Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-04
TALKS OF THE ): TRUSTS
President Speaks at Banquet
ia Milwaukee.
OF 81
TOUCHES ON & TARIFF
TINKERING LATTER WILL NOT
PREVENT CONFINES.
Advocates Regulation Of Such Con-
solicitations Rather Than Destroy
ing Them by Legislation.

A dispatch from Milwaukee, Wis, last
night says: President Roosevelt was the
guest of the Milwaukee Merchants and
Manufacturers Association at a banquet
at the Plankinton House tonight, the &C.
casion being the climax of the Presidents
ten-hour visit to Milwaukee. Covers were
laid for $50 banQueters. A corps of skillful
decorators had worked out complete
Transformation of the banquet room, which
was fairly canopied with Alabama smilax
which. spreading from twelve chandeliers
radiated in graceful arches to all parts
of the room. Lines Of asparagus vines
trailed from chandelier to chandelier, sup
porting at regular intervals fern balls COW
cred with American Beauty roses carna-
tons and other beautiful blossoms A thou
sand electric lights lent beauty to the
room.
The President sat in the center of
long table, with other guests of honor. At
his immediate right sat United States SEN
ator Quarles, while E. A. Wadhams, presi-
dent of the Milwaukee Merchants and Man
ufacturers Association. and POSTMASTER Of
the occasion. was seated at his left. Ex-
tending in opposite directions from the
Presidents table were twelve other tables,
at which the members of the association
and their friends weer seated. After the
banquet had been served. Toastmaster
Wadhams introduced President Roosevelt
IL
of the United States" The President took
occasion to give his view on the subject
of trusts. He spoke as follows:
The Presidents Speech.
The President said: Mr. Toastmaster,
Gentlemen: Today / wish to speak to you
on the question of the control and regula-
ton of those great corporations which are
popularity, 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 ses
sions of the F1fty-seventh Congress At
the outset I shall ask you to remember
that I do not approach the subject either
from the standpoint Of those who speak of
themselves as antitrust or anti-corpora-
ton people, nor yet from the standpoint of
those who are fond of denying the exist
ence Of evils in the trusts, or who appar-
emily proceed upon the assumption that if
corporation is large enough it can do no
wrong. 'i'' -,
1 think I speak for the great majority of
the American people when + 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 combined wealth corrected and rene
died; 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
nomic evolution, and only desire to gee
them regulated and controlled so far as
may be necessary to subserve the public
good. We should be false to the historic
principles Of our government If We dis
eliminated, either by legislation or adj
ministration ether for or against q man be-
cause of either his wealth Or his poverty.
There is proper place in our society
either for the rich man who uses the power
conferred by his riches to enable him to
Cypress and wrong his neighbors. nor yet
for the demagagic agitator who, instead Of
attacking abuses all abuses should be
attacked wherever found, attacks property,
attacks prosperity. attacks men Of wealth,
as such, whether they be good or bad, at
tacks corporations whether they do we'll or
i'll, and seeks, in a spirit Of ignorant ram
cor, to overthrow the very foundations upon
which rests our national well-being.
New Problems Arising.
In consequence Of the extraordinary in
dustrial changes Of the last half century,
and notably Of the last two or three dec
AIDES, changes due mainly to the rapidity
and completely of our industrial growth,
We are confronted with problems which in
their present shape were unknown to our
forefathers. Our great prosperity with Its
accompanying concentration of population
and OF wealth. it's extreme specialization
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 willfully to blind ourselves to
the evil.
The evil has been partly the inevitable
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 Of economic
environment. But for a 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 modera-
ton, and also with a firm determination
not to be swerved from our course either
by foolish clamor or by any base or sin
lister influence, we can accomplish much
for the betterment of conditions.
Nearly two years ago, speaking at the
state fair in Minnesota 1 said:
ut is probably true that the large ma
jority of the fortunes that now exist in this
country have been amassed, not by injur-
Ing our people. but as an incident to the
comforting of great benefits upon the COM
mun1ty, and this, no matter what may have
been the conscious purpose of those amass-
ing them.
Glass Hatred Deprecated.
There is but the scantiest justification