The Springfield herald., 1907-06-07
FULL CONTROL
T n E G GOVERNMENT'S POLICY
TOWARD RAILROADS CLEARLY
DEFINED.
PRESIDENT AT lDIANAPOlIS
A Memorial Day Speech Bristling
With Aphorisms and Patri-
otic Sentiments,

Roosevelt today made the principal
address at the unveiling of monu-
ment to General Henry w. Lawton.
The speech was devoted to discus.
sion of railway problems and inciden.
tally paid warm tribute to Oliver
Morton, the war governor of Indiana.
He said:
"One great problem that we have
before us is to preserve the rights of
property; and these can only be
preserved If we remember that
they are in less jeopardy from the
Socialist and the Anarchist than from
the predatory man of wealth.
1t has become evident that to re-
fuse to invoke the power of the nation
TO restrain the wrongs committed by
the man of great wealth who does evil
is not only to neglect the interests of
the public. but is TO neglect the inter
ests of the man of means who acts
honorably by his fellows.
The power of the nation must be
e.erted to stop crimes of cunning no
less than crimes Of violence.
There can be no halt in the course
we have deliberately elected to pur-
sue, the policy of asserting the right
of the nation so far as it has the power,
to supervise and control the business
use of wealth, especially in its cor
porate form.
To-day | wish TO say n word to you
about the first and most important fea-
ture of this task, the control of the
common carriers doing an interstate
business; a control absolutely vested
in the nation, while in SO far as the
common carriers also transport the
mails it is in my opinion probable that
whether their business is or is not in
terstate it is to the same extent sub
ject TO federal control. under that
clause of the constitution granting to
the national government power to es-
tablih post roads and therefore by nee
essary implication power to take all
action necessary in order to keep
them at the highest point of efficiency
Every federal law dealing with cor
porations or with railroads that has
been put upon the statute books during
the last six years has been step in
advance in the right direction. All ac-
tion taken by the administration I'M
der these and the pre-eXisting laws
has been just and proper. Every suit
undertaken during that period has
been a suit not merely warranted. but
required, by the facts; a suit in the
interest of the people as a whole. and.
in the long run, particularly in the in
terest of stockholders as well as in the
interest of business men of property
generally. There can be no swerving
from the course that has thus been
mapped out in the legislation actually
enacted and in the messages in which
l have asked for further legislation.
I'VE hest serve the interests of the
honest railway men when we announce
that we will follow out precisely this
course.
1T is the course of real, of ultimate,
conservatism.
"There will be no halt in the for
ward movement toward a full develop
ment of this policy; and those who
wish us to take a step backward or to
stand still. if their wishes were real
lied, would find that they had invited
an outbreak of the very radicaliSm
they fear. There must be progressive
Legislative and administrative action
for the correction of the evils which
every sincere man must admit TO have
existed in railroad management in the
past.
such additional legislation. as that
for which | have asked in the past,
and especially that for which | asked
in my message at the opening of the
last session of Congress, is not
merely in the interest of the public
but most emphatically in the interest
of every honest railway manager and
of all investors or would-be investors
in railway securities. There must be
vested in the federal government full
power of supervision and control over
the railways doing interstate business;
a power in many respects analogous to
and as complete as that the
exercises over the
national banks. 1t must pos
sess the power to exercise su-
pervision over the future issuance of
stocks and bonds, either through ma
tional incorporation (Which | should
prefer Or in some similar fashion,
such supervision to include the frank
publicity of everything which would-be
investors and the public at large have
a right to know.
1.-THE federal government Will thus
be able to prevent all overcapitaliZa-
ton in the future: to prevent any man
hereafter from plundering others by
loading railroad properties with obi
cations and pocketing the money in
stead of spending it in improvements
and in legitimate corporate purposes;
and any man acting in such fashion
should be held to a criminal accounta-
bility. 1t should be declared contrary
to public policy henceforth to allow
railroads to devote their capital to any
thing but the transportation business,
certainly not to hazards of speculation.
For the very reason that we desire to
favor the honest railroad manager, we
should seek to discourage the activities
of the man whose only concern with
railroads is to manipulate their stocks.
The business of railroad organization
and management should be kept en-.
tirely distinct from investment or
brokerage business, especially of the
speculative type, and the credit and
of the corporation should be
devoted to the extension and better
ment of its railroads. and to the devel-
opment of the country naturally tribu
tary to the lines. These principles are
Railroads should not be
prohibited from acquiring connecting
lines, by acquiring stocks, bonds or
other securities of such lines but 1t is
already well settled as contrary to
public policy to allow railroads to ac
luire control over parallel and compel
ing lines of transportation. Subject to