The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1906-10-11

olormous fortunes of today, and who
Use these fortunes in still vaster cor
Dorate form In business.
'The legfsla i've or judicial actions
md decisions Of which complain, be
i remembered, do not really leave to
ne states power 10 deal with corpor-
ate wealth in business. Actual ex-
7erience has shown that the states are
Wholly powerless to deal with this
subject and any action or decision that
deprives the nation of the power to
1eal with it, simply results in leaving
he corporations absolutely free to
work without any effective supervi
sion whatever; and such course is
fraught with untold danger to the FIJI
ture of our whole system of govern
ment, and, indeed, to our whole civil
7ation.
"All honest men must abhor and rep
rebate any effort to excite hostility to
men of wealth as such. We should
do all we can to encourage thrift, AMI
business energy, to put a premium up
on the conduct of the man who hon
estly earns his livelihood and more
than his livelihood, and who honestly
uses the money he has earned. But
it is our clear duty to see, in the in
terest OF the people, that there is
adequate supervision and control over
the business use of the swollen for
tunes OF today, and also wisely to de-
termine the conditions upon which
these fortunes are to be transmitted
and the percentage that they shall
pay to the government whose protect
ing arm alone enables them to exist
Only the nation can do this work. To
relegate it to the states is a farce, and
is simply another way of saying that
it shall not be done at ALL
Under a wise and farseeing inter
probation of the interstate commerce
clause of the constitution, I maintain
that the national government should
have complete power to deal with all
of this wealth which in any way goes
in to the commerce between the states
and practically all of it that is en-
ployed in the great corporations does
thus go in. The national legislators
should most scrupulously avoid any
demagogic legislation about the bust
ness use of this wealth and should
realize that it would be better to have
no legislation at all than legislation
cOuched either in a vindictive spirit
of hatred toward men of wealth or
else drawn with the recklessness of
impracticable Missionaries. But, on the
other hand, it shall and must ultimate
ly be understood that the United
States government, on behalf of the
people of the United States, has and
is to exercise the power of supervi-
sion and control over the business use
OF this wealth-in the first place, over
all the work of the common carriers
of the nation, and in the next place
over the work of all the great corpor-
ations which directly or indirectly do
any interstate business whatever-and
this includes almost all of the great
corporations.
The president reviewed the strides
recently made in the direction of exer-
cising and securing adequate control
over the great corporation, deprecated
the project of the government owner
ship of railroads, which would be evil
in it's results from all points of view
and denounced the self-seeking agita-
tors, ''the wild apostles of unrest.
who inflamed well-meaning people
against all forms of property. and
would commit the country to schemes
Of wild, would-be remedy, which would
work infinitely more harm than the
disease itself In conclusion the pres
ident said:
ut behooves us Americans to look
ahead and n1an ont the rioht kind If