The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-10-13
THE TRUST lawyers
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT PAYS HIS.
RESPECTS.
AAA~A S~~
s,eaks at Dedication of New
Pennsylvania Capitol-Sel fish-
ness Unchecked May Trans
form New Epoch Into Powers
Of Unequalled Destruction.

of Unequalled Destruction.
Harrisburg, Pa, Oct. 6. - In q |
sneech delivered here at the dedica-
tory ceremonies of the new state CAPT.
tol building, President Roosevelt re-
forred in the most severe terms to
those men in the legal profession who
have engaged in the defense of the
hio corporations under fire during the
mast wear or two. He said in part:
Each generation has it's special
and serious difficulties, and we of this
generation have to struggle with evils
Swinging from the very raterial sue
cess of which we are so proud, from
the very growth and proserity of
which, with justice, we boast. The
extraordinary industrial changes of
the last half century have produced a
totally new set of conditions, under
which new evils flourish, and for these
new evils new remedies must be de-
vised.
Some of these evils can be grappled
with by private effort only. But many
Of these evils are of such a nature that
no private effort can avail against
them. These evils, therefore, must
be grappled with by governmental
action. In some cases this govern
mental action must be exercised by
the several states individually. In
vet others it becomes increasingly ap-
narent that no efficient state action is
possible, and that we need through ex-
eeutiye action, through legislation,
and through judicial Interpretation
and construction of law, to increase
the power of the federal government,
At Mercy of Lawyers
IF we fail thus to increase it, we
show our impotence and leave our
selves at the mercy Of those ingenious
legal advisers of the holders of vast
corporate wealth, who, in the per-
Torrance of what they regard 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 null
LITIGATION 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 general 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 secure judicial determination of
those that do pass which shall emascu-
late them. They do not invoke the
constitution in order to compel the
due Observance of law alike by rich
and poor, by great and small; on the
contrary, they are ceaselessly on the
watch to cry out that the constitution
is violated whenever any effort is
made to invoke the aid of the national
government, whether for the efficient
regulation of railroads, for the eff
cient supervision of great corporations,
or for efficiently securing obedience to
such law as the ational eight-hour
law and similar so-called "labor
statutes.
Shield Of Incompetence
THE doctrine they preach would
make the constitution merely the
shield of Incompetence and the excuse
for government paralysis; they treat
it as justification for refusing to at
tempt the remedy of evil, instead of
as the source of vital power necessary
for the existence of mighty and ever
growing nation"
Trust legislation wao referred to by
the president as follows:
IAN extension of the national power
to oversee and secure correct behavior
in the management of all great cor
porations engaged in interstate bust
ness will render the more stable the
present system by doing away with
those grave abuses which are not only
evil in themselves, but are also evil
because they furnish an excuse for sg-
itators to infiame we'll meaning people
against all forms of property, and to
commit the country to schemes Of
wild, would-be remedy which would
work infinitely more harm than the
disease itself. The government ought
not to conduct the business Of the
country; but it ought to regulate it so
that it shall be conducted in the In
terest of the public"
Behooves Us to Look Ahead
1T behooves Americans to look
ahead and plan out the right kind OF
civilization, as that which we intend
10 develop from these wonderful new
conditions of vast industrial growth.
1t must not be, it shall not Ee, the
civilization of mere plutocracy,
banking house, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
civilization; nor yet can there be sub
mission to class hatred, to rancor,
brutality and mob violence, for that
would mean the end of all civilization.
increased powers are susceptible OF
aouse as we'll as use; never before
nave the opportunities for selfishness
oeen so great, nor the results OF self
Ishness SO appalling; for in communi-
LIES where everything is organized on
merely selfish commercial basis,
such selfshness, if unchecked, may
transform the great forces of the new
epoch into powers Of destruction hith-