The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1904-12-10
Wants Something Done.

The president urges direct action by
the government in dealing with great
corporations. TT is an absurdity," he
says, ito expect to eliminate the abuses
in great corporations by state action
The national government alone can
deal adequately with these great cor
porations. He promises interesting
reading in the future in the report OF
the bureau of corporations on it's in
vestigation Of the beef industry. He
would have insurance companies put
in the same class as other big corpora
tons, and urges congress to carefully
consider whether the power of the
bureau of corporations could not con-
stitutionally be extended to cover in
terstate transactions in insurance.
When we come to deal with great
corporations the need for the govern
ment to act directly Is far greater than
in the case Of labor, because great corr
porations can become such only by
engaging in interstate commerce, and
interstate commerce is peculiarly the
field of the general government. 1t is
an abSurdity to expect to eliminate the
abuses in great corporations by state
action. 1t is difficult to be patient
with an argument that such matters
should be left to the states, because
more than one state pursues the policy
of creating on easy terms corporations
| state at all, but in other states whose
! laws they ignore. The national gov
eminent alone can deal adequately
with these great corporations. To try
| to deal with them in an Incorporate
destructive, or demagogic spirit would
| In all probability, mean that nothing
whatever would be accomplished, ana
with absolute certainty, that if any
thing would be accomplished it would
be of harmful nature. The American
| people need to continue to show the
very qualities that they have shown
that is, moderation, good sense, the
earnest desire to avoid doing any
damage, and yet the quiet determine
ton to proceed, step by step, without
halt and without hurry, in eliminating
or at least in minimizing whatever OF
mischief or Of evil there is to inter-
state commerce in the conduct Of great
corporations. They are acting in no
spirit of hostility to wealth, either in
dividual or corporate. They are not
! against the rich man any more than
against the poor man. On the con-
trary, they are friendly alike toward
rich man and toward poor man, pro-
! vided only that each acts in spirit
of justice and decency toward his fell
| lows. Great corporations are neces-
sary, and only men of great and sim
corpoPatios successfully, and such
men must have great rewards. But
these corporations should be managed
with due regard to the interest Of the
public as a whole. Where this can be
done under the present laws it must be
done. Where these laws come short
others should be enacted to supplement
them"
The practice of giving railroad re-
bates, he insists must be stopped, and
in regard to increasing the powers of
the interstate commerce commission,
he says:
! I'm my judgment the most important
, legislative act now needed as regards
the regulation of corporations is the
, act to confer on the interstate COM
merce commission the power to re-
wise rates and regulations, the revised
| rate to go at once into effect and to
stay In effect unless and until the
court of review reverses it."
President Roosevelt's oft repeated
ideas on race suicide crop into his
message in that part relating to the
government of the District Of Column
bia. In discussion Of regulations of
tenements and slum districts, he says:
IF race does not have plenty of
children, or if the children do not
grow UP, or IL they grow up they are
unhealthy in hody and stunted, or
vicious in mind, then that race is de-
cadent, and no heaping up of wealth.
no splendor Of documentary material
prosperity can avail in any degree as
Offsets"
The proposed Juvenile courts and