The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-11
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IS
 ENTERTAINED BY HIS FOES

who take the point of view that Judg, | Dickinson takes-that will mean that | there will be a frank and manly oppo- | sition of party to party! of party man
 to party man: combined with an equally frank refusal C | conduct party contest in any
 such way as to give good Ameri-
 cans cause for regret because of what
 is said before election when compared with what Is said after election. (Ap- | plause.) The frankest opposition to
 a given man or a given party on ques- tions of public policy. not only can
 be. but almost always should be. com
 bined with the frankest. recognition of | the infinitely greater number of points | of agreement than of the points of diff l ference.
 | There are foreign questions and
 there are domestic questions. In the | great majority of cases our political lines of difference should, and in the majority of cases do. disappear at the waters edge and when had to choose
 man to represent to a peculiar degree | the interests of this government in one of the most important foreign nego- | tiations of recent years, that concern | ing the Alaskan boundary, chose the | best lawyer, one of the ablest public men, and one of the most fair minded patriots that could bc found in the country, and the fact that he was of opposing political faith did not inter- fere with Judge Dickinson doing that | work we'll (Applause).
 The Canal.
 "One of the works Uncle Sam has on hand just at present is digging the Panama Csnal-and 1t is going to be ! dug. Cheering and cries of Good 1 good). It is going to be dug honestly and as cheaply as is compatible with efficiency-but with the efficiency first Slaughter and applause.) I wanted Congress to give me power to remodel the commission. It did not do 1t.
 remodeled it anyhow. Slaughter and applause) purely in the exercise of my executive duties, and I made up my
 mind this time that I was not going to make the slightest efforts to represent
 different sections of the country on
 that canal; was going to try to have
 the whole country represented and put
 the best man I could get in any given
 position without the slightest regard
 to where he came from.
 Now, gentlemen, those are external
 questions as regards which the inter-
 ests of the whole country and not the
 international interests of any party or any section of the country must be
 the President. It is just as true of cer- tain of our great internal policies. Some of those present will differ from part of what I am about to say. be- lieve, however, that sooner or later that 1t will be found that the great bulk of our people agree with what I am about to say.
 Among the most vital questions that
 have come up for solution because Of
 the extraordinary industrial deVelop-
 ment Of this country, as of all the mod ern world. are the questions of capital and labor and the questions resulting from the effect upon the public of the
 organization into masses of both capf- tai and labor. I believe thoroughly m
 eacllN kind of organization but l recog-
 nize that if either kind of orgaEiza-
 tion does what is wrong the increase In
 its power for efficiency that has result
 cd from the combination means the in-
 crease in its power to do harm. Sr-d
 that therefore corporations-that Is or-
 ganized capital and unions-that Is
 organized labor-must alike be held
 to a peculiar responsibility to the pub
 lie at large and that from each alike
 we have the right to demand not only
 obedience to the law but service to tue
 public. (Applause)
 Organized Capital.
 T will take up first the question oe
 organized capital. When this nation
 was created such a thing as a modern corporation not only did not exist, bat could not be imagined. That is espe- cially true of the great modern oorpo- rations engaged in the interstate com mercs
 Now. gentlemen let me, in the first place, insist upon this fact, that we should keep ever before us that the men who have built up the great rail- way system of this country, like the other men who have built up the great industries of this country, have as a rule-there are exceptions-but have as a rule made their fortunes as in- ing the country.
 We cannot 'srord to do damage to those men or to those corporations in the first place because we cannot af- ford to do injustice to any man, rich or poor; in the next place, because to do such damage to them would mean widespread damage among the wage workers and among the general pub lie.
 All of this l have said I wish kept in mind so that you may appreciate what I am going to say. for while in the frankest manner the benefits that have come from the of these great industrial I also feel that we must re- cognize that the time has now como when it is essential In the interests | of the public that there should bo exercised a power of supervision l and regulation over them. (Ap- plause.) The State can properly | deal with the corporation doing | business within it's own limits. The | State cannot deal at all with corpora | tions doing business in many States, | and it is an absurdity at once ludic- rous and harmful to leave it in the power of one State to create a corpora tion of gigantic size which shall do all | it's work in a number of other States and perhaps with the scantiest regard to the laws of those States in which it actually does work. (Applause.)
 Control of Corporations.
 Personally I believe that the federal | government must take an increasing | oo ntrol over corporations and I trust there may be no halt in the steady | process of assuming such national | conarol and the first step towardu 1t should be the adoption of a law con ferring upon some executive body the | power of supervising the great corpo | rations engaged primarily Tn interstate | 
 'I believe that the representatives | of the nation-that is the representa- tives of all the people-should lodge in | some executive body the power to es- tablish a maximum rate. the power to | have that rate go into effect | practically immediately and the pow CT to see tLat the provisions of | the law apply in full to the companies owning private | ears just as much as to the railroads | themselves. (Applause). The courts will retain. and should retain, no mat ter what the Legislature did. the power 10 interfere and upset any action that was confiscatory in it's nature. I am