Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-10-11
TALK BY PRESIDENT.
ROOSEVELT FOR CURB TO COR
PoRATE RICHES.
hectares Federal Powers Must BE
Enlarged to Cope with LawIcss
"enith-Says Congress, Not States.
Must Apply Remedy for Abuses.

Here are the salient features of the
address delivered by President Roose-
yelt at the dedication of penDsvI-
vania's S13,000,OO0 capitol building at
Harrisburg. The Presidents speech
had been printed at the Government
printing bureau and advance comics
were supplied to the press. For. the
first time the government printers used
the phonetic method CT spelling re-
Gently ordered by the President. The
reformed" words are spelled as they
were in the Presidents copy For the
new evils which have arisen as the
result of industrial changes the Pre,i-
dent says the remedies must be found
IN governmental action, and continues ::
In some cases this governmental ac,
ton must be exercised by the several
States individually. In vet others it has
become increasingly evident that no eff
Gent State action is possible and that
we need thru executive action, thru lesis-
lation and thru judicial Interpretation and
construction of law to increase the power
OF the federal government.
If we fail thus to increase it. we show
our impotence and leave ourselves at the
mercy of those ingenious legal advisers
OF the holders of vast corporate wealth,
who, in the performance of what they re-
gard as their duty, and to serve the ends
OF their clients, invoke the law at one
time for the confounding of their rivals,
and at another time strive for the multi
hcation of the law, in order that they
themselves may be left free to work their
unbridled will on these same rivals, or on
those who labor for them. or on the gen.
eral public
In the exercise of their profession
and in the service of their clients these
astute lawyers strive to prevent the
passage of efficient laws and strive to Sc
cure judicial determinations of those that
pass which shall emascllate them.
They do not invoke the Constitution
in order to compel the due observance of
law alike to rich and poor by great and
small; on the contrary, they are
ceaselesslS on the watch to cry out that
the Constitution is violated whenever any
effort is made to invoke the aid of Tie
national government, whether for the eff
fcient regulation of railroads, for the eff
licient supervision of great corporations
or for efficiently securing obedience to
such law as the national eight-hour law
and similar so-called labor Statutes
The doctrine they preach would make
the Constitution merely the shield of in
competence and the excuse for govern
mental paralysis they treat it as JUS
LITIGATION for refusing to attempt the
remedy of evil, instead of as the source
of vital power necessary for the exist
ence of q mighty and ever growing ma
ton.
Strong nationalist tho I am, and firm
tho my belief is that there must be a
wide extension of. the power of the Ma
tional Government to deal with questions
Of this kind, l freely admit that as re-
CARDS many matters of first rate impor-
lance we must rely purely upon the
States for the betterment of present CON
ditions
The President deprecateS what he
calls the narrow construction of the
Constitution and limiting the power of
the government to deal with corpora
lions. He adds:
If we interpret the Constitution in mar
row instead of broad fashion, if we for
sake the principles of Washington, Mar
SHALL Wilson and Hamilton, we as
people will render ourselves impOtent to
deal with any abuses which may be com
milted by the men who have accumulated
the enormous fortunes of to-day, and who
use these fortunes in still vaster corpor-
ate form in business.
All honest men must abhor and repro
bate any effort to excite hostility to men
of wealth as such. We should do all we
can to encourage thrift and business en-
ergy, to put a premium upon the conduct
of the man who honestly earns his live
lihood and more than his livelihood, and
who honestly uses. the money he has
earned. But it is our clear duty to see,
in the interest of the people, that there
is adequate supervision and control over
the business use of the swollen fortunes
of to-day, and also wisely to determine
the conditions upon which these fortunes
are to be transmitted and the percent
age that they shall pay to the Govern
ment whose projecting arm alone enables
them to exist.
The Government ought not to conduct
the business of the country; but it ought
to regulate it so that it shall be con-
Quoted in the interest of the public.
It is the narrow construction of the
powers of the National Government which
in our democracy has proved the chief
means of limiting the national power to
cut out abuses, and which is now the
chief bulwark of those great moneyed in
terests which oppose and dread any at
tempt to place them under efficient gov
eminent control.
Under a wise and farseeing interpre-
tation of the interstate commerce clause
cf the Constitution, | maintain that the
National Government should have com
plete power to deal with all of this
wealth which IN any way goes into the
commerce between the States-and prac-
tically all of it that is employed in the
great corporations
The National Government can do but
little in the matter Of child labor, tho
l earnestly hope that that little win be
permitted to be done by Congress. The
great bulk of the work, however, must be
left to the State legislatures and IL our
State legislatures would act as drastic
ally and yet as wisely on this subject
of child labor as Pennsylvania has acted
within the present year as regards the
subjects 1 have enumerated, the gain
would be literally incalcdlablc, and one
of the most vital needs of modern Ameri
can life would at last be adequately met.
Notes of Current Eventss
Alfred S. Brown, for many years an