The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-21

the Regulation of COrpOratiOns-De-
 cIares. However. That Industry Must
 Not PenaIfzed-COnscience of Pulp
 lie shocked by Recent Revelations
 Regarding Conduct of Big Insurance
 ompanies-ExcIusiOn of Chinese.
 President Roosevelt yesterday deliv- cred a notable address at Atlanta 0@' The text follows: 4.n
 Here in this great industrial center in this city which is a typical southern citv. and therefore a typical American eitv. it is natural to consider certain nbases of the many-sided industrial problem which this generation mas to solve. In this world of ours 1t IS prac- tieally impossible to get success ot any kind on a large scale without paying something for it. The exceptions to the rule are too few to warrant our paving heed to them; and as rule It may be said that something must De paid as an offset for everything we get and for everything we accomplish. Thin is notably true of our industrial life. The problems which we of Amer ica have to face to-day are very serl- ous, but we will do well to remember that after all they are only part Of the price which We have to pay for the triumphs we have won, for the high position to which we have attained. IL, sfa l fsXB country we would not have to face these problems at all; but I think that most of us are agreed that to be back ward and. stationary would be alto- gether too heavy a price to pay for the avoidance of the problems in question. There are no labor troubles where there is no work to be done by labor. There are no troubles about corpora tions where the poverty of the com- munity is such that it is not worth while to form corporations. There is no difficulty in regulating railroads where the resources of region are so few that it does not pay to build rail- roads. There are many excellent peo- Ie who shake their heads over the diff faculties that as a nation we now have to face; but their melancholy is not warranted save in a very partial de- gree, for most of the things of which they complain are the inevitable &C., compartments of the growth and greatness of which we are proud.
 Now, I do not wish to be misunder- stood. do not for one moment mean to say that there are not many and se- rious evils with which we have to grapple, or that there are not unheal- thy signs in the body social and poli- tic; but I do mean to say that while we must not show foolish optimism we must no less beware of a mere blind pessimism. There is every req son why we should be vigilant in searching out what is wrong and un- f1inchingly resolute in striving to rem edy it. But at the same time we must not blind ourselves to what has been accomplished for good, and above all we must not lose our heads and be- come either hysterical or rancorous in grappling with what is bad.
 Take such a question, for instance, as the question, or or rather the group of questions, connected with the growth of corporations in this coun- try. This growth has meant, of course, the growth of individual for tunes. Undoubtedly the growth of wealth in this country has had some very unfortunate accompaniments, but it seems to me that much the worst damage that people of wealth can do the rest of us is not any actual physi- cal harm, but the awakening in our breasts of either the mean vice of worshiping mere wealth, and the man of mere wealth, for the wealth's sake, or the equally mean vice of viewng with rancorous envy and hatred the men of wealth merely because they are men of wealth. Envy is, of course, merely kind of crooked admiration; and we often see the very man who in public is most incorporate in his de- nunciation of wealth in his private life most eager to obtain wealth, in no matter what fashion, and at no matter what moral cost.
 Undoubtedly there is need of regula- ton by the government, in the interest of the public, of these great corpora tions which in modern life have shown themselves to be the most efficient business implements, and which are, therefore, the implements commonly employed by the owners of large for tunes. The corporation is the creature of the state. It should always be held accountable to some sovereign and this accountability should be real and not sham. Therefore, in my judgment, all corporations doing an interstate busi- ness, and this means the great nlajor- ity of the largest corporations, should be held accountable to the Federal government, because their accounta- ,bility should be coextensive with their field of action. But most certainly we should not strive to prevent or limit corporate activity. We should strive to secure such effective supervision over it, such power of regulation over it, as to enable us to guarantee that it's ac- tivity will be exercised only in ways beneficial to the public The unwis- dom of any well-meaning but misguid- ed effort to check corporate activity has been shown in striking fashion in recent years by our experience in the Philippines and in Porto Rico. Our na- tional legislatures very properly de- termined that the islands should not be exploited by adventurers without regard to the interests of the people of