Durango semi-weekly herald., 1903-04-06
ROOSEVELT

heavy program at Milwaukee, where
he made ten speeches. took two car
riage rides, became a member of the
Press club and was the central figure
at three receptions.
He said that if local committees
don't show him more mercy in the fu-
ture, he would be a physical wreck in
side of two weeks. The president was
greatly touched by the action of the
mayor of Milwaukee, who came from
the bedside of dying son in Tucson,
Ariz.. to welcome him and then re-
turned to Arizona Immediately. Mayor
Rose is a Democrat.
Three beautifully decorated car
riages awaited the presidential party.
A crowd of ten thousand people heard
President Roosevelt in a speech pay
Wisconsins foreign-born citizens a
high compliment for patriotism in
both wars.
MILWAUKEE, Wis, April 4.-Presi-
dent Roosevelt received tumultuous
greeting in this city yesterday and
last night, when he was guest at
dinner served . at the Plankington
house by the Milwaukee Merchants
and Manufacturers association.
When the president was introduced he
was unable to speak for several min
utes owing to the welcome extended
He took for his subject TRUSTS" He
said in part:
Mr.. Toastmaster, Gentlemen:
Today wish to speak to you on the
nnagtinn of nd lot of
those great corporations which are
popularly, although rather vaguely.
known as trusts; dealing mostly with
what has actually been accomplished
in the way of legislation and in the
way of enforcement of legislation
during the past eighteen months, the
period covering the two sessions of
the Fifty-seventh congress. AT the
outset | shall ask you to remember
that | do not approach the subject
either from the standpoint of those
who speak of themselves as antitrust
or anticorporation people, nor yet
from the standpoint of those who are
fond of denying the existence Of evils
in the trusts, or who apparently pro-
ceed upon the assumption that if
is ldTSe enough IL can uO
no wrong.
| think | speak for the great major
ity of the American people when l say
that we are not in the least against
wealth as such, whether individual or
corporate; that we merely desire to
see any abuse of corporate or COM
bined wealth corrected and remedied;
that we do not desire the abolition or
destruction of big corporations, but,
on the contrary, recognize them as
being in many cases efficient economic
instruments, the results of an inevita-
BILE process of economic evolution, and
only desire TO see them regulated and
controlled so far as may be necessary
to subserve the public good. We
should be false to the historic princi-
pies of our government if we discrimi-
mated, either by legislation or admin
istration, either for or against man
because of either his wealth or his
poverty. There is no proper place in
our society either for the rich man
who uses the power conferred by his
riches to enable him to oppress and
wrong his neighbors, nor yet for the
demagogic agitator who, instead of
attacking abuses as all abuses should
he attacked wherever found, attacks
property. attacks prosperity, attacks
men of wealth, as such, whether they
be good or bad, attacks corporations
whether they do well or ill., and seeks,
in u spirit of ignorant rancor, to over
throw the very foundations upon
which rest our national well-being.
In consequence of the extraordinary
industrial changes of the last half
century, ami notably of the last two
or three decades, changes due mainly
to the rapidity and complexity of our
industrial growth, we are confronted
with problems which in their present
shape were unknow to our forefathers.
Our great prosperity. with its accom-
panying concentration of population
and of wealth, it's extreme specializa-
ton of faculties, and its development
of giant industrial leaders, has
brought much good and some evil, and
it is as foolish to ignore the good as
wilfully to blind ourselves to the evil.
The evil has been partly the inevita-
bile accompaniment of the social
changes, and where this is the case it
can be cured neither by law nor by
the administration of the law, the
only remedy lying in the slow change
of character and economic environ
ment But for portion of the evil
at least, we think that remedies can
be found. We know well the danger
of false remedies, and we are against
all violent, radical, and unwise change.
But we believe that by proceeding
slowly, yet resolutely. with good sense
and moderation, and also with firm
determination not to be swerved from
our course either by foolish clamor or
by any base sinister influence, we can
accomplish much for the betterment
of conditions.
Nearly two years ago, speaking at
the State fair in Minnesota, / said:
ut is probably true that the large
majority of tine fortunes that now ex-
ist in this country have been amassed.
not by injuring our people, but as an
Asincident TO the comforting OF great
benefits upon the community, and
this, no matter what may have been
A