Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-10-05
nnosErELrs rrrrRE corRsE.

ROoSErELTS FUTURE COURSE.
President Roosevelrs HARRISBURG
speech is one of the most important
public utterences he has made during
his administra ion, because with two
years and half OF his term remain
ing, IL is the best suggestion yet given
of his attitude towards living public
questions. The public well knows his
arduous struggle for a reformed indus
trial order eliminating at the late
session of congress in the en-
actment of measures for national
control of railroads and important
industries, but both those who
have supported and those who
have opposed him have felt a
growing interest in his plans for the
future. After bordering this speech
neither the one class nor the other
will doubt that what has been achieved
is merely the beginning, and that he
will press with undiminished energy
for the extension of the same princi-
Piles in national administration and.
legislation to many national abuses of
incorporated wealth.
All this indeed is implied in the
broad fundamental ground which he
herent power, outside of it's specific
enumerations, vests in the national
government to deal with all cases
where the object involved is beyond
the power Of the several states and is
a power ordinarily exercised by sover-
eign nations. But he specifically de-
clares that as 1t was necessary. for the
national government to control the
great railroad corporations because
effective state control is in the nature
of things impossible, so 1t must control
'the work of all the great corporations
which directly or indirectly do any in
terstate business whatever, and this in
cludes almost all of the great corpora
tions." In short. while he does not
disclose the details of his program by
listing the national industrial abuses
in the order in which national control
is to be applied to them, he does indi-
cate clearly that the fact that they are
of national or interstate scope brings
them within the purview of his policy.
The abuses which he will attack. 1t
Is inferable, are to be determined in
sound discretion and to be announced
at the opportune moment, but the
whole spirit of his declaration proves
that he will continue to press for sub
stantive legislation along this line, as
we'll as for rigorous enforcement for
all that is or will be written on the
statute book.
The president is keenly aware, and
no one has more forcefully than he
stated the point that the obstacle to
be overcome is the spirit of narrow
constitutional construction which
would make the national government
impotent to deal with this paramount
need of our expanded national life.
That spirit would have barred the
way to every great national accom-
plishment under the constitution, first
even to its very adoption and then
to its Interpretation as the organ of a
real nationality, whether as regards
sovereign government or as regards its
own preservation against state seces-
sion. The pressing problems today
are those that arise out Of a stu
DendOuS national wealth an organized
and applied as to be totally beyond
the reach of state control and there
fore, unless controlled by the national
government. totally uncomfortable.
Timid, reactionary, narrow, nonpro-
gressive spirits, as we'll as all the
great, selfish incorporated interests,
rallying around the ancient doctrine
of strict construction, practically stand
for situation unremedied and grow
ing worse, opening wide the gates for
wild radicalism and furious fanati-
cism. President Roosevelt, on the con-
trary, meets the situation squarely on
the ground that the national power
is as great as the national need, and
with present specific application of the
power 20 acknowledged present evils
Broadly speaking. it is the true Ameri-
can doctrine, and the people will sup
port the president as they have sup
ported him heretofore in carrying 1t
out.