The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-12-14
JABBlNc AT THE MESSAGE

5ABHlNc AT THE MESSAGE
There is one point on which all critics {
he presidents message agree. 1t is the longes
Message to congress on record But the remedie
uggested by Mr. Roosevelt for present day evil
re not unanimously Endorsed even in his ow
re of friendly character:
The doctrine of state control Mr.. Roose
welt sweeps away almost cOntemptuously,
whether he is dealing with corporations in
general or with insurance companies in par
ticular. Experience has shown conclusively
that 1t is useless to try to get any adequate
regulation and supervision of these great
corporations by state action" Notwithstand-
ing the fact that committee OF the New
York legislature is making more searching
examination into the affairs of the life insur-
ance companies than the national government
has ever been known to make into the az
fairs Of any corporation, Mr.. Roosevelt airily
decides that state supervision of insurance
has proved Inadequate" All power over COM
merce, industry and capital that are not con-
fined strictly to their local habitat is to be
gathered into the hands of the national gov
eminent to make the president what Jeffer-
son once called "a bad edition of a Polish
king."-New York World.
The square deal" is his hobby. to estab-
lish equality Of opportunity he would go to
the very verge of constitutional limitation
and beyond. "The fortunes amassed through
corporate organization are now SO large" that
the might of the Sovereign" must be invoked
to restrain them. But his references to the
Dingley tariff are as soft and soothing as a
lullaby, though it was within that impreg-
nable fortress of privilege, of extOrtOn, and
of equal opportunity that the Carnegie steel
works in the year 1899 made $20,000,000 net
profits, and in 1900 $40,000,000. The Roose-
welt views about Dives and Lazarus call
loudly and logically for humping Roose-
welt message on the tariff, but Mr.. Roosevelt
knows that tariff message would split his
party as Mr.. Cleveland split the democratic
party in 1887. Davus sum, non Oedipus-I
am Roosevelt, not Cleveland. If the presi-
dent would give less attention to predatory
preachments and more diligently consider and
weigh his remedies, the quality of his recon-
mendations to congress would, we think, be
improved.-New York Times.
This is the first time we believe that
the word sovereign" has ever been used in
this sense by president of the United States.
The paramount sovereignty of the nation in
matters affecting the life and the authority
of the union, has been successfully asserted
and maintained under 'the arbitrament of
war" But the fact that the federal govern
ment is a government Of limited and defined
power, and that the states still exercise
sovereignty in matters which they did not
delegate to the nation, has not yet been ques-
toned by any competent authority. To pro-
pose that the administrative power of the
government shall be sovereign" over all the
big corporations" of the union Is surely q
long look toward that Capitalization which
the trainers OF the constitution thought they
had sufficiently guarded against.-Boston Her.
aid.
No. there Is one set OF his speeches TO
which he coud not refer We mean his tariff
revision speeches Of 1902 An that zeal has
cooled. To judge by HIS message, President
Roosevelt has become the weakest OF stand
pattors-one without real convictions that
In. and swayed only by political cxpedency.
He masses tho utilities for doing nothing
with the tariff In the most approved manner