Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-10-21
oosEvELT AT MOTHERS HOME
CONTINUED from page ~

nlgh position to which we have attained.
II we were a backward and stationary
country we would not have to face
these problems at all; but 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
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
where the resources of a region are SO
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 a nation we now
have to face: but their melancholy is
not warranted save in very partial
degree, for most of the things of which
they complain are the inevitable &C
compartments of the growth and great
s'of which we are proud.
Remedying Wrongs.
Nov. l do not wish to be misun-
derstood. l do not for one moment
mean TO say that there are not many
and serious evils with which we have
to grapple, or that there are not I'M
healthy signs in the body social and
polite; but l do mean to say that
while we must not show foolish OPP
timism we must no less beware of
mere blind pessimism. There is every
reason why we should be vigilant in
searching out what is wrong and I'M
f1inchingly resolute in trying 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 graphing with what is bad.
Take such question, for instance,
of questions, connected with the
growth of corporations in this coua-
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 accomplishments, but
it seems to me that much the worst
damage that people of wealth can do
the rest of us is not any actual physic-
al 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 viewing
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 mat.
ter what moral cost.
Regulation of Corporations.
Undoubtedly there is need of reg
ulation by the government. in the in
terest of the public, of these great
corporations 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 fortunes. The corporation is the
creature of the state. 1t should al
ways be held accountable to some SOW
ereign, and this accountability should
be real and not sham. Therefore, in
my Judgment all corporation. doing
the great majority of the largest cor
porations, should be held accountable
to the federal government, because
their accountability should be coexten-
sive with their field of action. But
most certainly we should not strive to
prevent or limit corporate activity.
We should strive to secure such eff
fective supervision over it, such pow
er of regulation over it, as to enable
us to guarantee that it's activity will
be exercised only in ways beneficial
to the public. The unwisdom of any
well-meaning but misguided effort to
check corporate activity has' been
shown in striking fashion in recent
years by our experience in the Philip
pines and in Porto Rico. Our national
legislators very properly determined
that the islands should not be ex-
plotted by adventures without regard
to the interests of the people of the
islands themselves. But unfortunate
ly In their zeal to prevent the islands
being improperly exploited they took
of such severity as to SER
iously, and in some respects vitality, to
hamper and retard the development
of the islands. There is nothing that
the islands need more than to have
THAR great natural resoIrces dpya1