The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-10-24
President Discusses Corporations in
Atlanta Speech.
He Spoke of the Growth of Corpora
tons and the Need of Regulation by
Should be Held Accountable to the
.State-Boycott 1 China Has Hurt
Cotton Manufacturers and Govern
mcnt is Doing its Best to Put 2 Stop
to the Boycott.
The President said:

IA bAAAo 1T "HANA
city, and therefore a typical American
city, it is natural to consider certain
phases of the many-sided industrial
problem which this generation has to
solve. In this world Of ours it is prac-
tically impossible to get success of any
kind on a large scale without paying
something for it. The exceptions to
the rule are too few to warrant our
paying heed to them; II as a rule it
may be said that something must be
paid as an Offset for eevrything we
get for everything we accomplish.
This is notably true Of our industrial
life. The problems which we of Amer
lea have to face today are very ser1-
Gus, but we will do we'll to remember
that after all they are only part of
the price which we have to pay for the
triumphS we AVE won, for the high
position to which we have attained.
If we were a backward and stationary
country we would not have to face
these problems at all; but l hin that
most of lis 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
tons 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
zrIlC1s fhA ,.nn Of ~ rn~inn a,o c1
few that it does not pay to build rail
roads. There are many excellent peO-
pie who shake their heads over the
difficulties that as Il nation we now
Aave to face; but their melancholy is
not warranted save in a very partia!
degree, for most Of the things of which
they complain are inevitable accom-
paniments of the growth and greatness
of which We are proud.
Now, | do not wish to be misunder-
stood. | do not for. one moment mean
to say that there are not many and Sc
riOus evils with which we have to
grapple, or that there are not unhealths
signs in the body social and polite;
but | do mean to say that while we
must not show a foolish optimism we
must no less beware Of a mere blind
pessimism. There is every reason
sghy we should be vigilant in search
ing out what is wrong and unf1inching-
ly resOlute in striving to remedy 1t.
But at the same time we must not
blind ourselves to what has been ac-
~complished for good, and above all we
must not lose our heads and become
aeither h~ysterical or rancOrOuS in Crap
pling with what is bad.
GROWTH OF CORPORATIONS.
Take such a question, for instance,
as the question, or rather the group of
questions, connected with the growth
Of corporations in this country. This
growth has meant, of course, the
growth of individual fortunes. I'm
doubleday the growth of wealth. in this
country has had some very unfortunate
accomplishments. but it seems to me
that much the worst damage that peo-
pie of wealth can do the rest of us is
not any actual physical harm, but the
awakening i'll our breasts of either the
mean vice of worshipping mere wealth,
and the man of mere wealth, for the
wealth's sake, or the equally mean vice
of viewing with rancorous envy and
hatred the men of wealth merely be-
cause they are men of wealth. Envy
is of course, merely a i of crooked
admiration; and we often see the very
man who in public is most Incorporate
in his d~enunciatiOn of wealth, in his
private life most eager to obtain
wealth, in no matter what fashion, ana
at no matter what moral cost.
NEED OF GOVERNMENTAL REG
= ULATION.
Undoubtedly there is need of regu-
1atiOn by the government, in the in
terest of the public, of these great cor
poratiOns which in modern life have
shown themselves to be the most eff
Gent business implements, and which
are, therefore, the implements COM
monty employed by the owners of large
fortunes. The corporation is the crea-
ture of the state. 1t should always be
held accountable to some sovereign, and
this accountability should be real and
not sham. Therefore, in my judg-
ment, all corporations doing an inter
state business, and this means the
great majority of the largest corpora
tiOnS, should be held accountable to
the federal government, because their
accountability should be coeNtensive
Win IIIC11 ICIu vi oCtIoH. bu( iIOSl
certainly we should not strive to pre-
vent or limit corporate activity. We
should strive to ecure such effective
supervision over it, such power of reg
ulation over it. as to enable us to guar
antee that its activity will be exercised
only in ways beneficial to the public.
The unwisdOm of any well-meanin2
but misguided effort to check corporate
activity has been shown in striking
fashion in recent years by our expert
ence in the Philippines and in Porto
Rico. Our national legislators very
properly determined that the islands
should not be exploited by adventures
without regard to the interests of the
people of the islands themselves. But
unfortunately in their zeal to prevent
the islands from being improperly ex-
plotted they took measures of such Sc
verify as to seriously, and in some re-
spects vitality, to hamper and retard
the development of the islands. There