The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-22


with his; like them, when he sees con-
duct in violation of the right-as he
sees 1.-THE insists on conformity with
his standards; and If he can get con-
formity in no other way. he smites the
transgressor with the iron of his
the Puritans as conspicuously praise
worthy goes far to explain the attitude
he has assumed as the final arbiter
and regulator Of manners, morals and
law throughout the universe.
Similarly the speech Eliminates by
the things it omits. There was nc
comparison Of the Puritan theory of
public service and the present-day
practice, though 1t would have made
an instructive parallel If. for instance.
the president could have imagined and
depicted the Puritan comment on Mr..
Harriman's contribution to the Repub-
lican campaign funds on the personal
appeal of Roosevelt; IL this, and the
subsequent history of the relations
with Hartman could have been pro-
jected on the Puritan background, it
would have afforded a most effective
contrast between those days and these.
Or, if a Puritan conscience could have
been imagined in its view of the trusts
as related to the Republican party, the
presidential disquisition on the cor
poration question would have been
much more valuable.
X X X
The tenor of the speech as it conSid-
ers the corporation question is highly
virtuous. The wicked shall be pun
ished, the innocent protected wealth
and poverty must stand on an equal
footing; but there is no probability
that president occupied with greater
and higher problems viii touch upon a
tariff which is the fountain of cor
poration riches for the most part, the
very cornerstone of monopoly from
which rich and poor alike suffer.
Regulation of corporations to pre-
vent evil is necessary, the president
says, and his remedy is suggested in
these words:
Il believe in a national incorpora-
ton law for corporations engaged in
Interstate business. 1 believe, further
more, that the need for action is most
pressing as regards those corporations
which, because they are common car
riers, exercise a quasi-public function,
and which can be completely controlled
in all respects by the federal govern
ment, by the exercise of the power con-
ferred under the interstate commerce
clause, and, if necessary, under the
post-road clause, of the constitution.
During the last few years we have
taken marked strides in advance along
the road of proper regulation of these
railroad corporations; but we must not
stop in the work. The national govern
ment should exercise over them sim
liar supervision and control to that
which it exercises over national banks.
We can do this only by proceeding
farther along the lines marked out by
the recent national legislation"
Excepting the intimation that the
post-roads clause of the constitution
may be invoked, the words might have
been taken from one of Mr.. Bryan's
speeches of years ago. The post-roads
remedy, already suggested in a presi-
Dental message, is not regarded seri-
ously by able lawyers and, so far, has
not been considered at all by the peo-
pie at large. The federal license for
all corporations doing an interstate
business is so far-reaching in its pos
sibilities, it would concentrate such
enormous power in the heads of a ma
tional bureaucracy that it seems in
credible the people would sanction it
even in extreme desire 10 restrain col
porate aggression.
One innovation, and the only con-
spicuous novelty in the speech, is that
part which urges legislation for what
is, in effect, compulsory insurance of
employees by making all employers LA
BILE for injury to employees whether the
injury was due to negligence on either
side or not. Just how such a result is
to be attained is not defined very
clearly, but supposedly it would be by
federal license law extended to cover
such contingencies. Employers might
not object to such a plan because they
would simply add it's cost to their op-
Grating costs and charge the public
that much more; but the proposal
comes with strange grace from a presi-
dent who, in the same speech, de-
nounces socialism. Exactly such an ar
rangement in effect obtains in Ger
many. but there it is called state in
surance, and is one of the pet demon
STATIONS of socialism applied to gov
eminent affairs.
Taken by and large, the speech is
entirely Rooseveltian. Its excellent
precepts, its emphasis on the need of
personal virtue, it's scOrn of vice re-
Of tho houbooH hoolxS