The Jersey City news., 1906-10-05
PRESIDENT ON TRUSTS
Advocates Extension Of National
Power Over Corporations
Doing Interstate Trade.
NO GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
Efficient Supervision Over Common
Carriers viii obviate Necessity Of
4 Taking Them Over, Says Executive
Monopolies Evil In Themselves and
Also as Arousino Agitation.


Also as Arousins Agitation.
Washington. Oct. 81 During Presi-
dent Roosevelt's flying trip to Harris
burg and York, Pa, ne made a speech
IN each city. At both places he wore
dark rain coat and spoke bareheaded
In the rain. Senators Penrose ana
Knox of Pennsylvania were Of the par
ty. He enjoyed the trip immensely,
and except for slight hoarseness he
did not surfer from the storm He SAID
he had spent most pleasant day.
AT Harrisburg the president deliy-
eted the Grafton at the dedication Of
the beautiful new state capitol, which
has just been completed at a cost of
$l3,O00,000, to take the place of the old
statehouse. destroyed by ire in 1897.
His speech was regarded by many
who heard it as the first direct public
answer by the president to the beliefs
set forth by William Jennings Bryan
in his Madison Square Garden speech
in New York, in which the Nebraskan
came out squal'ely in favor of govern
ment ownership Of trsnk lines.
Praise For Pennsylvania.
President Roosevelt began his ad-
dress with eulogy of Pennsylvania,
on whose soil the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was signed and the constitu-
tional convention was held where
Washington at Valley Forge saved the
republic and where Gettysburg saved
the Union. Pennsylvania was tittingly
called, he said. the Keystone State
The president advocated an exten-
sion Of the national power to oversee
and secure correct behavior in the
management Of all great corporations
engaged in interstate business. The
government, he asserted. ought not to-
conduct the business of the country.
but to regulate it so that it shah be
conducted in the interests Of the pub
lie. IS
Some of the statements made by the
president in his Harrisburg address
were as follows:
Wants Fortunes Controlled.
"All honest men must abhor ana
reprobate any effort to excite hostility.
to men of wealth as such. We should
do all we can to encourage thrift and
business energy, to put a premium
upon the conduct of the man who hon
estly earns his livelihood and more
than his livelihood, and who honestly
uses the money that he has earned.
But it is our dear duty to see, in the
interest of the people, that there is ade-
quate supervision and control over the
business use of the swollen fortunes of
today. and also wisely to determine
the conditions upon which these for
tunes are to be transmitted and the
percentage that they shall pay to the
government whose protecting arm
alone enables them to exist Only the
nation can do this work. 70 relegate
it to the states is a farce and is simply
another way Of saying It shall not be
done at all.
Under a wise and far seeing inter-
pretation of the Interstate commerce
clause of the constitution l maintain
that the national government should
have compiete power to deal with all
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.
1T shall and must ultimately be un-
derstood tAat the United States gov
ernrnent on behalf of the people Of the
United States has and is to exercise
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 great corporations which
directly or indirectly do any interstate
business whatever, and this includes
almost all OF the great corporations.
Opposes Government Ownership.
ITO exercise a constantly increasing
and constantly more efficient superyi
sion and control over the great com
mon carriers Of tie country prevents
all necessity for seriously considering
such a project as the government own
ership of railroads, policy which
would be evil in its results from every
standpoint
sWe have actually accomplished
much, but we have not accomplished
all nor anything Ike all that we feel
must be accomplished. We shall not
halt; we shall steadily follow the path
we have succeeded III putting upon the
statute books with absolute impartial
ity as between man and man and un-
resting in our endeavor to strengthen
and supplement these by further laws
which shall enable us in more efficient
and more summary fashion to achieve
the ends we have IA view.
1T behooves us Americans TO look
ahead and plan out the right kind Of a
civilization as that which we intend to
develop from these. wonderful new con-
diticns of vast industrial growth. 1t
must not be. ii shall not be, the ciyiliz
| zasion of a mere plutocracy, a banking
house, Wall street syndicate eiyiliza-
| ton. nor yet can there be submission to
elsas hatred. to sancor, brutality and
mob violence, for that would mean the
end Of al civilization.
Trusts Double Evil.
Trusts are not onIy evil in them
| solves, but are also evil because they
| furnish an excuse for agitators to in
aavxsa y, a ~ sSz !, OF ali