
business, often with some tendency to
monopoly, which are popularity known as
trusts The experience of the past year
has emphasized, in my opinion, the de-
STABILITY of the steps then proposed. n
fundamental requisite of social efficiency
is a high standard Of individual energy
and excellence; but this is i'll no wise in
consistent with power to act in combina-
ton for arms which cannot so vel be
achieved by the individual acting alone.
A fundamental base of civilization is the
inyiolability Of property; but this is III 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 a way as to prevent
the misuse OF these powers. Corporations,
and especially combinations of corpora
tions, should be managed under public
regulation. Experience has shown that
under our system of government the neces-
sary supervision cannot be obtained by
State action. 1t 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 indus
trialism, and the effort to destroy them
would be futile unless accomplished i'll
ways that would work the utmost mis-
chief to the entire body polite. We can
do nothing of good in the way OF rcsulat
ing and supervising these corporations I'M
til we fix clearly in our minds that we are
not attacking the corporations, but ell
delivering to do away with any evil in
them. We are not hostile to them: we are
merely determined that they shall be 50
handled as to subserve the public good.
We draw the line against misconduct not
against wealth. The capitalist who. alone
or in conjunction with his fellows, per-
forms some great industrial feat by which
he wins money is II weldoer, not Il
wrongdocr, provided only he works iii
proper and legitimate lines. We wish to
favor such man when he does well We
wish to supervise and control his actions
only to prevent him from doing i'll. Pub
licity can do no harm to the honest cor
poration; and we need not be oyertender
about sparing the dishonest corporation.
I'm curbng and regulating the combina-
tons of capital which are or may become
injurious to the public we must be care
f,,In ctn b. Oh,